Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Yesterday ended up being a baking day. Not the whole day, just the end of it. Today is Canadian Thanksgiving, but in Canada, instead of celebrating it on the actual day, they celebrate it on the Sunday before, with their families. I know, I know…Canadians. So, Husband’s family celebrates it, of course, and the dinner was last night.  As we were getting ready to go over there, Husband’s like, oh we need to bring a dessert. Oh, good, so I had a whopping 30 minutes to whip something up. So, I thought of a crowd pleasing dessert, one that wouldn’t take too long, so I made my little brownie-rolo cupcakes that I’ve made many times now. So, I quickly got those made (thank goodness we had the stuff on hand) and we made our way on over. Because I had frosted the brownies when they were still a little warm, and had the lid on them on our way over, the frosting had started to melt a little, so I quickly removed the lid and let them breathe and cool down. I would have taken a picture, but I was in such a rush, I didn’t really have time.

Then, when I got home from the shindig, I wanted to make these pumpkin cheesecake bars I found on Pinterest. The picture of them, and the description, sounded awesome, so I was psyched. I followed the instructions to a T. I let the cream cheese soften, added the water, etc, etc, but my stuff didn’t turn out at all like her pics looked. And they’re…not very good. Here’s what it looked like after I tried to swirl in the cheesecake:

The cream cheese just made little…chunks into the bars, it didn’t really flow like I thought it would. I tried one when they came out of the oven, and they were all right, and then I tried one this morning, after it was cool, and to be honest, I don’t care for them that much. I don’t think I’ll make this again.

Here’s what it looked like after I pulled it out of the oven:

And here’s the recipe:

1 box angel food cake mix, the one step kind
1 15 oz can pumpkin
¾ cup water
½ tsp cinnamon
1 8ox reduced fat cream cheese, softened
Tablespoons of water

Cream the cream cheese, with a few tablespoons of water, to thin it out a little bit. (I added like, 5 TB of water, but I think maybe it’s supposed to be more?).  The water is just used to thin it out a bit. In a separate bowl, mix the cake mix, pumpkin, cinnamon and water together until it is smooth and well mixed. In a 9x13 dish (sprayed generously with a cooking spray), add half of the cake/pumpkin mix. Then, smooth it out with a rubber spatula. Drizzle half of the cream cheese over the top of it and take a spatula to smooth it over the top. Add remaining cake mix, and also the remaining cream cheese mix, (just making some layers). Finally, take a butter knife, stick it into the mix and go back and forth over the top of the cake, making figure 8’s, to blend it up a bit. Bake for 35 minutes at 375 degrees, or until toothpick comes out clean.

So, there it is. Maybe you can make it better, or maybe you like it the way it is. But in my case, I doubt I’ll be making it again.