Cranberry Bliss Bar

It's holiday time and I find myself making more and more frequent trips to Starbucks. Once upon a long, long time, well, not quite that long - maybe about 4 months ago (so ok, I'm exaggerating but I've always wanted start a storyline that way) I would not go for day without dropping by Starbucks for my usual Venti non-fat decaf latte. Now that's not a luxury for the
unemployed, especially after our splurge on the Nespresso CitiZ Automatic Espresso Maker and Milk Frother
and my pitch to D about how this cool machine pays itself in less than 1 year just to justify the purchase *grin* Throw all that ROI out of the window for now - just for the holiday season. I miss my Starbucks! It's also about this time that Starbucks start rolling out their holiday pastries and my favorite has to be the Cranberry Bliss Bar. It's good - really, really good and at $3.75 a pop, I thought I should learn how to make these! And so I did! It's my first attempt, I find the cake bar to be slightly on the dry side so tweaking the oven temperature and minor adjustments to the dry ingredients should yield better results the next time.

Ingredients

Cake
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup diced dried cranberries
6 ounces white chocolate, cut into chunks

Frosting
4-ounces cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup diced dried cranberries

Drizzled Icing
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 320°F.
Cream butter and brown sugar together with an electric mixer until smooth.
Add eggs, vanilla, ginger, and salt and beat well.
Gradually mix in flour until smooth.
Mix 3/4 cup diced dried cranberries and white chocolate into the batter by hand.
Pour batter into a well-greased 9x13" baking pan.
Use a spatula to spread the batter evenly across the pan.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until cake is light brown on the edges.
Allow cake to cool.
Make frosting by combining softened cream cheese, 3 cups powdered sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract with electric mixer until smooth.
When the cake has cooled, use a spatula to spread frosting over the top of the cake.
Sprinkle 1/4 cup of diced cranberries over the frosting on the cake.
Whisk together 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon milk.
Drizzle icing over the cranberries in a sweeping motion or use a pastry bag with a fine tip to drizzle frosting across the top of the cake.
Allow cake to sit for several hours, then slice into triangular slices (makes ~ 16 pieces)

(Adapted from www.topsecretrecipes.com)