Easy Vegan Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
These pumpkin bars are the perfect ode to fall. Full of pumpkin spice, a touch of maple syrup, and topped with a vegan cream cheese frosting, these secretly vegan pumpkin bars are fluffy, soft, moist, and a delight to enjoy!
Why you should try these pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting
Whether or not you’re vegan (or gluten free!), you will fall in love with these easy vegan pumpkin bars. Topped with a creamy dairy free cream cheese frosting, there is truly no match for these autumn-inspired cake bars.
Here’s the deets: we have an ultra fluffy, moist, and flavorful pumpkin cake-like base. It’s full of flavor and wonderfully balanced with a touch of maple syrup and sweetness to round out the flavor profile (and make them different from my pumpkin cupcakes and pumpkin cake!). Next, we have a from-scratch vegan cream cheese frosting that could quite honestly be eaten with a spoon.
Both kids and adults love this recipe, and it’s easy to eat a whole slice in a sitting. You’ll definitely want to share.
These easy vegan pumpkin bars are perfect for Thanksgiving dessert, Halloween (decorate them with fun vegan Halloween sprinkles!). And they go great with a homemade pumpkin spice latte 😉
What’s the difference between pumpkin bars and pumpkin cake?
If you’ve been a Banana Diaries reader for a while, then you’re probably familiar with this vegan pumpkin cake. It’s absolutely delicious and the fall cake to make this season.
However, pumpkin cake is definitely different from pumpkin bars…which are still different from a brownie or even sheet cake!
These vegan pumpkin bars are like an in-between of a sheet cake and a brownie. Not super fudgy and dense, but also not quite so tender that it will easily crumb, like cake. They’re super fluffy and light while also being packed with flavor. I think it’s most similar to a snack cake!
All in all, these pumpkin spice bars are just delicious!
Ingredients & Substitutions
Here are the few and simply ingredients you need to make this super easy vegan pumpkin bar recipe:
- Flour: you can use gluten free 1:1 baking flour or regular all purpose flour here.
- Sugar & light brown sugar: The light brown sugar helps to add a bit of extra moisture and a deeper rich flavors to our pumpkin bars.
- Pumpkin spice: This is typically a blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. However, sometimes, I mix in some cardamom as well! You can make this homemade if you’d like or purchase in stores.
- Cinnamon: for extra warming spices 🙂
- Pumpkin puree: you can’t have pumpkin bars without pumpkin puree! I haven’t tested this recipe using homemade pumpkin puree, so I can’t speak to the results.
- Vegan butter: I recommend Flora Plant Butter or Miyoko’s here for the best result!
- Vegan buttermilk: I combined dairy free milk with a little apple cider vinegar to yield a dairy free buttermilk that acts just like traditional. It’s super easy! I recommend Forager Project Oat Milk or oat milk in general, as it tends to be creamier and yields a fluffier cake.
- Vegan cream cheese frosting: this is a combination of vegan cream cheese (recommendations in the recipe card below!), vegan butter, and powdered sugar!
Overview: How to make one bowl vegan pumpkin bars
For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.
Let’s go over just how quick and simple these pumpkin bars are to make!
These pumpkin bars are:
- Full of pumpkin spice and tastes like fall in a bite!
- Light and fluffy, yet tender and moist
- Perfectly sweet with a slight tang (thanks to the cream cheese frosting!)
- Undetectably vegan, eggless, dairy free, and gluten free (perfectly vegetarian friendly as well!)
- Great for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any fall celebration!
- Approved by picky eaters and non-vegans
More Vegan Pumpkin Recipes You’ll Love:
Amazing Vegan Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Nut-Free Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake
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Easy Vegan Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 27
- Total Time: 37 minutes
- Yield: 9 1x
- Category: Bars
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These pumpkin bars are the perfect ode to fall. Full of pumpkin spice, a touch of maple syrup, and topped with a vegan cream cheese frosting, these secretly vegan pumpkin bars are fluffy, soft, moist, and a delight to enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) vegan buttermilk
- 2 cups (250 g) all purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour*
- 1 tbsp pumpkin spice
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 can (425 g) pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (110 g) light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (57 g) vegan butter or coconut oil, melted
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 batch vegan cream cheese frosting
Instructions
- Please read through all instructions before beginning.
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper, and grease the edges. Measure out all ingredients for the pumpkin bars specifically. For the buttermilk, follow the instructions to mix together the dairy free milk and apple cider vinegar, then set aside to curdle for 5-10 minutes.
- Make the batter: In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, sugar, brown sugar, melted vegan butter, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Add in the pumpkin spice, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt and whisk together. Then add in flour, along with the vegan buttermilk, and gently whisk the flour into the wet until there are just no more dry clumps (be careful not to over-mix the batter).
- Bake the pumpkin bars: Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and place the pumpkin bars pan into the oven to bake for 27-32 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven, and allow the bars to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then carefully transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely before making the cream cheese frosting.
- Make the vegan cream cheese frosting: Once the pumpkin bars are completely cool, you can begin to make the vegan cream cheese frosting. Start by creaming together the vegan cream cheese and vegan butter in a large bowl, using either a hand mixer or a stand mixer. Add in the powdered sugar in 1 cup increments, mixing as you go. Once the powdered sugar is fully incorporated, mix until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. You can use a tablespoon of dairy free milk if necessary to help incorporate the powdered sugar.
- Frost the pumpkin bars: Spoon the frosting onto the tops of the pumpkin bars. Spread it evenly until it reaches the edges of the bars. Slice and serve. If needed, you can allow the pumpkin bars to set in the fridge for 10 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!
- Storage: Store any leftover slices in an airtight container for up to 5 days in the fridge or up to 2 months in the freezer.
Notes
Gluten free flour: I recommend using King Arthur Measure for Measure baking flour here for the best results.
