Cranberry Bliss Bars
December 1, 2009 in bars
I’m kicking off December with 25 days of holiday treats! Expect cookies, candy, cakes, and so much more!
And for the big kickoff, here’s one of my alltime favorite holidays treats. I worked at Starbucks many years ago and their Cranberry Bliss Bar was always my favorite holiday pastry. This is almost exactly like the Cranberry Bliss, but (should I even say it?) better!
The base is kind of a hybrid cake/cookie with cranberries and white chocolate chunks mixed in. And then the topping is pretty much a cream cheese frosting with chopped dried cranberries sprinkled over top.
So delicious and rich enough that you only need one to satisfy your sweet craving.
Cranberry Bliss Bars
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup dried cranberries
- 6 oz. white chocolate, cut into chunks
For the frosting:
- 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 4 teaspoons lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
For the drizzled icing:
- ½ cup icing sugar
- 1 Tablespoon milk
- 2 teaspoons vegetable shortening
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Make cake by beating butter and sugar together until smooth. Add eggs, vanilla, ginger and salt and beat well. Gradually mix in flour until smooth. Dice cranberries.
- Add ¾ cup cranberries and white chocolate chunks to batter and fold in. Pour batter into a well-greased 9 x 13 baking pan, spread evenly. Bake for 35 minutes or until cake is lightly browned on the edges. Allow to cool.
- Make frosting by combining cream cheese, icing sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in a medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Frost cooled cake, using spatula to spread evenly
- Sprinkle ¼ cup diced cranberries over freshly frosted cake
- Whisk together ½ cup icing sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, and shortening. Drizzle icing over cranberries.
- Chill cake in refrigerator for several hours before slicing. Serve cold.
I LOVE the Cranberry Bliss bars from Starbucks! Thanks for posting this, I am going to give them a try this weekend!
I love those bars from Starbucks.
This looks great. Plus it seems simple.
Thanks!
These sound so great! I’m making cookies for a party this weekend, and these are my pick! Thanks so much for sharing!
This is so delicious! I made this last night for company and everyone loved it.
.-= Melynda´s last blog ..White Chocolate Craisin Scones =-.
These are my very favourite Starbucks treat, I’m so thrilled to see a recipe for them. Thank you!
.-= Brenda´s last blog ..Pizza Sfincione New Years Eve Pizza =-.
This is our new favorite this year. I first made it last week from a Starbucks copycat recipe I found online. I think the only difference is they suggest orange extract as an alternative to vanilla for both the cookie base and the icing, and it was yummy. I would even do a little more.
Also I made a note next time to try some chopped crystallized ginger to make the ginger a little more pronounced, as I didn’t really taste it with the 1 tsp. But then I like cookies a little over the top :-)
[...] baking again… that is one powerful blog. She has one recipe that is a knock-off of Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars that I really want to try. You should really check her [...]
I am sold on these just by the picture alone, and i have never even tried the ones in starbucks.
.-= Crustabakes´s last blog ..Salty Oat Cookies =-.
What size of pan it that again? This looks amazing, yum!
9×13. Guess I need to add that, huh? Thanks for pointing it out! :)