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Bliss Bars indeed and beautiful too from the kitchens of  chrismukkah

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Well, more like a copycat recipe...Anyways...

Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars
recipe from bakespace.com

For shortbread base:
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
1 and 1/4 cups brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 t ground ginger
1 t vanilla
1/4 t salt
1 teaspoon baking powder* (It didnt call for this in the original recipe, but, I would have to say it made the bars come out a lot better)
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup minced dried cranberries
1/4 cup white chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used white chocolate chips as is)
1/4 cup minced candied ginger (you can find this in the health food section, or with the dried fruit section in your supermarket)

For frosting:
4 oz cream cheese, softened (Used one whole box (8 oz) plus a little extra left over- it made a difference in covering a cake pan this big and Id recommend using it all, especially with all of the sugar content!)
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 T butter, softened
1 t vanilla

For garnish:
2 T dried cranberries, minced
1/3 cup white chocolate chips, melted

~ This I kind of skipped- the white chocolate didnt melt right, no matter what I did (even WITH the microwave method) >_< INSTEAD, I left the white chocolate topping out and just threw on the cranberries as you see here.

* UPDATE: Thanks to  metroidfan12, when it comes to melting white chocolate, you need to do it the SAME WAY as you would melt DARK chocolate-

~ Get a double boiler ~
(fill the bottom one with water, the top gets the chips)
and then add 1/4 cup of half and half and melt on a low simmer until you get the desired thickness...

....WHICH THE RECIPE FAILED TO MENTION!!! ARRRGH >_<

Well- at least now I know, and knowing is half the battle, or something like that :P

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a 9×13 pan. Beat butter and sugar together for the cake base, and add eggs/vanilla beating until fluffy. Sift together flour, ginger, salt and baking powder and then add to the butter/sugar mixture beating well. Fold in the cranberries, chocolate and candied ginger. Spread thick batter in pan and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden. (With my slow oven I had to add on an extra five minutes- lovely golden brown)

When cake is cooled, mix all frosting ingredients together and spread a thin layer over the cake. (thin layer....shyeah, riiiiight :P) Immediately sprinkle with the minced cranberries. Next use a sandwich bag with a small corner cut (as your homemade pastry bag) add melted white chocolate and drizzle the chocolate over the cake. Refrigerate until chocolate is firm, cut into triangles and serve.

Merry Chrismukkah folks, this is something you can serve at your holiday feast or anytime :)

*SECOND UPDATE: Very good and of course, very fattening :P

If you REALLY want to make it a bit different- you can add:

~ lemon zest / orange zest to batter/frosting
~ lemon /orange extract, to same
OR ~ lemon/orange liquor *hic*

And in another day or so, these bars will actually be donated to my local veteranarian for her kindness
(since the OTHER vet that we went to, when we had a recent pet emergency, had NO sympathy whatsoever >_<) :3

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Allergy warning – recipe contains dairy & egg products