Any meat cooked in any way will taste better with this rub! If you like, you can omit the blend and use only black pepper.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 55 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 16 bars |
Ingredients
- 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
- ½ (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1 tablespoon lemon or orange juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons minced candied ginger
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ cup chopped sweetened dried cranberries
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- ¼ cup chopped sweetened dried cranberries
- 2 tablespoons minced candied ginger
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Beat 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, cream cheese, lemon or orange juice, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract together in a large bowl using an electric mixer until frosting is smooth. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate while preparing cake.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan.
- Beat brown sugar and butter together in a large bowl using an electric mixer until smooth; beat in eggs, 1 at a time, until smooth. Stir 2 tablespoons ginger, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and salt into brown sugar-butter mixture until incorporated.
- Beat flour and baking powder into brown sugar-butter mixture until batter is smooth; fold in 3/4 cup dried cranberries and white chocolate chips. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan, spreading evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven until cake is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool cake completely.
- Spread frosting evenly over cake; sprinkle with 1/4 cup dried cranberries and 2 tablespoons ginger.
- Whisk 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar and cream together in a bowl until smooth; drizzle over frosted cake. Cover cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours.
- Cut cake in half lengthwise and each half into 8 equal rectangles. Cut each rectangle in half diagonally, creating 16 triangle-shaped bars.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 414 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 64 g |
| Cholesterol | 69 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Sodium | 201 mg |
| Sugars | 53 g |
| Fat | 17 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I gave it a 5 star because it was simple, but next time I make it I will omit the candied ginger, it was too strong and I don’t recall it in the Starbucks. But I was looking for a recipe like this.
Yummy! I used chocolate chips instead of white chocolate chips (didn’t have white at home), and used the juice and zest of 1/2 orange (equaled 1 tbsp of juice). Otherwise I followed the recipe. I cut them into 48 triangular pieces. The cake batter was really thick and I had to force it into the corners of my metal cake pan. The drizzle for the top was also really thick using only 1 tbsp of heavy cream so I kept adding cream until it was the proper consistency to ‘drizzle’ (possibly up to 4 tbsp. I added them a little at a time). The bars were heavy but soft, and to this sweet-aholic; not too sweet at all :). I’ve never had the original so have nothing to compare these to, but I’d definitely make these again!
This recipe is wonderful!!! I just made it for the first time ever and it was lovely! The only thing I did different than the recipe was to use an entire (8-oz.) package of cream cheese for the frosting, and use 1 C. LESS of the powdered sugar in the frosting. Delicious! Thanks for a great recipe!!!
They are spot-on! I get so many requests for these during the holiday. I even had to ship some to a friend who moved away! She says they’re better than S-bux 🙂
Way too sweet! Next time I will eliminate the white chocolate chips and I will only use half the powder sugar in the cream cheese frosting. Visually this is a very pretty dessert, especially for the holidays. I could not find candied ginger, so I replaced it with candied orange peel. I think this cake would taste great with some spice in it, like cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, etc.
Everyone loves it. Especially my Granddaughter. I have made it a couple of times each time it turned out great. I use dried blueberry instead of cranberry for my family’s preference.
Made this three times as I recall. Easy recipe, very delicious results. These are equivalent to Starbuck’s Cranberry Bliss…perhaps even better.
These are super sweet, but tasty. The first time I made them I only had light brown sugar. I made them a second time with dark brown, and they were not nearly as good. I definitely will use light brown sugar moving forward.
I didn’t have enough lemon juice for the frosting so I used peppermint extract & more vanilla to make up the difference. I also doubled the recipe & baked it in a 13×18 jelly roll pan. I also didn’t have all the extra hours to let it cool. I stuck it in the freezer for about 40min! I also added p-mint extract to the glaze, which I will opt not to do IF I ever make these again. I made them for a group of men that usually devour all my baking efforts, yet there was easily 1/3 of them left-over. :-/ The doods that liked them LOVED them, though…I might make these again. Dunno, the jury is still out… 😉
I accidentally added 2 full sticks of butter (whoops) = 1 cup butter rather than 3/4 c like it calls for. No biggie. I just added a tiny bit of water to even out batter. I didn’t have minced candied ginger on hand, so I used a combo of orange peel and ground ginger instead. I also omitted the drizzle on top per reviews saying it was sweet enough without it, and it is. I actually enjoyed the combo of ginger and orange with the cranberry flavor. Yum! I will make this again … and again… and again.
This recipe is great – they taste just like the ones at Starbucks! The best part is you can make them anytime of year to enjoy – not just Christmastime. I didn’t find them to be too sweet, but then I have quite a sweet tooth. I skipped the drizzle over the top. Do not skip the candied ginger – it gives these bars great flavor.
Very good everyone loves,,,,but it is work
I made this over the holiday and everyone raved about it! Even my niece, who works at a well known coffee chain, said it was better than what she sells because it was much moister. A keeper! I’m making it again to take to a pot luck tomorrow. Thanks for sharing.
The icing is a little too sweet but overall, a great treat.
I made this for our Christmas gathering and my family also found this recipe way too sweet, except for the younger children. I probably will not make this recipe again. If I do I will decrease the sugar in the cake by a quarter cup and the powdered sugar in the frosting by half as it was not spreadable and far too sweet. I would not use the final drizzle at all.
a very tasty cranberry treat.
Making this recipe as stated (except for the Icing which I thought was just toooo much sugar), I was very disappointed that the cranberry and ginger flavors were hidden by the overpoweringly sweet taste from the white chocolate chips and the frosting. I though with the lemon juice added to the frosting, it would cut a bit of the sweet taste, but all it did was give it an interesting “tang” that really didn’t sit well with the cream cheese. I made these for family get together for Christmas. I’ll take them because I know there are some there with an extremely sweet tooth, but I won’t be making them again. Never having tasted the original they these were made to taste like, I can’t tell you how close the taste is. If I do make it again, I will leave off the frosting and not put the chips in either. Will probably drizzle a lemon juice/powdered sugar icing over the top, but nothing else.
This is a good recipe. I gave it 4 stars because the icing on top made it too sweet. I’ll drop it next time I make this and I’ll add one more tablespoon of lemon juice in the frosting to make it a little sour. Over all I really enjoyed this recipe.
Delicious! Just like the ones at Starbucks, but better!
These are delicious but do not resemble the cranberry bliss bars in Vancouver Canada.
This is a really sweet treat, but if you have had the one from Starbucks, this one should be no surprise. I would recommend cutting differently so that you get several small bites, rather than bars. Makes a great holiday treat to give away!