Wedding Cake Bars

July 6, 2020

Wedding cake bars are one of the easiest and most delicious desserts in my collection! Seven ingredients: white cake mix, eggs, oil, almond extract, powdered sugar, butter, and milk. You just mix the ingredients for the cake bars and spread them in the pan, bake, and top with a super-simple frosting when they are cool. They taste just like my favorite bakeries cakes!

a photograph of a wedding cake bar cookie with a pan of cookies and a glass of milk in the background

I am a lover of all things wedding cake flavored. It’s no secret that my favorite bakery is Federal Bake Shop in Hixson, Tennessee, and I try to replicate their almond-flavored confections in as many of the dessert recipes that I share here as possible. I already have wedding cake cookies and wedding cake bites…so why not wedding cake bars? They’re basically just cake mix cookies turned into bar cookies by baking them spread in a pan instead of scooping out individual cookies. Easy-peasy. Add a simple frosting flavored with almond extract and you’re in business!

an overhead photograph of a pan of wedding cake bars and a plate with a wedding cake bar

What You Need to Make Wedding Cake Bars

An 8×8 inch square baking pan
Non-stick cooking spray or butter to grease pan
A box of white cake mix (any brand)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup canola oil or vegetable oil
3 teaspoons almond extract
1 stick butter (softened)
3 cups powdered sugar
Enough milk to make the icing a spreadable consistency

a photograph showing the steps to make wedding cake bars

a photo collage showing the steps to make wedding cake bars

How to Make the Bars

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter an 8×8-inch square baking pan or spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Place the contents of a box of white cake mix, 2 large eggs, 1/3 cup of canola or vegetable oil, and 1 teaspoon of almond extract in a large mixing bowl.
Stir the ingredients until well-combined.
Spread the ingredients in the greased pan. Bake for 20 minutes, until light golden. Cool completely.
Place 1 stick of softened unsalted butter (cut into pieces), 3 cups of powdered sugar, and 2 teaspoons of almond extract in a mixing bowl.
Use a hand or stand mixer to mix the frosting ingredients together. Add enough milk to get the frosting to a spreadable consistency (this could be as little as 1-2 teaspoons or as much as 2 tablespoons) and continue to mix until the frosting is completely smooth and spreadable.
Scoop the frosting onto the bars in the pan.
Spread the frosting onto the bars and cut the bars into pieces before serving.

Wedding Cake Bars

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Ingredients

A box of white cake mix (any brand)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup canola oil or vegetable oil
3 teaspoons almond extract
1 stick unsalted butter (softened)
3 cups powdered sugar
Enough milk to make the icing a spreadable consistency (1 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter an 8x8-inch square baking pan or spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Place the contents of a box of white cake mix, 2 large eggs, 1/3 cup of canola or vegetable oil, and 1 teaspoon of almond extract in a large mixing bowl. Stir the ingredients until well-combined.
Spread the ingredients in the greased pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until light golden. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Place 1 stick of softened unsalted butter (cut into pieces), 3 cups of powdered sugar, and 2 teaspoons of almond extract in a mixing bowl. Use a hand or stand mixer to mix the frosting ingredients together. Add enough milk to get the frosting to a spreadable consistency (this could be as little as 1-2 teaspoons or as much as 2 tablespoons) and continue to mix until the frosting is completely smooth and spreadable.
Scoop the frosting onto the bars in the pan and spread onto the bars. Cut the bars into pieces before serving. I like to let the frosted bars stand for a few minutes before cutting to allow the frosting to develop a "dry" texture on top.

https://chattavore.com/wedding-cake-bars/

One-Bowl Pumpkin Blondies with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Icing

October 9, 2018

These one bowl pumpkin blondies with brown sugar cinnamon cream cheese icing are SO simple! This easy dessert will fly off the table at your fall potluck! Seriously – just one bowl and a wooden spoon. You probably have the ingredients in your kitchen – butter, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, canned pumpkin, flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and cream cheese. SO GOOD. I made these for a potluck and didn’t bring home a single crumb!

Click here to save this recipe on Pinterest!

I love pumpkin and always have. My grandmother used to make a pumpkin chiffon pie every Thanksgiving and I looked forward to that thing all year. Philip, on the other hand, has always been insistent that he hated pumpkin.

