Pumpkin Spice Bars

Holy snow-balls, Batman, it's cold here in Texas!  Yesterday, we had power outages from all the ice.  It was weighing down the trees and all the power lines.  Luckily, our guys were on the ball, and had it back on lickity-spit.

There is something about cold weather that makes me want to bake.  Especially, here at the holidays.
Maintenance Man has been wanting begging me to make these for about a month now.  I figured that was long enough to make him wait.

Pumpkin Spice Bars

From the Betty Crocker Cook Book

Ingredients:

4

eggs

2

cups granulated sugar

1

cup vegetable oil

1

can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

2

cups all-purpose flour

2

teaspoons baking powder

1

teaspoon baking soda

1/2

teaspoon salt

2

teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2

teaspoon ground ginger

1/4

teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:

Heat oven to 350˚, and lightly spray a 15x10x1 pan with cooking spray

In a large bowl, beat eggs, granulated sugar, pumpkin and oil with a wire whisk.  Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves.

Spread in pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack until completely cool, about 2 hours. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 brick (3oz) cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

Mix cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth. 

Gradually beat in the powdered sugar on low speed until smooth and spreadable. 

Spread frosting over bars, cut into rows of 7x7. Store in refrigerator.

Also, in the fridge, as we speak, is dough for Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (my all-time favorite cookie) and Snicker-doodles. BTW, my family thinks I'm a little silly at this time of the year because I love to say snicker-doodle dough over and over again.  Go ahead and try it..it's fun.