Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

We had our camping club potluck last weekend.  I had already committed to bringing a turkey and crock-pot dressing, but I decided that I needed to take a dessert.  A new dessert!  I had come across this recipe recently and it sounded really good.  One of my favorite cheesecake recipes calls for sweetened condensed milk and no sour cream.  This recipe incorporated the same ingredients.  The crust is primarily made up of a cake mix.  The original recipe called for a pound cake mix - but do you think we could find one at our local grocery?  No.  So I made it using a yellow cake mix and it turned out great.  These bars went over very well and real quite tasty.  I would recommend them as a great addition to any Thanksgiving dinner (or anytime)!


Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars (from Taste of Home)


Ingredients
1 (16 oz) pkg pound cake mix (or use a yellow cake mix like I did)
3 large eggs, DIVIDED
2 Tbsp butter, melted
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice, DIVIDED
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin (about 2 cups)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts


Directions
1) Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine cake mix, 1 egg, butter and 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice in large bowl until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Press into bottom of 15 X 10-inch jellyroll pan.
2) Beat cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy.  Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk; beat in remaining 2 eggs, pumpkin, remaining 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice and salt; mix well.  Pour over crust; sprinkle with nuts.
3) Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until set.  Cool.  Chill.  Cut into bars.
Yield: the recipe said 48 bars, I cut mine into 24 bars

The crust is pressed into the bottom of the jellyroll pan.

Ready to go int the oven.

Just out of the oven.

Plated and ready to eat!!!

Banana Nut Cake

I had three very ripe bananas sitting on my counter that were calling me to use them in something...anything! I've been making lots of banana bread this last year so I decided it would be a banana cake this time. I wanted to put it together quickly so I turned to one of my cookbooks that starts with a cake mix. I love these recipes! They come together quickly and I've yet to be disappointed in one. I would have loved to use black walnuts in it as the recipe calls out, but my hubby is not fond of black walnuts - so I went with the English variety. My other change was that I did not make the frosting that was recommended. I was trying to get this together quickly and I had some frosting in my freezer that was leftover from a baking frenzy several months back. It was a brown sugar frosting. I thawed it out, warmed it up and spread it on the warm cake. It was delicious.

Banana Nut Cake

(from Quick Fixes with Mixes)

1 (18.25 oz) yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
3 tbsp sugar (I did not use)
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 ½ medium bananas)
1 cup chopped black walnuts (I used English walnuts)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, oil, milk and sugar. Beat on low speed to blend, and then beat on medium for 2 minutes. Add bananas and beat for 1 more minute on medium. Stir in walnuts. Pour batter into greased and floured 9 X 13 baking pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean. Let cake cool until just warm to touch, and spoon Dark Caramel Glaze over.

Dark Caramel Glaze

1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup half-and-half
¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla

In medium saucepan, melt brown sugar, half-and-half, and butter over medium heat and bring to a boil. Boil for 6 minutes, stirring constantly until mixture is thickened. Remove from heat; beat in vanilla. Spoon over warm cake as evenly as possible. To ensure adequate coverage, poke holes in top of cake with a toothpick or bamboo skewer before spooning glaze over.

The glaze will have the consistency of thick syrup.