Over time, we came to the realization that it wasn’t the flavor of pumpkin that he disliked but rather the texture (he hates the texture of bananas too, go figure. Oddly, crème brûlée is his favorite dessert.). He likes the pumpkin muffins and pumpkin cakes (especially this pumpkin angel food cake) that I bake. And these pumpkin blondies.

I used to feel alone on a pumpkin-flavored island…it seemed like none of my friends or family liked pumpkin anything at all. Now everywhere you look, pumpkin spice EVERYWHERE. It blows my mind. Flavored coffees, coffee creamers, candles….you can find pumpkin spice everything.

I adapted this recipe for pumpkin blondies from a recipe on the blog Mother Thyme. It was super-simple…as I tend to do these days, I made the whole thing in one bowl with a wooden spoon. I just washed the bowl out after I made the blondies and made the icing in the same bowl.

You probably have most of the ingredients for these blondies in your kitchen right now:

butter
white sugar
brown sugar
eggs
canned pumpkin
flour
cinnamon
pumpkin pie spice or Chinese 5-spice powder
salt
cream cheese
powdered sugar

They’re completely worth the little bit of effort that you have to exert to make them, and you can easily double the recipe in a 9×13 pan. I have taken these to potlucks and brought home not even a crumb. And I could make a batch of the brown sugar cinnamon cream cheese icing to eat with a spoon. You know you want some!

Shared on Meal Plan Monday on Southern Bite and The Weekend Potluck on The Country Cook!

Click here to save this recipe to your Pinterest Thanksgiving and baking boards!

Mary

Yield: 16 servings

Pumpkin Blondies with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

This recipe is adapted from the blog Mother Thyme.

15 minPrep Time:

30 minCook Time:

45 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 Teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or Chinese five-spice powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 ounces cream cheese (softened)

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper.

In a medium mixing bowl, use a wooden spoon to stir together 3 tablespoons of the butter, the granulated sugar, and 1/2 cup of the brown sugar until well combined. Add the egg and stir until well combined.

Add the pumpkin, salt, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and Chinese 5-spice powder and stir again. Add the flour and stir until well combined. Spread in the pan (batter will be thick).

Bake the blondies for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely.

When the blondies are cool, use a wooden spoon to combine the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and the cream cheese until well combined. You will need to use the wooden spoon to "mash" the butter and cream cheese together against the sides of the bowl.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, the remaining teaspoon of cinnamon, and the confectioners sugar. Stir until completely combined. Spread over the cooled blondies and slice the blondies into squares.

Notes

This recipe is easily doubled in a 9x13 inch pan. You will need to increase the baking time.

7.8.1.2

28

https://chattavore.com/pumpkin-blondies/

Wedding Cake White Cake Mix Cookies

June 8, 2018

These wedding cake white cake mix cookies are sweet, buttery, and almond-flavored. They taste just like the cakes at Federal Bake Shop, my favorite bakery!

Click here to save this recipe!

Nothing Stays the Same

In these fast-paced times of technology and social media, it’s rare for things to stay the same for long. Our attention spans are so short. We’re constantly seeking something new, something different, something better. Right or wrong, it’s just the way that our society is these days. It’s the reason that websites must update their look every few months and stores and restaurants seem to be in a constant state of remodeling. It’s rare to walk in to an establishment that looks the same as it did two years ago, much less ten years ago…or twenty. Even rarer is to find a spot that still features essentially the same menu that they did a generation ago.

Federal Bake Shop

Federal Bake Shop in Hixson, Tennessee is one of those rare places, though. Now, when I was a kid – like, a non-driver – it was located in Northgate Mall, so that’s where my earliest memories come from. However, when I got a little older, it moved to its current Hixson Pike location. I can honestly say, though, that besides the location, little has changed there in my nearly forty years (shhhhh….I still have a couple of years to go).

My Favorite Bakery

Once I attained my driver’s license, my best friend, Angie, and I began our constant visits to Federal Bake Shop, or “The Fed”, as we called it. Eventually all of our friends adopted that moniker for the shop too. Their white, almond-flavored cakes were absolutely the best, so we would each order two of the 50 cent cupcakes with white icing from the case and round out our order with a gigantic chocolate chip cookie to cut the sweetness of the icing. I feel certain that after we ate our sweets we probably met up with our friends at the McDonald’s down the road and ate quarter-pounders then went home and lamented our weight (oh, teenage self…).

