Pumpkin Cream Cheese Squares

For the past few weeks, we have been renovating the kitchen... ourselves.  Thankfully, with the help of some others, we are almost done!!  Just the backsplash left to go, but I have been able to use the kitchen since Monday now.  Ahh... living with no kitchen is not fun!  I normally love a little Wendy's or other fast food here and there, but when you have to get takeout twice a day for almost 2 weeks, it's no fun.  By the end, we were both crabby and ready to be done.  I'm sure most of it was that we had already done a ton of work and just wanted it to be over, but also we were putting such junk food into our bodies and it was making us feel sick.  

I have not been baking for probably more than 2 weeks, so it was nice to get back into the kitchen again.  When I had to stop baking, it was still summer and everyone on the blogs and Facebook were still in summer mode.  Now that has all changed... it's now Halloween!  Now, I am not quite ready for Halloween, but I do LOVE when Fall starts.  Nothing says Fall to me quite like pumpkin does!  So that's exactly what I wanted to make.  

Here is Canada, Thanksgiving is just a couple weeks away now, so the stores already have pumpkins.  I just got a little pumpkin because I was in a rush, but I plan on going back to get some more.  Oh, the hubby will be so excited!

But for now... I made the most delicious Pumpkin Cream Cheese Squares last night!  Oh. my. gosh.  These squares are so moist and tasty.  I found this recipe from How To: Simplify and changed it up a bit and the results were amazing.   Instead of putting frosting on top, I swirled the cream cheese into the cake!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Squares

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin puree
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• pinch cloves
• pinch ginger
• 1 tsp. salt

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp. sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin. 
3. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and salt to wet mixture and stir until combined.  Set aside.
4. In medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, egg yolk, vanilla and sugar together until smooth.  
5. Pour the pumpkin batter into the dish and smooth the top.  
6. Drop dollops of cream cheese mixture on top of pumpkin batter.  Using a knife, swirl the cream cheese mixture into the pumpkin batter.  Be careful not to overmix, as then you would not see the cream cheese swirl.  
7. Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.  
8. Enjoy warm or at room temperature!

I love all things pumpkin... cake, scones, pancakes, dips and more!  My dog Bailey even likes pumpkin!  She was sick awhile back, and we read online that pumpkin is gentle on dog's stomachs so she was eating pumpkin and rice for a couple days and loved it!  So when I was cleaning up from making this, she was laying at my feet and I gave her a little pumpkin and she was a very happy dog!  

What do you like to make with pumpkin?!