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

Happy Halloween!

I didn't grow up with Halloween as a holiday so the whole concept is rather strange to me.  Our neighborhood goes all out with decorations and this is the first year we've put some up as well.  It's hard to find cute Halloween decorations, especially when you're looking two days before the event.  I was gifted this great big spiderweb from a co-worker.  I'm hoping to collect more as the years go by!

A spiders eye view

What the trick or treaters will see

Stocking up

We'll see how much is left by the end of the night!