Swirly, Twirly Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

I haven't baked in a LONG time, and have been bookmarking a lot of new recipes lately. I found myself in need of a Valentine's Day treat and when I saw these brownies in my google reader, I just knew that I had to make them. Of course, I say that about A LOT of things but I actually did get around to baking these babies up.

I am pretty disappointed that mine didn't turn out as pretty, it's because when I mixed the milk with the 3/4 cups of batter, it didn't thin as much as it should have. So I might suggest making sure it's thin enough to swirl across the top and combine with the cheesecake. You also may try to swirl it into the bottom layer, I was just swirling the top cheesecake and dropped batter layers.

Either way, these were easy to put together. And they are still festive! They would also be good for memorial day, fourth of July, etc.

Swirly, Twirly Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies (From the Novice Chef)
Red Velvet Layer:
3 1/4 cups flour
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon red food coloring
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons milk

Cheesecake Layer:
2 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 18 jelly roll pan with butter or spray with Baker's Joy.

In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, red food coloring, and white vinegar.
Combine the dry and wet ingredients, until completely combined. The batter will be really thick! I loved this aspect as it made it very easy to clean up my bowl :)

Remove 3/4 cup of the batter and place it in a medium bowl. Whisk in the 2 tablespoons of milk (into the 3/4 cup of batter you just took out). Set aside the 3/4 cup batter.

Pour the remaining batter into the prepared jelly roll pan and smooth out the batter to reach all the edges.

In your stand mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until combined and there are no lumps. Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the red velvet layer and smooth mixture till it reaches all the edges.

Drop spoonfuls of the remaining red velvet batter (that you mixed with milk) onto the top of the cheesecake layer. Drag the tip of a knife through the red velvet and the cheesecake layers to create swirls.

Bake for 30 minutes, rotating half way through, or just until the center is set and it no longer jiggles. Let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.