strawberry cheesecake swirl bars
Or, if you want to be fancy, petit fours.
Berry season is a beautiful thing. We’ve several farms around us, and most of them offer U-Picks during the most premier harvesting months, which land about now. J and I hope to make it to one of them this coming weekend to pluck off as many of their blueberries as possible and stow them for various smoothies, cocktails, baked goodies, and morning oatmeal bowls. We unfortunately missed the strawberry picking dates. Next time!
Grocery stores are gathering their shipments of bright, juicy strawberries. Lately they’ve been enormous, think three strawberries stuffed in one body. If you’ve found yourself with several pounds of strawbs and nowhere to go, here is your ticket to tastebud freedom: Strawberry Cheesecake Swirl Bars.
Two bowls, two layers. The first bowl contains a sweet cake with pureed strawberries. I did not use food dye in my recipe: I don’t really like working with artificial coloring unless for a very demonstrative cake or a Christmas cookie. Thus, the red hue of your baked result will not be as vivid as some recipes’ photos portray, but you will still get a tint and, more importantly, the strawberry flavor is lovely and noticeable. If you want a showier color, feel free to add a couple drops, at your discretion.
The second bowl houses a basic cheesecake batter of cream cheese, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and a touch of flour. In my Caramel Butterfinger Cheesecake, I did not add flour because I desired an ultra silky texture, but the added cohesion helps in this recipe due to the cake base.
To assemble the cake, start with a base of cake batter, then a layer of cheesecake. Dollop the remaining cake overtop, and drizzle the rest of the cheesecake. Simple enough? The imprecise drizzling will cause some funky little shakes in the midst of your finished bars. One of them below resembles the Joker’s grin. Another, a fat letter “N.” What shapes will you get?
Well, you won’t know until you have your cake, and cut it, and eat it.
The final touch is an easy peasy lemon glaze. Citrus and strawberry is an impeccable pairing, in part why Strawberry Chamomile Margaritas are so enticing on a hot day. Whisk some powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and a bit of milk if you need it until a thick glaze forms. Once the bars are chilled out, tranquilized, relaxed by the freezer, pour the glaze overtop. Tasty.
A snacking cake worthy of the season. Sweet, slightly tart, soft, supple, supreme. Should I write a limerick for it?
There once was a cheesecake bar,
For which you needn’t travel far,
Just a trip to the store
And not much more
For a strawberry cake above par.
Tried this recipe out? Leave a comment below with your thoughts, and don’t forget to come say hi on Instagram and show me what you’ve made!
More berryful recipes:
Swirled Blueberry Lemon Coffee Cake with Gingered Streusel
Ingredients
strawberry cake
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup strawberry puree (about 1 cup of halves)
- 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
cheesecake
- 2 packages cream cheese, softened
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
lemon glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- juice of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 9 inch square baking pan with parchment.
- With a hand or stand mixer, whip coconut oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and strawberry puree until combined. Measure in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Beat until just combined. Do not overmix.
- In a separate bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, and flour for about 3 minutes until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Blend in vanilla until incorporated.
- Pour half of the strawberry cake batter into the prepared pan. Top with half of the cheesecake batter. Dollop remaining cake batter atop the cheesecake layer, then pour leftover cheesecake filling. Bake 40-45 minutes, tenting the pan halfway through with foil to prevent browning, until the center is set.
- Cool cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to the freezer for about an hour.
- Make the lemon glaze. Whisk powdered sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice until smooth but still somewhat thick. If it seems too chunky, add 1 tsp milk of choice until the desired texture is achieved. Remove the cake from the freezer and spoon lemon glaze evenly overtop. Set in the fridge for another hour. Slice into 12-16 bars and serve!
