Last Bake December Weekend

37 weeks, 3 days pregnant

Bake December continues! This weekend I made delicious Paula Deen's Pumpkin Bars -- or as Jorge like to call them: Pumpkinammon Bars, because they are cinnamony! They are sooooo good, this is one of our top fave recipes! I discovered this recipe last year my coworker Beth brought some in. Pure heaven!



Here's the recipe, with a couple of modifications to make it less fattening. But trust me, you can't tell the difference! You MUST try it!

Pumpkinammon Bars

Ingredients

Bars:
4 eggs Instead: 1 egg and 4 egg whites
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil Instead: 1/3 cup of canola 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.

ENJOY!!

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I usually bake all through December, but I think this is the last weekend I'll be baking this year. I'll be 38.5 weeks pregnant at that point, and I know we'll have lots of apple pie and ice cream left over from Christmas, so we'll be fine. Looking forward to doing it again next year -- but with a one-year old! Eeeeeeeee!!!!! :)