Bars 

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp each baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp each salt and cloves
• 1 cup oil (try to use very light oil, as otherwise you can taste it)
• 1 (16 oz) can (2 cups) pumpkin
• 4 eggs
• 1/3 cup chopped nuts
• 1/2 cup raisins (cranberries (dried and sweetened?) are good too)

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup margarine or butter, softened
• 1 (3 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
  (works fine with 8 oz, as pioneered by Dave "never use void* in C++" Modiano except that the frosting didn't appear to congeal)
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting: Combine all ingredients; beat until smooth.  Frost when cooled.  Cut into bars, store in fridge.

When we made it, merrr omitted the nuts, and presoaked nearly double the raisins in amaretto to make 1 cup. Sadly, you couldn't really taste the amaretto in the final product unless you were looking for it. Well, and there tended to be a high density of raisins at the bottom of each piece so that also made it easier to taste.  merrrr used Libby's presweetened and spiced pumpkin mix but still added all the sugar and spice called for in the recipe. Extra yummmm. :)

Recipe from Pillsbury: The Complete Book Of Baking Viking 1993.

Variation: "Pumpkin-free pumpkin bars", aka Apple Apricot Cake
Replace pumpkin and vegetable oil with 5 apples, peeled, cored, diced and pureed in a blender with 1/2 cup melted butter and 1/2 cup oil. Replace raisins with 1.5 cups chopped dried apricots (I nuked them in the microwave oven with a little water to plump and soften them.) Reserve a few dried apricots and slice them into thin slivers to decorate top of cake. Replace cloves with allspice because there's no ground cloves in the house.

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