white chocolate s'mores cake bars

I'm back! I didn't know I was taking a blog break until the holidays hit and I felt overwhelmed with so much going on (I know, we all did). I hope everyone had a great holiday and happy New Year! I spent the holidays in California this year visiting my family and could not have been happier. It was the first time my younger brother and I have visited my parents in San Jose since they moved this past August. And they took us on the full Northern California tour, we went to Pebble Beach and did the 17-mile drive of the coast, Monterey, San Francisco, Sonoma and Napa. Here are some of the highlights (thank you, instagram):

Cliff Lede Winery in Napa Valley

Golden Gate Bridge

Bi-Rite Creamery Ricanelas Ice Cream
(cinnamon ice cream with snickerdoodle cookie pieces)

Family time (don't ask where I got the blonde hair)

Cheering NC State on in the Belk Bowl

Never heard of these until I got to San Fran, they are ice
cream sandwiches made with oatmeal cookies, mmm mmm

Ok now we need to talk about these white chocolate s'mores cake bars. They are exactly as described and hopefully exactly like you are imagining! Oooey gooey doughy buttery cake layer topped with graham crackers, white chocolate chips, marshmallows, more cake layer and then drizzled with sweet condensed milk to give the top a slightly crispy, sugary outside. The recipe is easy to put together, the hardest part is waiting for the bars to cool before cutting into them. The best part about these bars, they are good cold, room temp or heat one up in the microwave and scoop some ice cream on top.

White Chocolate S'mores Cake Bars
recipe adapted from: Picky Palate

for the cake mix:
1 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

4 1/2 full graham crackers
10 oz bag of white chocolate chips
2 cups of marshmallows (I used regular size cut into chunks)
1/ 2 c. sweet condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 


Line an 8x8 inch pan with aluminum foil, this will save you a lot of clean-up time. Grease the aluminum foil lined pan. 


Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking powder until combined. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until combined. Add in vanilla and egg and mix until a dough forms. Press half the cake dough into the bottom of the pan. Layer with graham crackers, white chocolate chips then marshmallows. Top with remaining cake dough and press down evenly. Drizzle sweet condensed milk over top and bake for 28-30 minutes or until golden brown on top. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes and then run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the sticky marshmallow. Let cool completely and then remove bars from pan with foil edges. Cut into squares and serve.