Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Our family is obsessed with these decadent Pumpkin Bars that melt in your mouth! They are the perfect balance of pumpkin, spice and chocolate!   It seems we make these for every holiday from October through December not to mention every time we get the craving!  They are super easy with  very few ingredients and serve a crowd!  The perfect holiday party dessert! This month Mandi asked me to make them for the Halloween party she was planning for the family.  I barely pulled them out of the oven and she was ready to take pictures for she and her sisters blog  (www.gardinersisters.com) so I had to frost them while still warm.  She prefers them that way, though so the frosting melts a bit and the cake is still warm!  Yum!!!

  Mandi cracks me up in this picture as she was holding up a black sheet so the kitchen sink wouldn't show for the pictures Hailey was taking!

Here's the recipe:
2 cups sugar
1 can 16 oz pumpkin
2 cups Bisquick (who would have thought?)
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs
2 tsp cinnamon
1-2 cups chocolate chips (the more the merrier!)

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbsp  milk (or a little more if needed)
1 tsp vanilla

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine sugar, pumpkin, Bisquick, oil, eggs and cinnamon in mixing bowl.

Mix together and add chocolate chips...

Pour into greased jelly-roll pan

Bake for 25-30 minutes.  (Don't over bake- you want the cake to

"spring back" when you touch it!)
In the meantime prepare the cream cheese frosting by combining the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk

Refrain from eating the bowl of frosting while the pumpkin bars are baking!!!
Remove from oven and let cool (unless you are like Mandi and like them warm and the frosting "gooey")

Cut into bars and serve!

Mandi did a beautiful job with the Halloween spread!  It was delicious!