Pumpkin Bar Recipe

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I decided to try a recipe I had printed last year that I had never tried before. The recipe had pumpkin and cream cheese in it, the ingredients also called for a box of yellow cake mix. So the other day I decided to try it. The original recipe came from foodnetwork, Paula Deen, so I knew it had to be good. This recipe was so good that it was almost gone in one day. If you are like me, and you love cheese cake and pumpkin pie, then you should love this recipe. The foodnetwork version, Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes also includes different versions for other gooey cakes, too. For instance, there is a recipe for Pineapple Gooey Cake, Banana Gooey Cake, and Peanut Butter Gooey Cake. The recipe warns you that it should be gooey, not to overcook it.
I altered this recipe a little before I had even tried it for the first time. I didn’t have a lot of butter (thanks to my husband – he’s a butterolic) I have to hide it from him, or he’ll use it all up. So I opted to use my favorite cooking oil “Smart Balance”. I also added an additional egg to the cake mix which forms the crust, and it came out great. So I am posting this recipe the way I cooked it, but I will also include foodnetwork’s version, too and post a link to the original recipe.

Ingredients

Crust:
1 box yellow cake mix
2 eggs (or you can use 1 – like foodnetwork)
½ cup of cooking oil (or 8 Tbs of butter) Not both – one or the other.

Topping:
1 8oz package cream cheese
1 can pumpkin
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 box or 16oz of powdered sugar
1/3 cup cooking oil - (Or you can use 8 Tbs of butter) Not both.
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice – (Or 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg instead)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Prepare the crust
In a large bowl combine the cake mix, egg, and oil (or butter) and mix well. Spray a 13 x 9 inch pan with non-stick spray and press the batter down to form a crust making sure it is spread evenly across.

Prepare the Topping

In a separate large bowl combine the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Then add the eggs, vanilla, and oil (or butter) and mix well. Then you add the powdered sugar and spices. Spread this over the unbaked crust.

Bake this for 40 to 50 minutes. Remember to leave it gooey. I baked mine for exactly 40 minutes and it was not gooey, but very moist. I think next time I will bake it for 35 minutes. That is about the time I started to smell it in the oven. They say when you smell it baking, that it is usually ready, and that is true for this cake.

Serve with whipped cream.