Lightened Up Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Bars

These Lightened Up Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Bars are an easy Fall dessert idea that tastes amazing! They’re full of pumpkin flavor and Autumn spices, but light on the calories so you can enjoy them guilt free!

Yes, you are in the right place.

I made something “light”.

Not to be confused with “diet”.

Because honestly your definition of diet is probably WAY different than my definition of diet.

I’m not going to get into semantics today…but this recipe starts with an Angel Food Cake Mix.  And for anyone who has ever eaten Angel Food Cake, it’s basically like eating sugar air.

And sugar air is on my list of diet foods.

Sooooo…

And I went ahead and used 1/3 less fat cream cheese.  Because really, why not?

And beyond making you skinny, these bars are totally delicious.

They start with a cake mix…so they’re simple too.

You guys totally want to marry me right now, don’t you?

How to Make These Lightened Up Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Bars

Start with your cream cheese…if you are opposed to lower fat cream cheese, please, by all means use regular.

Mix that with a little powdered sugar and a tablespoon of water and it will look kind of like this…

Then get your other stuff out.

Here’s the thing with a lot of my cake mix recipes…I try and be clear on this, but unless I specify “make according to package directions”, I just want you to use the DRY MIX.

That’s what is happening here.  Just the dry mix, guys.

Mix all that stuff together (oh yeah and some cinnamon…I forgot to take a picture of that).

Spread it into a 9×13 pan sprayed with nonstick spray…

Then get your cream cheese mixture ready.  Drizzle that all over the top of the batter and swirly-whirl it around.

Bake it up and let it cool.

Then eat.

And eat more, because the thing about diet food is you can eat twice as much.

I mean, right?

Lightened Up Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Bars

• Author: Cookies & Cups
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 24 Squares 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: American

★★★★★ 5 from 3 reviews

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Description:

These Lightened Up Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Bars are an easy Fall dessert idea that tastes amazing! They’re full of pumpkin flavor and Autumn spices, but light on the calories so you can enjoy them guilt free!

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Ingredients:

• 1 (8 oz) block 1/3 less fat cream cheese
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp water
• 1 (16 oz) package Angel Food Cake Mix
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

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Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°
2. Spray a 9×13 pan with nonstick spray
3. In your stand mixer combine cream cheese, powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp water mixing on medium high for 1-2 minutes until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl combine box of dry cake mix, pumpkin, 3/4 cup water, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Stir until smooth and combined.
5. Spread pumpkin mixture into your prepared pan.
6. Drizzle your cream cheese on top of the pumpkin mixture and swirl it in with a butter knife.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes until center is set and toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool completely and cut into squares.

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Notes:

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Refrigerate if desired.
recipe adapted from tj’s test kitchen

1 Bar17218.4 g258.6 mg2.9 g33.2 g4.7 g0.3 mg

Keywords:: pumpkin desserts, pumpkin blondies, pumpkin bars, pumpkin brownies, pumpkin cake, fall dessert idea, thanksgiving dessert