I am not a pumpkin spice person. Often, I find pumpkin spice branded food to be too sweet and generally lacking in flavor. But fall is pumpkin spice season, especially in New England, so I often make pumpkin desserts for events or get-togethers. This weekend, I found myself with a Halloween potluck to go to and an open can of pumpkin in the fridge and decided to whip up this sheet cake. The recipe is one of my mom’s. Growing up we always called them pumpkin bars, though labeling them bars was a misnomer. This is cake, with a delicate and moist crumb and a swirl of cream cheese icing on top.
I updated my mom’s original recipe in an effort to ratchet up the “spice” element of pumpkin spice. Pumpkin has a very mild flavor, which I think is why so many pumpkin spice recipes seem to fall flat -- too much sugar without enough spice leads to cloying blandness. To combat that problem, I increased the amount and variety of spices in the batter and substituted some of the oil for brown butter. The spice blend gives the batter warmth and dimension, while the brown butter adds caramel undertones to recipe and makes the pumpkin flavor seem more pronounced. Browning the butter is a finicky additional step, but worth the effort. I wouldn’t skip it, but I also wouldn’t completely replace the oil with butter, as I suspect the decrease in moisture will have a negative effect on the crumb structure.
I usually bake the cake in a rimmed cookie sheet which results in a giant cake about 1 to 1.5 inches tall. The cookie sheet version is great for a crowd (especially since the cake can be made a day or two ahead without drying out in the fridge) but I don’t see why the recipe wouldn’t also work in 2 8-inch cake pans or as cupcakes. You’ll just need to watch the cook time -- I’d set the timer for 20 minutes and then keep checking it every 3 or 4 minutes after that.