Pumpkin Bars Recipe (Cream Cheese Frosting)
- Preparation 25 min
- Cooking 40 min
- Servings 12
- Freezing Absolutely
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🍁 You are going to spread it on thick
That is where these bars are won. A maple cream cheese frosting pulled straight from the fridge before it goes on, firm enough to hold a generous layer instead of running down the sides. Drag a spatula through it and it holds the ridges. People see that before they taste anything, and that is half the job done.
🎃 Soft, and it stays that way
There is oil in here, not butter, and it is deliberate. These bars live in the fridge because of the frosting, and butter firms up cold: your slice the next day turns dense and dry. Oil stays liquid. The bars are as tender on Wednesday as they were on Monday. Add pumpkin and maple syrup, both of which hold moisture, and you get a cake that refuses to dry out.
🍽️ Twelve squares, and they go fast
A full 9×13 makes a big batch and bakes evenly, which a layer cake does not always do. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice, all five together. This is what I make when people are coming over, or just when it is cold out and I want the house to smell like something.
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🥣 Mix less than you think
This is the only real way to ruin these. The wet goes into the dry and you stir just until the flour is moistened, not one second longer. Every extra turn develops gluten, and gluten in a cake means a tight, rubbery crumb. A few small lumps left behind are fine, they bake out.
🧊 Cold frosting is how you get the thick layer
Freshly beaten cream cheese frosting is soft and runs off the sides the moment you spread it. Thirty to forty-five minutes in the fridge and it firms up enough to stand on its own. You can put on twice as much, swoop it with a spatula, and it stays put. Almost no effort, completely different looking cake.
🫒 Oil instead of butter, and here is why
These bars live in the fridge because of the frosting. Butter firms up cold, so a butter cake turns dense and dry overnight. Oil stays liquid even chilled, so the piece you eat two days later is as tender as the first. Add pumpkin and maple syrup, which both hold moisture, and you get a cake that will not dry out.
⏱️ Cool it in two stages
Thirty minutes in the pan, long enough for the cake to firm up so it can be handled. Then lift it out with the parchment and give it another hour and a half on a rack. Leaving it in the pan the whole time traps steam and soaks the bottom. And frosting a warm cake is a guaranteed melted mess.
🎃 Which puree to use
Mine, if you made it. My homemade pumpkin puree, properly drained, behaves almost exactly like canned, because draining is what removes the extra water. Skip the draining and you are adding liquid to your batter without knowing it. Canned does the job perfectly, and one small pumpkin gives you exactly the cup you need here.
🍁 Maple in both places
There is maple in the batter and in the frosting, and not only for flavor. Maple syrup is a liquid sugar that holds moisture, so it works on the texture at the same time. Use a dark syrup if you have one: light syrup disappears completely behind the spices.
📅 Make ahead
The cake itself is happy made a day early, and it is honestly better the next day once the spices settle. Bake it, cool it completely, then wrap it well unfrosted and leave it at room temperature overnight. The frosting also keeps two days in the fridge, which is convenient since it needs to be cold anyway. Pull it out 10 minutes before spreading if it has gone rock hard. Measure your spices together into one labeled container while you are at it, so you are not pulling out five jars the next day. On the day, all that is left is frosting and cutting.
❄️ Storage and freezing
Four to five days in the fridge in an airtight container, because of the cream cheese. Take the squares out 20 minutes before serving, they are much better at room temperature than cold. For freezing, the better option is unfrosted: wrapped tight, the cake holds three months and comes back like new. Frosted freezes too, but cream cheese frosting holds a lot of water and that water comes back out as it thaws, leaving beads of moisture on the surface. If you want to do it anyway, freeze the squares uncovered for an hour so the frosting hardens, then wrap them, and thaw in the fridge with the wrapping removed at the end.
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Wet
- 1 cup (250 ml) pumpkin puree
- 1 1/4 cups (310 ml) golden brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2/3 cup (160 ml) canola oil
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) maple syrup
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
Dry
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp (10 ml) baking powder
- 2 tsp (10 ml) ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp (5 ml) baking soda
- 1/2 tsp (2 ml) ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp (2 ml) ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp (2 ml) salt
- 1/4 tsp (1 ml) ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp (1 ml) ground allspice
Frosting
- 9 oz (250 g) block cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 3 cups (750 ml) powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) maple syrup
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Preparation
- Heat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line a 9×13 inch (23 x 33 cm) pan with parchment, letting two sides hang over so you have handles to lift the cake out later.
- In a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg, salt, cloves and allspice.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, oil, maple syrup, eggs and vanilla until smooth.
- Pour the wet into the dry and stir only until the flour is moistened. Stop the moment there are no white streaks left. Overmixing develops gluten and gives you a tough cake instead of a tender one. Spread the batter evenly in the pan.
- Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until the center no longer wobbles and a toothpick pushed into the middle comes out dry.
- Let the cake cool 30 minutes in the pan, then lift it onto a rack using the parchment. Let it cool another hour and a half, until completely cool to the touch.
- While the cake finishes cooling, make the frosting. With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until creamy and slightly fluffy. Beat in the powdered sugar gradually, then the maple syrup.
- Cover the frosting and refrigerate it 30 to 45 minutes. It will thicken and become far easier to spread in a thick layer.
- Spread the chilled frosting over the fully cooled cake, swooping it with a spatula. Cut into 12 squares. For clean edges, chill the frosted cake 30 minutes before slicing.
Mostly the pan and how you cut it. Pumpkin bars are baked in a sheet pan, usually a 9×13, frosted right in one flat layer and cut into squares. Pumpkin cake more often means a layered round cake. Same batter idea, different format, and bars are far easier to transport.
Yes, as long as it is well drained. Homemade puree drained overnight and canned puree behave very similarly, because water is the whole difference between them. Undrained, it adds liquid to your batter and the center may stay wet.
They were overmixed. When the wet hits the dry, stir only until no flour is visible. Past that, gluten develops and the crumb tightens up. It is the number one mistake in cakes like this, and it is invisible until after baking.
No. Pie filling is already sweetened and spiced, so you would be doubling the sugar and throwing off the spice balance. Check the label: if it lists anything besides pumpkin, it is filling. You want plain pumpkin puree.
The cake can be baked a full day ahead and kept wrapped and unfrosted at room temperature, and the frosting keeps two days in the fridge. Frosted, they hold four to five days refrigerated. The flavor actually improves after the first day as the spices settle.
Chill it 30 to 45 minutes before spreading, which is what the recipe calls for anyway. Cold frosting is firmer, spreads better and lets you put on a much thicker layer. If it is still soft after that, beat in more powdered sugar a quarter cup at a time.
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