Cupcakes = Love

Not much has changed, at least as far as Federal Bake Shop is concerned. It still looks the same on the inside, with the bakers and decorators clad in their white uniforms and hairnets. The smell of almond extract oozes from the walls and boxes of thumbprint cookies topped with colorful jolts of that rich icing call to you from tables when you walk in the door. You can, of course, purchase a whole cake (on which they will scrawl the message of your choice in icing) or even a slice. They sell doughnuts, cookies, bundt cakes…lots of assorted confections. My choice will always and forever be the cupcakes, though…that icing on their white cake just cannot be beaten. Forget flowers; when Philip wants to buy me something to show me how much he loves me, he comes home with half a dozen cupcakes (seriously). My sister and I buy each other Federal Bake Shop for our birthdays, two weeks apart. Everyone needs to be on a sugar high throughout their birthday month.

Cake Mix Cookies

Cooking and baking from mixes is not something that I do often. I certainly do not have a problem with boxed mixes; I just find an element of catharsis in starting from scratch, building a cake or pie or cookie from the ground up, so to speak. However, on a recent trip to the grocery store, something made me think of cake mix cookies, which used to be one of my favorites, then I thought about white cake mix cookies. With almond extract stirred in. Topped with white almond-flavored icing. Wedding cake white cake mix cookies. I wanted a cookie that tasted just like Federal Bake Shop’s cakes.

Test Batch

I made one batch of white cake mix cookies as a “test batch” in case they didn’t work. I’ve attempted to make icing that I thought tasted like Federal Bake Shop’s before, unsuccessfully. I’m not sure what happened, but this recipe clicked the first time that I made it. I excitedly texted my sister, who was just as excited as me. Later in the week, I made a double batch of the cookies and divided them up into three plates, taking one to Angie, one to a friend who recently moved away and was driving through on vacation, and keeping the third (we did share with some friends who came over for dinner). Everyone who has eaten them has declared them a victory.

Shared to the The Weekend Potluck on The Country Cook!

Click here to save this recipe to your Pinterest baking or cookie board!

Mary

Yield: 20 cookies

Wedding Cake White Cake Mix Cookies

The proportions for the eggs and oil in this recipe came from the blog Somewhat Simple .

10 minPrep Time:

10 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

1 box white cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 teaspoon almond extract

For the Icing

1 stick butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract
1-2 teaspoons milk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Using an electric mixer or a wooden spoon, mix together the cake mix, eggs, oil, and almond extract until a dough-like consistency forms and no clumps of cake mix remain.
Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheet using a 1 1/2 inch scoop or a tablespoon. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until light golden around the edges, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time. Allow to cool completely.
When the cookies are cool, make the icing. Beat together the butter, powdered sugar, and almond extract using an electric mixer. Add enough milk to get a spreadable consistency. Ice the cookies. You should have just enough icing for one batch of cookies. After standing for 20-30 minutes, the surface of the icing will have a dry consistency.

https://chattavore.com/wedding-cake-white-cake-mix-cookies/

One Bowl Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies + Video

January 5, 2018

If you need an easy treat, these one bowl oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are perfect and require minimal dishwashing. No raisins here! Scroll down for video.

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Chocolate Chips > Raisins X Infinity

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been disappointed – no, angered – by biting into what you thought was an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie and finding out that it was, in fact, an oatmeal raisin cookie.??This has happened to me an unfortunate number of times. Honestly, I don’t know why anyone puts raisins in oatmeal cookies when they could use chocolate chips (anyone? anyone?).

One-Bowl Cookies!

But then…I strongly dislike raisins. Not to the point that I will flatly refuse to eat them (though I am probably going to toss an oatmeal raisin cookie – cookies are treats, you guys). I just. don’t. like them. What I do like? These one bowl oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. That’s right: one bowl. You stir everything in the same bowl, chill it for a bit, then scoop out your one bowl oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and bake them off. The result is a thin, slightly lacy, and chewy cookie that’s so easy it’s irresistible. Milk optional (but is it REALLY??).

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Shared on Meal Plan Monday on Southern Bite!

