Breaking tradition in the form of pumpkin bars

It almost feels wrong to post this. I mean, there's a tradition to maintain on this blog. It is this recipe that marks the beginning of cooler temperatures and sleeping with the windows open. I post it every.year. 

But this week was Dan's birthday, and in his usual style, we needed a birthday cake that didn't fall in the super-sweet or super-chocolately category. He's more of a cheesecake, apple crisp or shortbread kind of man. 

That's when I remembered this recipe. Clipped from a farming newspaper way back when we lived in Illinois. I wasn't even sure I still had the recipe--that little slip of newsprint, fragile and folded, tucked away somewhere. 

But on his birthday afternoon, when I opened my old recipe box, to see if I could dig it out among the other recipe artifacts, there it was. The very first recipe in the box. Waiting for me. 

The cake isn't super-sweet and bakes up like a sheet cake. And the cheesecake frosting? Well, it's the frosting on the cake, of course. 

Try this. It won't disappoint, and then be sure to break out that pumpkin bread recipe some time, too. It's tradition.

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting clipped from the pages of The DuPage Farmer

4 eggs

1 ⅔ cups granulated sugar

1 cup cooking oil

1 16 ounce can pumpkin

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspon baking soda

For the frosting:

1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened

½ cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted powdered sugar.

In a mixing bowl combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. ( FYI: I did all mixing by hand, to save breaking out the major appliances.) Sift together the dry ingredients (if you want to be an over-achiever) and add to the wet ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Spread batter into an ungreased 15 x 10 x1 inch cookie sheet (aka jelly roll pan). I lined mine with parchment. (I am an over-achiever.) Bake at 350 ° for 25-30 minutes. Cool and frost with cream cheese frosting.