Pumpkin Bars

I've been meaning to make these bars for almost two weeks. Last week, I was exhausted and had headaches every day. Turns out, I have a sinus infection. I suspected once I had a migraine for 6 straight days that it might be a sinus infection, and then the seventh day, every part of my face hurt. I finally got to doc and got some meds, so I am on the mend. Though I still have headaches and some sinus pain. I've been lucky enough to have a boyfriend who knows I'm miserable when I'm sick and takes care of me as much as he can.
I made my shepherd's pie today, and tried a milk stout in the gravy this time. It came out just as fantastic as it always does. That gravy recipe is seriously fool-proof, any stout or porter you use still tastes great.

Funny thing is, when I went to go to the grocery store today, I asked my mom if she needed me to grab anything for her. She asked me to grab some cream cheese frosting for pumpkin bars she was currently baking. Seriously?! On the day I'm going to make pumpkin bars she beats me to it. I decided I would compare my bars to hers since hers were from a basic box mix. Hers came out firmer (which seems more like a "bar" to me), almost brownie-like. Mine came out super moist and cake-like, which almost makes me want to call these pumpkin cake squares, not bars. I think of bars as being firmer.

Anyways, if you decide to make these, follow my frosting recipe, not the original. The original calls for 4 cups of powdered sugar, which is wayyyyyyyyy too much sugar. My bars had a very thick layer of frosting and I threw a lot of leftover away.

Pumpkin Bars
from The Breadman's Wife

 Cake
2 cups of flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
1. tsp. baking soda
4 eggs
1 and 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup oil
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix!)

Frosting
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
1/3 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. milk

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix all dry ingredients (flour to baking soda) in a bowl.
3. Mix eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin together until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients gradually and mix until well combined.
4. Spread mix into a greased baking dish (I used a 13 x 9 inch dish). Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. It took me about 35 minutes.
5. Let cool completely.
6. To make the frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Mix in the sugar, vanilla and milk.
7. Frost the cake and serve.

There's no fancy pic to go with this. I frosted the cake, cut it immediately, put it on a paper towel and straight into my mouth. No time for plating, just time for eating.