Mary

Yield: 24 cookies

One Bowl Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies + Video

10 minPrep Time:

10 minCook Time:

20 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark are fine)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium mixing bowl, mash the softened butter with a wooden spoon until it is stirrable. Add the granulated and brown sugar and stir until combined. Add the egg and vanilla and stir until combined.
Add the oats, flour, baking soda, and salt to the butter mixture and stir until all of the ingredients are moistened and the oats are evenly distributed. Add the chocolate chips and stir to distribute. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Scoop the cookies out onto the baking sheets (I use a 2-inch cookie scoop, which is about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough). Bake for 8-10 minutes, rotating the pans once during baking. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Notes

Prep time does not include 30 minute chill time.

https://chattavore.com/one-bowl-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies-video/

Peppermint Black and White Cookies

December 21, 2016

Peppermint black and white cookies are easy to make, delicious, and gigantic. They’re a great addition to your holiday baking regimen!

I’ve had some sleep issues for several years now. It’s not that I don’t sleep/can’t sleep, it’s that after a period of stress where I had some trouble falling asleep several years back I developed an inability to fall asleep in my bed. It’s crazy and irritating but I fall asleep every.single.night. in front of the television watching cooking shows and get up at some point during the night to get in bed. I really need to see a sleep specialist. I’ll get around to it sometime.

Anyway, the main things that I watch are America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country on AmazonPrime. Unfortunately, only one season of each is available with my Prime membership, so I’ve watched every single episode approximately a zillion times. After watching Bridget Lancaster make black and white cookies at least twenty-five times, I decided that I needed to make black and white cookies. Well, a Christmas version of them, anyway. Peppermint black and white cookies, anyone?

Being from the South, I had never even heard of black and white cookies until I worked at a bagel shop when I was in college. We sold them alongside regular chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chocolate chip cookies and all types of muffins in our case. While they were pretty and intriguing, I never, ever even considered buying a black and white cookie to take home or to eat with my lunch over a chocolate chip cookie. Are you joking?

Apparently, black and white cookies are a New York tradition. They’ve even been mentioned on Seinfeld. The Cook’s Country version is soft and cakey, and with the addition of peppermint extract and crushed starlight mints, these peppermint black and white cookies are a pretty irresistible holiday treat.

They’re easy to make and so pretty, so why wouldn’t you want to make peppermint black and white cookies this Christmas?

Shared on The Weekend Potluck on Served Up With Love.

Mary

Yield: 12-14 cookies

Peppermint Black and White Cookies

This recipe is adapted from The Complete Cook's Country TV Show Cookbook.

1 hrPrep Time:

18 minCook Time:

1 hr, 18 Total Time:

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Ingredients

1 3/4 cup (8 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup peppermint candies (aka starlight mints), crushed

For the Glaze and Topping

5 cups (20 ounces) confectioners' sugar
7 - 9 tablespoons whole milk
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons Dutch-processed or dark cocoa (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1/2 cup peppermint candies (starlight mints), crushed

Instructions

Set oven racks to upper and lower middle positions and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the egg and the peppermint extract until combined.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl again. Beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture then half of the sour cream. Repeat until all ingredients have been added. Stir in the crushed peppermints.
Use a 1/4 cup cookie scoop or measuring cup to measure out the cookie dough. Place balls of dough 3 inches apart on baking sheets. Bake for 15-18 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking, until lightly browned around the edges. Cool on pans for 5 minutes then transfer to cooling racks until completely cooled, about an hour.
To make the whisk, whisk together the confectioners' sugar, corn syrup, peppermint extract, and 6 tablespoons of the milk until a glaze forms. You can add one more tablespoon of milk to thin if necessary (I did). Transfer 1 cup of the glaze to another bowl and whisk in the cocoa and 1-2 more tablespoons of the milk.
Ice half of each cookie with 1 tablespoon of glaze (you may not use the whole tablespoon). Sprinkle with crushed peppermint. Refrigerate for 15 minutes or freeze for 5 minutes to set the glaze. Ice the other half of each cookie with about 1 tablespoon of chocolate glaze then sprinkle with peppermint. Let stand for about an hour before serving.
Cookies will keep at room temperature for 2-3 days.

https://chattavore.com/peppermint-black-white-cookies/