Blueberry or Cherry Bars

This is a dessert my mom has made for years, that I had never tried to make...until she went out of town...and I couldn't get the recipe from her. The vanilla cake has a fine, light texture and it is perfect delivery vehicle for the cherry or blueberry pie filling. I've only had cherry bars, but cherry filling isn't my favorite, so I thought I'd explore with blueberry.  

I searched around for a recipe and ended up almost pulling together my mom's recipe. I'll share the recipe I made:

1 3/4 cup of sugar

1 cup of softened butter

3 eggs

1 1/2 t baking powder

1 t vanilla extract

1/4 t almond extract

3 cups flour (+2T for high altitude)

Cream the butter sugar and eggs until smooth. Add the vanilla and almond extracts. Sift the flour and baking powder and mix until combined.

Set aside about 2 cups of the batter. The pan I used is 10x15. If you use a smaller pan, you can set aside less of the batter. Spray the baking pan or butter/flour the pan. (I used spray).

 After pressing the batter evenly, spread a can of cherry pie filling and a can of blueberry pie filling.

 You can always just make one flavor. The blueberry filling went much further than the cherry filling.

 Dollop the remaining batter on top of the pie filling.

 Bake 350F for 45 minutes, or until the top turns golden brown.

 Allow to cool and then slice the bars.

 I arranged some of the bars on a flat white platter to resemble the American flag.

 Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

 Blueberry is a hit!