Ever since I was a little girl, my mom would make these delicious pumpkin bars during the fall season. They are a moist pumpkin cake with a homemade cream cheese frosting and they are to die for! My brother and I would eat a bar for breakfast before school in the morning or as an afternoon snack. Coming home from school and smelling the sweet aroma of pumpkin cake baking in the oven would get us super excited for the mouth-watering snack that was to come!
These bars are perfect for any fall get-together, especially Thanksgiving. When we hosted Thanksgiving a few years ago, I made them for one of the desserts. I didn’t include the recipe in that blog post, but I will for you today. The funny thing about these bars is that they’re baked in a non-stick jelly roll pan. I received these jelly roll pans as a gift from my bridal shower and they are the best baking sheets ever! The good thing about using these pans is that the cake is not a thick cake, but rather on the thinner side and with a thin layer of the cream cheese frosting, it is just decadent. You won’t be disappointed!
When gathering your ingredients, take four eggs, the block of cream cheese and stick of butter out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature. I always set everything out first so I know exactly what I have to work with. Once the refrigerated items come to room temperature, I start to bake.
One of the items I had dreamed about receiving from my wedding registry was my KitchenAid stand mixer. When I bought my house a few years ago, I received a lot of hand me down items, one of them being my grandma’s SunBeam mixer. Even though it had held out all these years from her use and then mine, I still couldn’t wait to use my KitchenAid. If you don’t have one, I highly recommend one. The mixers come in all different colors and there’s all sorts of attachments you can buy as well to make pretty much anything.
To make these pumpkin bars, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Beat the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin together using your stand mixer.
Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt to your wet mixture and beat well.
Once mixed, pour your cake batter into your jelly roll pan. There’s no need to grease your pan ahead of time, its non-stick!
Smooth out the batter evenly and place pan in your preheated oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes until done. You’ll be wishing these minutes will fly by once you taste these amazing pumpkin bars!
While your cake is baking, your can prepare your frosting. With a clean mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and confectioner’s sugar until smooth and set aside.
Once the cake has cooled out of the oven, spread the frosting evenly across the cake. Cut into even squares and enjoy!
These bars are one of my favorite desserts. I have made them several times in my adult life and they do not disappoint. Everyone I have served them to, find them to be delightful, a perfect dessert for the fall season.
Here’s the recipe for you all to enjoy:
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Using a stand mixer, beat eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin together.
- Add dry ingredients to batter and mix well.
- Pour batter into an ungreased or non-stick 15×10 inch jelly roll pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, to make the frosting, mix the cream cheese, margarine, vanilla and confectioner’s sugar until smooth.
- Once cake is removed from oven and cooled, spread the cream cheese frosting evenly over the cake. Slice the cake into even squares and enjoy!
Thank you Katie. These are delicious!