Red Velvet Neiman Marcus Bars

I love red velvet anything!  I have shared my love of this delightfully scrumptious flavor on my blog from time to time!  Check out my past red velvet recipes...

The Best Red Velvet Cupcakes You Will Ever Eat

Red Velvet Fudge Bars

Red Velvet Cookies

And Now Red Velvet Neiman Marcus Bars!

Red Velvet is the perfect dessert for my two favorite holidays - Christmas and Valentine's Day!  That's why I thought today would be the perfect time to share these bars with you - Valentine's Day is 3 weeks away!  Inspired by original Neiman Marcus Bars (also know as Chess Squares or Gooey Butter Cake or sometimes Texas Gold Cake - I promise whatever they are called you have had them at some point)...I simply swapped out yellow cake mix for red velvet cake mix!  That makes these bars Cake Mix Recipe #25!!!

That's It!!!

Here's What You Need to Make the Red Velvet Neiman Marcus Bars:

• 1 box red velvet cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 block cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups of powdered sugar (which equals 1 pound...which is one box...or a half of a 2 pound bag) 

Now Let's Make the Red Velvet Neiman Marcus Bars:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan with butter or nonstick spray
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, one egg, and melted butter until a soft dough forms
3. Press dough into bottom of prepared pan
4. In the stand of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment beat together the cream cheese, remaining two eggs, and powdered sugar until combined and smooth
5. Spread mixture on top of red velvet cookie dough - it will look like this
   
6. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes until the edges are crisp and the top of the cream cheese mixture has a slight crust but doesn't seem completely set (the center will still wobble a bit) - The picture below is what you are looking for 
   
7. Allow pan to cool on a wire rack for thirty minutes
8. Transfer pan to fridge to cool completely (an additional two hours)
9. Cut into bars and serve or store in the fridge until you are ready to eat

These Bars Get Lacie's Stamp of Approval! 

If you liked these Red Velvet Neiman Marcus Bars, don't forget to check out my other Red Velvet Recipes!  You can also find a butterscotch version of this recipe - Blakely's Butterscotch Neiman Marcus Bars - Here!

Happy Friday!

#hiloskyeveryday2014 Week 4

It's Thursday, so that means it's time for a new #hiloskyeveryday2014 post!  It's Week #4!

Day 17 - Blakely's First Pigtails!  This is a milestone for sweet little B, as she will endure years of Mama doing her hair before she is big enough to do it herself!  Lacie was sporting pigtails wayyyy earlier because she had a lot more hair!  

Day 18 - It's Saturday and in our house that means we enjoy Pancake Breakfast!  Whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes to be exact!  This is Lacie's plate!  My little girl eats a lot!  You can find the recipe for the pancakes here! 

Day 19 - Sunday morning cookie adventures!  Lacie was super excited to make these princess cookies with Daddy! 

Day 20 - We took a family walk to get a little fresh air before the snowstorm! 

Day 21 - Lacie was exhausted!  It took two people (me and Blakely) to wake her up from her nap!  

Day 22 - After 29 hours of plowing snow, Daddy finally came home from work just in time to read stories before nap! 

Day 23 - While this may not seem like anything special it really is...see I left the room for 5 whole minutes and I came back to this - two girls reading quietly!  I was definitely expecting the room to be destroyed! 

And for a few more random pictures from the week! 

Waiting to be let out of the gate! 

Daddy carrying Lacie and Blakely (and a few stuffed animal friends) downstairs! 

Happy B! 

Wake Up Lacie!!! 

MSU Pride! 

Lacie loves her poncho!  It makes her feel like a princess! 

Playing with her new mermaid! 

Oatmeal and Jam Bars

We had a wonderful three day weekend, but today it's back to reality!  John is back to work and we are expecting a HUGE snowstorm today...which I was slightly in denial about...until it starting snowing at the exact time they (the weather people) said it would...and we seem to be getting more than an inch per hour! UGH!  How many days until spring?

What do you like to do when it snows?  I BAKE!  Does that surprise you?  I didn't think so!

