Preheat oven to 350f degrees. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, combine cake mix, peanut butter, butter and eggs until the dough starts to hold together. Mixture will be very thick.
Press 2/3 of dough into the bottom of prepared baking dish (setting aside the remainder for topping)
Prepare filling: In a medium sauce pan, combine chocolate chips, milk and butter. Melt over low heat until smooth.
Then stir in coconut, brown sugar, flour and chopped pecans. Mix until combined well.
Remove from heat. Spread filling over dough in baking dish.
Crumble the rest of the dough evenly over the filling. Bake for about 20-25 minutes
Allow to cool then slice into bars and serve.
Video
Notes
The original recipe (that you can see above) called for a package of coconut pecan or almond frosting mix. Back in the 70's, Betty Crocker used to make dry frosting mixes that you added other ingredients to in order to create a spreadable frosting. They no longer make those. Instead they make already prepared frosting in tubs and that wouldn't work with this recipe. So I created my own version of a dry coconut pecan frosting mix to use in this recipe based on my research on what was in those packets.
Don't like coconut? Just leave it out.
Don't like pecans? Just leave them out.
You can substitute crunchy peanut butter for the creamy if you prefer.
Try using a vanilla or butter pecan cake mix instead of the yellow.