Favorite Fall Recipe: Pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting

 Fall is my favorite season and I love it when the air turns cool and crisp and the leaves flame yellow and red and crunch loudly when you step on them.  I also love fall because it's a great time to bake!  These pumpkin bars are quickly becoming a fall and Thanksgiving tradition as I am not a fan of pumpkin pie for some reason (blasphemy I know) but will gladly eat my weight in pumpkin bars.  Perhaps it's because it's a nice dense cake, more so because of the cream cheese frosting.

I used Paula Deen's recipe and just tweaked it a little (I mean, I love butter too but you have to save it for where it counts)

Ingredients for the pumpkin bars:

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce (this was my substitute for more oil, I keep little individual serving cups around to use for baking)
• one 15 ounce can pumpkin
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Ingredients for the icing:

• 8oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick butter (bingo!)
• 1 lb sifted confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin until light and fluffy
• Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda after sifting 
• Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth
• Spread the batter in an ungreased nonstick 13 by 10 inch baking pan (I'm paranoid so I always spray with olive oil and I used a glass pan that was a bit smaller so my bars came out taller) 
• Bake for 30 minutes (this is about right on target) 
• Let cool completely before frosting. (this is hard to do!  I find putting it in the fridge helps some) 
• To make the icing: Combine the softened cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth
• Add the sugar (slowly or it'll create a sugary cloud) and mix at low speed until smooth
• Stir in the vanilla and mix again
• Spread on cooled pumpkin bars and enjoy!

Here they are right out of the oven

Topped with a cloud of cream cheese icing

The cake is really moist from the pumpkin and applesauce and I really like the light flavor that the cinnamon brings.  If you like a more spiced cake, you can use more spices (cloves, nutmeg, etc.)

This recipe is part of Prettymommy's brilliant fall recipe exchange!

This week's schedule:
Monday: Jennifer posted an amazing hot chocolate recipe
Tuesday: Yours truly with a pumpkin bar recipe
Wednesday: Danielle at Domestic Dish will be whipping something up
Thursday: Miya at You Plus Me Equals is up next
Friday: Rhonda will finish out the week with Sweet Potato Delights