Red Velvet Cheesecake Bars

For the 4th of July I wanted to make a Red, White and Blue dessert. I thought for awhile and decided on cheesecake bars. What is more American than cheesecake? Other than apple pie, which is a bit difficult to make into festive colors. When I first made the recipe, it turned out a Red, White and Green...Merry Christmas! When I made the bars a second time (I usually make recipes several times before I post them, to make sure they are awesome), I opted to simply make them red velvet and avoid any food dye mishaps. These bars feature a cake layer, and a cheesecake layer, which makes them pretty unique. Most cheesecake bars just have a crust, ha, I spit on your crust. I'm kidding, I like crust too, but this is a fun twist.

Ingredients:
For the Cake Layer:
2 large eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup shortening (or oil, or butter)
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sour cream
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa
red food dye (if desired)

For the Cheesecake Layer:
16 oz cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup milk
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

We are going to start by making the cake layer. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Cakes are great, because you can pretty much just dump and mix and things turn out pretty good. Mix all the cake layer ingredients together, except the red food dye, together until every is well combined. At this point, you will have chocolate cake, if you want red velvet, add your food dye now. How much you add is a preference, though I do wish I would have added more.

Adding Food Dye

You may (or may not) have noticed something awesome in that picture. Do you see what my batter was mixed in? That's right, my new Kitchenaid Stand Mixer! I got it as a birthday present from some very awesome people (Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!). It will likely be featured in all baking recipes from now on, and probably some non-baking recipes too. I'm totally obsessed. I've even made up songs about it. I might be a mental case over it, but at least I'm a happy mental case.

After you have mixed in the amount of dye you feel suits you, spread the batter into a greased cookie sheet. You know, one of those big half sheet pan kinds.

 Bake in your preheated oven for 10 minutes. We are not looking to have the cake completely done here, we just want it solidified so that we can add the next layer.

While that is baking, you can make up your cheesecake layer. Remember how cakes can usually just be dumped and mixed? Well, cheesecake is pretty much the same way. Mix all the ingredients for the cheesecake layer together until they are nice and smooth. You don't want little cream cheese clumps, so make sure that stuff is really soft before you get going. I've noticed that Philadelphia Cream Cheese usually mixes smoother. I'm not sure why. The mixture will be fairly liquid-y, don't worry about it.

Spread on the cheesecake mix over-top the the baked cake layer.

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Put all bars bake into the oven and bake for 15-20 min

Once you are done baking, refrigerate for at least one hour. When are a ready to serve, simply cut into squares and enjoy.

When making these, I do not recommend using reduced fat well, anything. These are not one of my healthy desserts. These are one of my full fat, special occasion, splurge desserts. It's totally fine to splurge every now and then, and with these, you will enjoy every sinful bite.