Valentine Sugar Cookie Bars

This recipe is for all of you moms out there who's child will come home on Wednesday night and tell you that they need 2 dozen valentine treats by tomorrow morning!!  Kids have a funny way of forgetting certain things...like when they volunteer their sweet mama for holiday treats and then don't think about it again until only hours before you need to have them delivered...kids!!  I can't even tell you how many times this has happened to me in the past and I so wish that I had this recipe.  It uses basic ingredients that most of you will have on hand...it only takes a few minutes to mix them together...they only take about 12 minutes to bake and it yields 24-36 good sized portions...PERFECT for anytime but especially perfect when in a pinch.

To make them you will need 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter or margarine, 2 cups of sugar, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, 4 eggs, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 5 cups of all-purpose flour.  Begin by creaming together the butter and sugar.  Add each egg to creamed mixture one at a time until mixed well and then add the vanilla.  For the dry ingredients add the salt and baking powder, mix well.  Then add one cup of flour at a time until the dough comes together.  Using your fingers pat the dough into a greased 13x18 jelly roll pan...

Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 12-15 minutes.  I know I say this all of the time but DO NOT OVER BAKE THEM.  You want them to just barely turn a light brown around the edge before you pull them out and let them cool.

For the frosting you could always use a can of your favorite but in this case I made a creamy and delicious cream cheese frosting.  I used 1 stick of margarine, 4 oz. of cream cheese, 4 cups of powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons of vanilla and a little red food coloring (for a sweet pink color)...

  

Mix the margarine and cream cheese together until well blended, add the vanilla.  Then a cup at a time add the powdered sugar.  You shouldn't need to add any water or milk to the frosting, it may seem like it will be too thick but as it mixes together it will become the right consistency...

I then added a little red food coloring and scooped it onto the bars...

Frosted them and added a few adorable heart sprinkles...

I'm not sure if I will ever go through the hassle of making cut out sugar cookies again...these are so easy and so darn good that they just might be my new go-to recipe...

In fact you might just want to make these up for "just in case"...because you never know which one of your sweet babies will come home and in their tiny little voice say, "Mama, I need valentine treats tomorrow."  Sweet kids-