Cranberry Bliss Bars - Starbucks Clone
Submitted by Sheryle on November 24, 2012 at 10:22 am

A woman I worked with brought these to one of our office cookie swaps. I had never had the Starbucks version so had no idea how good these bars were....after one bite, I had a difficult time keeping away from the platter. Now you no longer have to wait until Starbucks sells their Cranberry Bliss Bars, you can have them anytime.

Cake Base:
2 sticks butter -- softened
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup minced dried cranberries
1/4 cup Lindt or Perugina or other quality white chocolate -- coarsely chopped
1/4 cup minced candied ginger

Frosting:
4 oz cream cheese -- softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbs butter -- softened
1 tsp vanilla

Garnish:
2 Tbs minced dried cranberries
1/3 cup white chocolate chips (e.g. Ghiradelli or Guittard) -- melted

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a 9x13 pan.

Beat butter and sugar together for the cake base, and add eggs/vanilla beating until fluffy. Sift together flour, ginger, and salt and then add to the butter/sugar mixture beating well. Fold in the cranberries, chocolate and ginger. Spread thick batter in pan and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden.

When cake is cooled, mix all frosting ingredients together and spread a thin layer over the cake. Immediately sprinkle with the minced cranberries. Then use a cake decorating bag of melted white chocolate with a tiny decorating tip (like the size used for writing on cakes) and drizzle the chocolate over the cake.

Cut this into bars immediately because the white chocolate hardens pretty fast and makes cake cutting messy.

comments

Submitted by JeanneLB on Tue, 2012-11-27 20:26.
Is that 2 sticks of butter?

Submitted by Sheryle on Tue, 2012-11-27 23:14.
Yes it's 2 sticks.