Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Are you looking for an easy pumpkin fix? Try these delicious, moist pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting! I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Hey friends! I am back today to hopefully make your day a little brighter with a recipe for these yummy pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting. 🙂

I know I teased a felt leaf wreath on my last post but I thought it might be a good idea to get this recipe up in case you are making your Thanksgiving menu preparations. These bars are always a staple at my Mom’s house for Thanksgiving and they are the perfect treat! 🙂 But don’t worry, the felt wreath will be coming soon!

Pumpkin bars so good you can’t mess them up

Funny story about these bars! When I made them, I was going to make two pans in order to share some with Mr. Wonderful’s coworkers and our neighbors. Our neighbors had never had pumpkin bars before which blew my mind! If you have not had them, they are very similar to pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting only thinner and cut into squares or rectangles. Ha!

Anyway, I was in a bit of a hurry to get the first batch made and as I was preparing the batter for the second batch, I realized I forgot to add the baking soda in the first batch! 

Needless to say, they were much more dense than normal. Also in my haste, I added the frosting too soon before the bars were completely cooled. So it was more like a cream cheese glaze than a cream cheese frosting! Ha! I had my boys do a taste test on the bars and they confirmed they tasted good, so I ended up still sharing them.

Evidently I had nothing to worry about as they got rave reviews and one person even said the glaze was so good! LOL! I told her they actually get even better! So the lesson here is… these pumpkin bars are so good, you can’t even screw them up. 😉

How to make pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting

To make these pumpkin bars, first prepare the batter by mixing in the wet ingredients, followed by the dry ingredients.

Next, line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. This is one of the best baking hacks I have ever come across! It leaves you with zero cleanup and also makes it easy to transfer the bars out of the pan for cooling. 🙂 Pour the batter into the lined jelly roll pan.

Bake the pumpkin bars and let cool. Especially before you frost them! 😉

Frost the pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting

While the pumpkin bars cool, mix the ingredients for the cream cheese frosting. When the bars are cool to touch, frost them using a spatula. This frosting is sooooo yummy, you will have to refrain from licking your fingers!

Cut the bars into squares or rectangles depending on your preference. If you cut the bars into 2″ squares, you will get 35 bars. If you cut them into 2″ x 1-1/2″ bars, you will end up with 49 bars. These pumpkin bars are rich, so it is probably best to cut smaller bars instead of bigger ones. After all, you can always have more! 

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Yield: 35 bars

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Are you looking for an easy pumpkin fix? Try these delicious, moist pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting!

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Ingredients

Pumpkin Bars

• 4 eggs
• 2 cup sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1 cup raisins, optional
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 package (3 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp margarine, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

Beat eggs, sugar, oil, pumpkin. Stir in dry ingredients. Mix in raisins, if using them. Pour batter into parchment paper lined 15"x10-1/2" pan. Alternatively you can flour and grease your pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until light brown; cool.

Mix ingredients together for frosting and frost when pumpkin bars are cooled. Sprinkle with walnuts, if using them. Cut bars into 2" squares which yields 35 bars or 2' x 1-1/2" bars which yields 49 bars. Refrigerate any remaining bars.

Make sure to refrigerate any leftover bars! You may find, like we do, that we prefer them cold! 🙂 Have a great rest of the week!