Candy Corn Sugar Cookie Bars

I saw this recipe from one of my favorite baking blogs and thought it was just too cute not to try. Plus, it's simple too! They're colored sugar cookie bars with frosting on top, made to look like the classic Halloween treat: candy corn.

Here's what you need:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Orange and yellow food coloring (I used gel food coloring; to make orange I used a lot of yellow and a little red)
White frosting (I happened to have some buttercream icing leftover from another recipe, so I used that; you could also use canned icing or the icing recipe here)

First off you'll want to preheat the oven to 375°F, and line a 13x9 baking pan with foil and spray it with baking spray. Then it's time to work on the sugar cookie dough. Throw together your butter and sugar in the mixer and cream them together until nicely combined, about 2 minutes.

Now add the eggs and vanilla and mix it up until nice and creamy, scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, and baking soda. With the mixer on its lowest setting, slowly add spoonfuls of the flour mixture to the dough. Beat until completely combined, scraping the bowl as necessary.

Divide the sugar cookie dough in half. Color one half yellow and one half orange. I would recommend removing half of the dough from the mixing bowl, coloring the remaining half yellow using the mixer, then removing the yellow dough and spreading it evenly in the prepared baking pan. You may want to use some flour on your hands, as this dough is extremely sticky! After that, you can add the uncolored half of the dough back to the mixing bowl and color it orange. Layer the orange dough evenly on top of the yellow dough in the baking pan.

By the way, I realize that the original recipe says to layer the orange dough first with the yellow on top, but I personally thought that didn't make much sense. After all, the bottom (widest) part of a candy corn is yellow, with the middle being orange and the tip being white.

Anyway, now it's time to bake! The original recipe says to bake at 375°F for 10-12 minutes. However, I found that it took my batch more like 20 minutes to bake thoroughly enough, and even then I had to let the pan sit on a wire rack to continue "baking" outside the oven so that it could set. Once cooled and set, remove the giant cookie bar from the pan by carefully lifting the foil.

Once the cookie bar is completely cool, it's time to frost it. (Yum!) Spread the white frosting evenly over the entire cookie bar.

Lastly, cut parallel lines into the cookie bar, and from there carefully cut out triangles. I recommend using a small, thin knife, and wiping it clean in between cuts.

Ta-dah! Candy Corn Sugar Cookie Bars. I know the layers aren't perfectly even, but I still think they're cute. They're also really yummy and moist!

I took these to a Halloween party at one of my jobs, and people seemed to really enjoy them. This recipe made so many bars, that I actually had plenty leftover for my parents to take to their store and share with their employees.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween! I personally survived Halloween Horror Nights® 2012 at Universal Studios®. ;P So, sorry this post is a little late!

Your Cupcake,

~Jesia <3