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Rainbow Vanilla Cheesecake Bars

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Vanilla Cheesecake Bars with a swirl of rainbow colors is a perfect dessert to serve for any party or event.  It is easy to customize it to any theme.

Vanilla cheesecake bars with a fun rainbow swirl. Fun, festive, and perfectly delicious!

 This past weekend we did some spring cleaning around the house and in the backyard.  My husband and the kids worked outside cleaning up sticks, leaves, and junk.  My job was the inside of the house.  I just had to do a regular cleaning to get ready for our life group.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to get distracted when you are supposed to be cleaning?  

Vanilla cheesecake bars with a fun rainbow swirl. Fun, festive, and perfectly delicious!

I picked up a pile of magazines and immediately started flipping through a few of them checking out some pictures and recipes.  10 minutes later I realized that I wasn’t cleaning anymore.

Then I carried a pile of papers to the office, and I remembered I didn’t have my pictures edited for the next day.  So, I pulled up the file on the computer and did a little bit on that.  20 minutes later.  Oh, yeah, I need to dust and vacuum.   But first I needed a cup of coffee.  Just a quick browse on my phone while the coffee is brewing.  Gotta check out my mail and FB!

Time for the bathrooms.  But before I get to that maybe I should work ahead and edit some pictures for the following week.  Another 20 minutes and finally time to work on the bathroom.  Wait, I need to answer that text.  And check my mail.  And FB.  Maybe a little Pinterest too while I’m at it.

Yeah, it’s pretty easy to see how distracted I get when cleaning.  It’s probably a good thing I don’t run a cleaning business 🙂

Vanilla cheesecake bars with a fun rainbow swirl. Fun, festive, and perfectly delicious!

Since I will be sticking to my day job of making drool worthy desserts and dinners for you, can I distract you for a little bit with these fun, colorful cheesecake bars?

These bars are just a basic vanilla cheesecake baked on a vanilla cookie crust.  Go ahead and leave the filling in the cookies when you crush them into crumbs.  The cream filling helps the crumbs stick together, and you can skip the butter in the crust.  Gotta love saving extra calories.

Vanilla cheesecake bars with a fun rainbow swirl. Fun, festive, and perfectly delicious!

After you mix up your cheesecake batter, spoon half the batter onto the prepared crust.  Now choose how many colors you want to swirl on top of your cheesecake.  You can do as many or as little colors as you want.  I did 6 colors to make a rainbow effect.

Divide that remaining batter into bowls and color them with food coloring.  I like using Wilton gel colors because it doesn’t add extra liquid into the treats I’m baking.  Those are available at most craft supply stores like Michaels or Hobby Lobby.  You can find them in the cake decorating aisle.  Just be careful because you can get distracted by all the other fun baking things they carry.  I’m speaking from experience here!

Drop the colors randomly by spoonful onto the batter already in the pan.  Use a butter knife to very carefully swirl the colors together.  Try to keep the knife at the top of the batter, so it doesn’t mess with the vanilla layer underneath.  Time to go in the oven.

Cheesecake is one of those treats that you have to have patience with.  You can’t just dive into it as soon as it finishes baking.  There is cooling time on the counter, and then more cooling time in the refrigerator.  Make sure to add that cooling time into your baking plans.

You could always do some cleaning while the cheesecake cools.  Or read a magazine.  Or surf FB and Pinterest.  That’s usually where you will find me 🙂

Vanilla cheesecake bars with a fun rainbow swirl. Fun, festive, and perfectly delicious!

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Rainbow Vanilla Cheesecake Bars

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Yield: 24 cheesecake squares

Rainbow Vanilla Cheesecake Bars

Vanilla cookies and vanilla cheesecake gets a fun twist from the rainbow swirl of colors on top. Change out the colors to customize it for any party or event.

Ingredients

  • 30 Vanilla cream filled cookies
  • 3 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 Tablespoons sour cream
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 Tablespoons flour
  • 6 food colorings (use gel colors so it doesn't make the batter runny)

Instructions

  1. Crush the cookies (with the filling still in them) into fine crumbs. Press into the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan that has been sprayed with non stick spray.
  2. Beat the cream cheese and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and flour and beat again. Spoon half the batter onto the prepared crust.
  3. Divide the remaining batter evenly into 6 bowls. Color the batter with the food colorings until the color you desire is achieved. Spoon the colored batter onto the plain batter in a random pattern. Use a knife to swirl gently. Do not over swirl or put the knife in too far. Bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Let cool 2 hours on the counter. Refrigerate at least 4 hours. Cut into 24 squares. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

Notes

*Feel free to make these cheesecake bars without the colors if you like.

http://insidebrucrewlife.com/2014/04/rainbow-vanilla-cheesecake-bars/

Vanilla cheesecake bars with a fun rainbow swirl. Fun, festive, and perfectly delicious!

More fun and delicious cheesecake recipes for you to enjoy:

Strawberry Cheesecake Lemon Bars

Strawberry Cheesecake Lemon Bars

Cheesecake Nutella Twists

Cheesecake Nutella Twists

Key Lime Cheesecake Cookie Bars

Key Lime Cheesecake Cookie Bars

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Comments

  8. Saw this on fb and had to check it out as you see I was suppose to start cleaning house after running my errands. For some reason I found myself looking for more errands so I didnt have to come home and clean. lol so you see, your not the only one with the cleaning issues… Had to get this recipe as my daughter just asked me for some recipes from my generation for a church special….you know, the hippy era….this looks like it fits the bill and looks easy…we all love easy, it gives us more time to goof off, huh, I mean clean… Have a great day…

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  15. Jocelyn, I get distracted so easily when I’m supposed to be cleaning or writing down some kind of notes from online. Bah. It’s great that you mentioned in the recipe to leave the cream in the middles of the cookies. You have no idea how many people have asked me about that in my own recipes. Can you imagine scraping it out cookie by cookie? No thanks! 🙂
    Jelli recently posted..Easter Jelly Bean PoemMy Profile

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  25. These are absolutely gorgeous! My brother’s favorite color was “rainbow” growing up because he didn’t want to pick any favorites to hurt the other colors’ feelings, so your cheesecake bars remind me of him and bring back so many fond memories. I’m the same way when it comes to cleaning — especially if the magazines are from the Food Network or Cooking Light! That means I’d better avoid the Wilton gel food colors on the cake decorating aisle… 😉
    Amy @ Amy’s Healthy Baking recently posted..Fruity Easter Egg SmoothieMy Profile

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  27. The rainbow cheesecake smells amazing! It is currently in my oven baking. I did have to use about a tablespoon of melted butter for the crust. It might be because I used Harris teeter brand oreos, but it worked.

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  29. Hey! These cheesecake bars look absolutely amazing!!! Can’t wait to make them! I was wondering how I could replace the crust though, I want make a basic cheesecake crust. Not the graham cracker ones but the ones with brown sugar, flour, etc. What would the recipe be for that and how would it work with the baking times? Thanks!

    Reply

      • Thanks! I bought the classic red to try, since red is the one giving me the most problems – red velvet cupcakes become pink, orange or brown usually 😀 Can’t wait to try it!

        Reply

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