One of my favorite things about cooking is when I go to make a recipe, realize I’m lacking an ingredient, wing it by throwing in a substitute ingredient I have on hand, and a new, equally delicious recipe emerges. Wowza was this the case with this recipe. It started out as as a recipe for Old Fashioned Carrot Cake Bars, but I had no canned carrots on hand. Insert canned pumpkin and the most delicious pumpkin cake bars I’ve ever had. Ever.
Ingredients for Cake
15 ounce can of pumpkin
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
4 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Ingredients for Icing
3 ounces cream cheese {softened}
1/3 cup butter {softened}
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk {I used 2%}
2 cups powdered sugar
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Blend the pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, applesauce and eggs together until smooth. In a separate bowl combine with the flour, salt, baking soda and spices together then slowly add the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture and mix well.
Pour into a greased {or parchment paper lined} 11×18 pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until the center is firm. Cool and then frost with cream cheese icing.
To prepare the frosting, beat all the ingredients together until smooth. Spread over cooled pumpkin cake. Then cut into bars.
Enjoy! {Just try not to eat the whole pan. Sharing is caring!}
~Mavis
Cassie says
This looks like a great recipe to start off the pumpkin season! Having the applesauce in there will make it nice and moist I am sure!
Kirsten G. says
11×18 pan? Can you share a link to one?
Pam says
Applesauce amount? 1/2 (cup?)
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes, 1/2 cup.
Trish H. says
How funny! I was JUST trying out the Old Fashioned Carrot Cake Bars today. Guess I’ll be making this pumpkin version soon, too! The pan I’m using is a half sheet pan. It is 12×17 so I’m hoping it works fine.
Laura says
Made this today, but forgot the baking soda. It didn’t rise at all (I was wondering why it seemed spongy when I took it out of the oven, lol) so it is very dense. Tastes good though, despite my mistake.
The pan I used is the 12 x 17 pan from Costco. I think a 10 x 15 would work pretty wall but might need more cook time.
Deborah says
Our local league of arts is having a quilt show and sale. The painters will be hosting a reception and will be serving foods. I’m going to make this to take. It’s in October so pumpkins will be the thing! Yum!
Jocelyn says
These look awesome!!!
Karin C says
Looks fantastic, the day after Halloween I take our pumpkins ( only carve them a day or two before ) and I peel them and cut into large chunks and bake until soft them wiz up in my ninja blender, ( hoping the Blendtec Fairies come one day) and then freeze in 2 cup portion that I can use all year, it’s amazing how much pumpkin comes from a few jack o lanterns , thank for the recipe. All the best to you and your gang .
Anne Marie says
Made these this week and gave some of the extras to my neighbors. The couple was fighting over them and politely demanded the recipe. Thanks for this great one! I made mine a little healthier too by using whole wheat flour. I also substituted some of the flour with ground chia and hemp seeds. Some of the sugar was cut with stevia too. No one was the wiser… 😉
Ann says
Another great recipe! Made these tonight and they were a huge hit. Thank for sharing.