Dark and Stormy Bars

They say that March is the coldest, wettest month. If that's true, it calls for a recipe that can provide an antidote. ADark and Stormycocktail — that refreshing, vibrant trio of dark rum, ginger beer, and lime — is one option. A baked version of that cocktail is an even better one.

A breezy, quick recipe, our Dark and Stormy Ginger Bars are less like blondies and more like sturdy squares of frosted cake. Their liveliness comes from the spicy-sweet ginger in the batter, which is incorporated in four ways: fresh, dried,candied, and syrup. (The syrup can be made on the stovetop, but our suggestion is that youbuy a bottleto save yourself the hassle. It has unlimited uses, from flavoring tea and whipped cream to glazing pork chops.)

The other signatures of a Dark and Stormy — the lime and the rum — are present here in the form of a cream cheese frosting, which tastes more like rum the longer you keep the bars around. Don't want the alcohol? No problem: You can leave the rum out of the frosting altogether, and you'll still have a treat that'll make any night — even the cold, wet ones — better.