Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

In honor of Valentine's Day, I wanted to share with you a recipe that was a big hit in my house last year around this holiday! Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies!

I found this recipe on Pinterest. Here is the link to the website the recipe came from. The website includes the same information I'm about to give you, but has different pictures!

Ingredients:
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
• 4 tablespoons milk, divided
• 1 tablespoon red food coloring
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar 

Cheesecake Layer:

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

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 18 jelly roll pan with butter or spray with Baker's Joy.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together all of your dry ingredients. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons milk, vanilla extract, red food coloring, and white vinegar.
3. Combine the dry and wet ingredients, until completely combined. The batter will be really thick... that's what you want!
4. Remove 3/4 cup of the batter and place in bowl. Whisk the remaining 2 tablespoons of milk into the 3/4 cup of batter. Set aside.
5. Pour remaining batter into the jelly roll pan. Smooth it so it covers the whole pan.
6. In a stand mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy (2 minutes). Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
7. Pour this on top of the red velvet layer already in the pan.
8. Drop spoonfuls of the remaining red velvet batter (mixed with milk) onto the top of the cheesecake layer. Drop the tip of a knife or a tooth pick through the mix to create swirls.
9. Bake for 30 minutes, rotating halfway through, or until the center is set.
10. Let cool, then use a cookie cutter to create shapes.

When I made this recipe I decided to put mine into heart shaped pans and leave them whole rather than making them into smaller brownies/servings. It worked just fine, but took a little longer to bake!

Here's a snapshot of the brownies (and the note I included with them)!