You gotta hand it to Paula Deen... she knows a thing or two about cakes.  This one is a modification of her Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake... and just one of the ways I've "customized" it for my own desires.

Once you get the basics... this one is easy to modify to your hearts desire... or at least your taste buds... because it can't be Heart Healthy.

First, you start off with a standard box of cake mix.  Feel free to pick your favorite... and a stick of butter and one egg. 

 You gotta melt the butter...  I always use the same bowl in the microwave at med heat to get it going.

Don't worry about getting it completely melted... just close enough and a couple of stirs will do the rest.

The butter goes in with the cake mix...

Add your egg...

Mix it all up.  Depending upon your cake mix, this may take some arm muscle... but just consider it the workout you'll need to offset this cake.

Spread out over a 10x13 pan... or there abouts...

Now to move on to the second layer ingredients...

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, 3 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 8 tbs butter (not pictured), 16 oz powdered sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg (hidden) and 1 cup chocolate chips. 

Beat the cream cheese...

Add your eggs, vanilla and butter....

And start beating... yeah, it looks like a mess...

Don't forget to scrape down the sides to make sure all the cream cheese and stuff is getting a good mixin'... now just let it go and...

Get your cinnamon and nutmeg ready... 

See, while you were doing that, the mixin' kept on going...

Add your cinnamon and nutmeg...

And mix some more...

Now for the good stuff... powder sugar...

Add the powder sugar in quarters to thirds... or else risk the nuclear sugar cloud...

Don't worry about how it looks... it will get better...

Also, don't forget to scrape down the sides...

Now, isn't that just looking sweet?

Get your chips... 1 cup

Dump in...

And mix... hey, where'd they go?  Don't worry, they're in there.

Now, back to the first layer...

And dump the second layer on top...

Spread out and bake in a 350F oven for 40 - 50 minutes

Here you go... but pay attention...

Don't be afraid... as the cake cools, the second layer starts to droop down some...

It eventually stops and looks like this.  Now, depending upon the pan, you might get slightly different results... that's ok.

Nothing like the first slice to show how crispy that top layer is

That's it... just ready to dive right into...

Here's a better shot...

Oh man... you can see the 3 layers now... I know, it says 2 layers... but the chocolate chips sit on the bottom of the top layer and form a nice sweet goodness right in the middle.

Top with whipped topping or ice cream if you so desire

Mmmmh, a close up... check that out.

 This looks so good... I think I'll go start making another one right now. 

Now a note... if you paid attention, you'll notice that the top layer is similar to any basic cheesecake recipe.  This means, that you can just about make this with any top layer cheesecake recipe you want.  Take that with the idea of using whichever bottom cake layer you want and the possibilities are mind blowing... not to mention gut busting.

Give it a shot and let us know how you tweak it.