On Sunday I had a killer day at the gym. I beat my personal best time for a 5k run on the treadmill, I ran straight for 13 minutes, and then I weighed myself. I have lost 19 lbs since I started going to the gym! I celebrated the 19 lb loss by buying myself a new pair of jeans (the smallest size I have bought in years) and by making this cake, courtesy of Paula Deen. She named the recipe pumpkin bars, but I think it's much more like a cake than a bar.
Pumpkin Bars (or Cake)
Recipe by Paula Deen
Ingredients
Bars:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
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
Icing:
8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
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. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.
To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.
I didn't cut them into bars and then iced them. Instead, I removed the cake from the pan in one piece (that was a goal, a corner fell off in the process), and iced it, then cut into squares. Of cake. Also I don't sift anything, which I don't think made a difference in the cake, but the icing was lumpy.
If I made this cake again (which won't be often if I want to fit into my new jeans), I would skip the icing altogether and serve with a bit of Cool Whip. Or ice cream.
Any which way, these were super delicious.
3 comments:
I was surprised that Paula didn't have any butter in the cake, but then I saw a cup of oil and was quite relieved that Paula was still Paula.
Did you use your hand mixer for the icing? How would caramel be for a topping??
I used my stand mixer for the icing, I do not own a hand mixer.
Caramel might be nice, maybe mix caramel with whipped cream!
That would be D-Lish!!
Maybe the icing was lumpy becasue of the cream cheese, I never sift icing sugar.
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