These Oatmeal and Jam Bars are Cake Mix Recipe #24!  I think that they are the perfect treat for a snow day breakfast!  They would also make a great and filling snack to enjoy with a cup of coffee when you are finished shoveling snow!

Yup, that's only 4 ingredients! 

Here's What You Need to Make the Oatmeal and Jam Bars:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 2 1/2 cups oats (I used old fashioned oats because I wanted a chewier texture - but you could also use quick cooking)
• 2 sticks of butter, melted
• 1 cup of jam - I used a seedless Raspberry

Now Let's Make the Oatmeal and Jam Bars:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking dish
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the cake mix and the oatmeal
3. Add the melted butter and stir until a dough forms
4. Divide your dough into thirds and press two thirds of the dough into the bottom of your greased pan
5. Use a spatula to spread the jam oven the top of the dough - spread it almost to the edges of the pan
   
6. Crumble the remaining one third of the dough onto the top of the jam layer
   
7. Bake in preheated oven for 25 - 20 minutes until the topping is a light golden brown color
8. Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares and storing in an airtight container

Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies

Last Friday, I shared with you how excited I am about the upcoming PINK Holiday!  Yes people, I am referring to Valentine's Day!!!  It's one of my favorite holidays.  I know some people don't like it or view it as a "fake" holiday...but I am not one of them!  Any holiday that brings love and the color pink into focus is a great reason to celebrate!

This week I had actually planned on sharing a different Valentine's Day dessert with you (one that I made John last year) but then I was at Wegmans and inspiration hit me in the holiday aisle!  I came across this

 VALENTINE'S DAY FUNFETTI CAKE MIX!!!

And then I saw a package of these

VALENTINE'S DAY HUGS KISSES

And I was INSPIRED!  I knew I needed to make cookies with these two ingredients! 

So I came home and whipped up a batch of Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies!  They are just like the ones I made at Christmas...but even better for two reasons:

1. They are a cake mix recipe (cake mix recipe #23 to be exact)!

2. They are PINK! (and red and white too)

Here's What You Need to Make the Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 box Valentine's Day Funfetti Cake Mix 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 24 unwrapped Raspberry Hugs Kisses - they are so so so pretty 
  
• assorted sugar sprinkles in holiday colors - I used hot pink, a light pink and white mixture, and red

Now Let's Make the Valentine's Day Kiss Cookies:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, eggs, and vanilla extract
3. Add the cake mix and the baking powder and beat together until a soft dough forms
   
4. Use a cookie scoop to form dough into 24 balls (about 1 inch each)
5. Roll each dough ball into the sugar sprinkles
   
6. Place onto prepared baking sheets and bake in oven for 10 minutes
7. Remove from oven and immediately press a kiss into the center of each cookie
8. Allow to cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely
9. Once cookies are cool and the kiss has reset, store in an airtight container

These cookies taste amazing and look so pretty at the same time!  It doesn't hurt that I was able to whip up the dough in about 3 minutes...in fact rolling the dough in the sprinkles is the most time consuming part - and if you have older kiddos they can definitely help you with that!

Can't find the Valentine's Day Cake Mix?  You can use white cake mix and add extra sprinkles to the batter! 

Happy Pink Baking! 

#hiloskyeveryday2014 week 3

I'm into my third week of #hiloskyeveryday2014 and I'm loving it!  These pictures capture our week! We didn't do anything super special...but I cherish these everyday moments! 

Day 10 - my little cook!  She loves mixing up treats just like her mama! 

Day 11 - Daddy blow drying Lacie's hair!  It's too cold for her to go to bed with a wet head! PS - This is really Mommy's job...John just wanted to do it for the picture! 

Day 12 - Bedtime snuggles!

Day 13 - Blakely's morning selfie! 

Day 14 - Lacie Jane reading "If You Give a Pig a Party" to a few of her stuffed animal friends!

Day 15 - Ready to tackle two weeks worth of food shopping at Wegmans! 

Day 16 - Sweet B is always super happy first thing in the morning!  She's definitely a morning person! 

Come back next Thursday for more #hiloskyeveryday2014!  And don't forget to read tomorrow's blog post for a new Valentine's Day Dessert!