Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting – another fall favorite…I may have too many “fall favorites!” Fall just has so many wonderful flavors! When I was growing up, these were popular cookies to make in the fall. The pumpkin, spices and smooth cream cheese frosting are such a tasty combination.

This is another easy to make recipe! Beat eggs, sugars, oil and pumpkin together until smooth. Whisk the remaining dry ingredients together.

Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture.

Stir in raisins, if using. (Golden raisins also work.)

Spread in a prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes.

Let the cookies cool completely, about 2 hours. Then mix up the frosting and spread it over the cookies. This is one of the best ways to eat them….love the pumpkin cookies with smooth frosting. YUM!

But is fun to “play with your food” when a holiday is coming up.

I used a biscuit cutter to create little round cookies, and them topped them with Jack O’ Lanterns and Halloween sprinkles.

These are also good sprinkled with nuts. These have chopped up pistachios, with a few sprinkles. Chopped roasted walnuts also taste amazing on these. Enjoy being creative and topping these with your favorite fall sprinkles, nuts or other toppings. Store in the refrigerator. Happy Fall!

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Pumpkin Spice Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

A traditional fall treat! Enjoy this pumpkin bar cookie!

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Bar Cookies, Fall, Pumpkin

Servings: 30 servings

Author: Mary Beth

Ingredients

Bars

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar*
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar*
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 15 oz can pumpkin
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup raisins, if desired

Frosting

• 1 package (3 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts, if desired

Instructions

Bars

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease bottom and sides of 15 x 10 x 1 inch pan. In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugars, oil and pumpkin until smooth. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture, stirring until combined. If desired, stir in raisins. Spread in pan.
• Bake 25-30 minutes or until light brown and toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on cooling rack, about 2 hours. You could also just lightly dust the bars with powdered sugar, if you don't want to add frosting.

Frosting

• In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth and combined. Gradually beat in powered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until smooth and spreadable. If necessary, add more powdered sugar. Spread frosting over bars. if desired, sprinkle with chopped nuts or decorate for fall with pumpkins and sprinkles. Store in the refrigerator.

Notes

*Traditional recipe called for 2 cups of granulated sugar instead of combination of brown and granulated.  You can also add 1-2 tablespoons of maple syrup to the frosting, especially good if you are topping the cookies with toasted walnuts.

Halloween will be here soon! What kind of festive witchy treats do you plan to make? Time to grab some Halloween decorations and make some brightly colored frosting.

We have been making these Chocolate Party Cupcakes for years – a birthday and special occasion tradition at our house. Cathy Oesterling shared this recipe with me when we were working for University Extension together. It is so fun to use favorite traditional recipes for family gatherings. It creates memories and makes them extra special.

Easy to make! These cupcakes are made from a chocolate cake mix, with a cream cheese and chocolate chip filling added. So each bite of cupcake has a bit of chocolate, a bit of cream cheese and some tasty chocolate chips…YUM!

Pipe your favorite frosting, or the buttercream frosting in the recipe below, on top of the cupcakes once they are cool. Tint the frosting with bright colors, like lime green and neon orange. Top with Halloween decorations and fall colored sprinkles.

These little witches hats are from the Fancy Flours website. They offer so many creative baking decorations and cooking supplies for cakes, cookies and candy. So many ideas for your festive holiday baking, no matter what the season.

Have fun making spooky and festive Halloween treats!

Click on the link below for the recipes for the cupcake and frosting:

You can make your own witches hats. Here is one example that uses Oreo Thins, Hershey Kisses and Candy Corn. Click on the link below for directions.

Happy Halloween!!!!

These little pumpkins have just the right amount of sweet, spice and everything nice! Full of fall flavors and decorated in the bright, rich colors of autumn.

This is the Pumpkin Mini Bundt Cake recipe that we have used the last two days. Mix up your batter and bake, then let cool completely.

Next you need to cut the bottom off of each mini cake to make it flat.

Place a bit of icing on the bottom half of your “pumpkin”. If top and bottom pieces that are you putting together both have a hole in the center, place a small piece of cake that you cut off over the bottom hole before icing. You don’t want to loose your stem.

Sandwich two of the mini bundt cakes together to create a pretty little pumpkin. Gently press the two together.

Of course, your little pumpkins need a stem! This time I used the Pepperidge Farm Pirouette Chocolate Hazelnut wafers and cut each one into four pieces. Look through the candy and cookie aisles to get ideas. I have also used 100 Grand candy bars and cut each on in half lengthwise and crosswise.

You may want to add fall sprinkles and leaves. These fall leaves are made of edible wafer paper and are available from the Fancy Flours website, listed below. They have so many cute cookie wafer paper designs!

These would look so pretty on your fall tables!

These little mini pumpkins are so adorable and so cute! The added bonus is that they are super easy to make and decorate! Fun activity for the family! You might want to have some googly eyes and bats on hand for the kids.

Take time to share your goodies! You can make someone so happy by dropping a little treat off for them. This is a crazy time, we all need to watch out and care for one another. Enjoy your fall baking and creations!

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Pumpkin Mini-Bundt Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Adorable little bundt cakes you can decorate in so many ways!

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Bundt Cake, Pumpkin

Servings: 18 mini-cakes

Author: Mary Beth

Ingredients

Mini-Bundts

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon*
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated or ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 15 oz can pure pumpkin, not pie filling

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 2 tablespoons browned butter cooled (or 2 tablespoons butter at room temperature)
• 1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-2 tablespoons milk
• 1 pinch salt
• Optional – sprinkles, nuts, decorations

Instructions

Mini-Bundts°

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini-bundt cake pan with nonstick spray and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Set aside.
• Combine sugars and oil and combine with mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each additional. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
• Add the flour mixture to egg mixture alternately with the pumpkin (beginning and ending with the dry ingredients), stirring just enough to combine each time. To fill the mini-bundt pans easily, place the batter in a large ziplock bag, cut off a corner and pipe the cake dough into the pans. You can also spoon it in.
• Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted near the centers comes out clean. Remove from the oven and place on cooling rack. Cool for about 5-10 minutes before removing. Gently twist each cake to remove, you may need to use a knife to loosed some of the cakes if they are sticking. Cook completely on rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• While the cakes are cooling, make the frosting. With mixture, beat the cream cheese until it is smooth. Add in cooled browned butter (or softened butter), mix well. Gradually add in powdered sugar and mix until combined. Mix in vanilla, salt and 1 tablespoon of milk. Beat until smooth. Test consistency.
• An easy way to pipe the icing on these cakes, is to put the frosting in a quart sized ziplock bag, cut off a corner and gently squeeze to decorate. If you prefer to drizzle the icing, add about 1 more tablespoon of milk and drizzle over top and sides of cake.
• Add sprinkles, nuts or other decorations. Have fun!

How to Brown Butter

• Place 2 tablespoons of butter in a small light colored pan, not nonstick. Place on medium heat, when it starts to melt, start stirring and watch carefully. As it melts, it will pop and fizzle. It usually takes about 5 minutes for butter to brown, once you notice little brown specks in the bottom of the pan, remove from the stove immediately and pour butter in a heat proof bowl to cool. What a depth of flavor this adds!

Notes

*You could also use 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice to substitute for the cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. 

Fancy Flours is a source for baking supplies and wonderful decorations for cookies and cakes. Click on the link below:

https://www.fancyflours.com/