Vegan buttermilk: You can use soy milk, almond milk, or oat milk.
Vegan Cream Cheese: the brand of vegan cream cheese you purchase is super important. Not all brands are made equal and act differently in different recipes. For frosting, I prefer to use my homemade vegan cream cheese, Kite Hill, or Tofutti. I’ve had the most success with that brand in terms of taste and stability of frosting.
This recipe for vegan pumpkin bars sounds so good! However, I won’t be making it because you don’t use US measurements- cups instead of grams.
Please give US measurements when posting your recipes. Thanks!
Hi Teri- there’s actually a tab right about the ingredients- it says “US” and “M.” Tap the “US” and you’ll get the US cup measurements 🙂
To convert grams to US cups, see the King Arthur website. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart Most bakers use weight to measure which is most accurate in grams. If a recipe is in cups, I convert it to mean 1 US cup = 120g of flour. Water is 236g, milk is 227g. If you look on the back of the can of US products, they will also give you the amount of the product in grams vs volume. I hope this helps.
Thank you so much for the Metric units! Will be making it this weekend!!!
Sending love from Poland! ♥
Absolutely!! I hope you love them 🙂 Enjoy!! ♥
We don’t have pumpkin purée in a can in Australia can I boil pumpkin and mash it
Hi Sally! Unfortunately, I haven’t tested this recipe out with homemade pumpkin puree (typically works a bit differently than canned for some reason). However, this particular method for making homemade pumpkin puree seems to work well in recipes overall: https://www.inspiredtaste.net/35527/easy-pumpkin-puree-recipe/ I’d recommend going with this method rather than mashing, as then there will be a more consistent texture!I hope this helps!
Absolutely delicious! We used homemade pumpkin puree (microwaved the pumpkin) and it turned out spectacular 🙂
This is so wonderful!! So glad to hear this!! Enjoy!
I wonder if these could be made as cupcakes/muffins? And would this just be a simple adjustment to the baking time? I’d love to make these. It looks delicious!
Hi Kristin! I haven’t tried these as cupcakes, but I’m sure it would work!! It would just be an adjustment to the baking time!! I’d keep an eye on it after 20 minutes and see how they’re doing!
Thank you for the quick response! I’m going to try these as cupcakes for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Will let you know how they turn out! 💕
Absolutely!! Cannot wait to hear the results!! Enjoy, and happy Thanksgiving 🙂
Just made them! Amazing!! This made a total of 16 cupcakes/muffins. 20 minutes was the perfect amount of time. The family will LOVE these tomorrow! 💕
Omgsh!! So happy to hear it!! ENJOY!!! Thank you for coming back with how they came out too, this will help other readers curious about trying this too!
I made these today and they were awesome! I live in the US and really appreciate the metric measurements! I use a kitchen scale to weigh the ingredients and this gives me more accurate measurements than standard measurements. Delicious!
So so happy to hear this!! Yes, I love my kitchen scale too for that very reason!! 🙂 Enjoy!
Delicious and I added maple extract to the frosting to make it extra ‘fall-ish’! My non-vegan grandparents LOVED it. I used less sugar because my grandpa has diabetes and it turned out nicely! I did have to bake them quite a big longer than recipe said (probably around 40 minutes) but still turned out moist!
Oh I’m so happy to hear it! Thanks so much for giving them a go 🙂
Is there any difference in texture if I use brown sugar or raw sugar instead of coconut sugar? Do any other ingredients need to be altered with this substitution? Thanks
Only very slight!! I would recommend the brown sugar over the raw sugar- it’ll give it a richer flavor 🙂 No other ingredients need to be altered! Enjoy!
I tried this recipe and I loved it! In my country we don’t really have a habit of using pumpkin for cakes and desserts, so this was a pleasant and tasty surprise for my family when they tried it! 😀 And I used homemade pumpkin puree!! (roasted in the oven and then mixed in the food processor)
I did cut back a little bit on the sugar in the bars themselves and in the frosting but it still turned out just fantastic! Loving your recipes!
Thank you!
Oh I’m so happy to hear it!! Thank you so much for this sweet review, and LOVE that you used homemade pumpkin puree 🙂 I’m currently making some now haha! Enjoy, and thank you for being here! 🙂
Hello,
Is it ok to just use vegan milk? Any effect?
Also, any effect of using less sugar? Tks
Yes to any dairy free vegan milk! And you can safely reduce the sugar by 1/4 of what the recipe calls for!
Can I swap both the brown sugar and granulated sugar for coconut sugar? Can’t wait to make this! Looks absolutely delicious.
Hi Gina! Yes you can 🙂 Enjoy!
made these and while very delicious and easy to make, they wouldn’t cook/dry app the way. they were in the oven for like an hour and still gummy like. I didn’t over mix, since I could still see some flour in it. my oven is fine, I checked that too. any advice? more flour?
Hi Suseth! Hmm it definitely should have baked fully, but if you could still see streaks of flour, it sounds like the flour wasn’t fully integrated- it could have been under-mixed! Additionally, did you change anything to the recipe? Did you use cups or a scale? And did you use Gf flour/if so, which brand? Let me see if I can help!
I used a scale to measure everything and I used regular flour. I only substituted regular vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar in the vegan buttermilk.
Hmm that wouldn’t have caused anything to go differently just by swapping out the vinegar, so I’m so sorry! The only other thing I can think of was that it was just a wonky can of pumpkin puree but I honestly haven’t had that happen and I’ve tested it a dozen times, so I’m so sorry!
figured out the issue! I didn’t let it cool all the way. I tried it again hours after I baked it and it tastes cooked now. thank you for replying! didn’t realize that would have such a huge effect
Could this recipe be made using the regular version of the vegan ingredients?
I haven’t personally tried this as I’m vegan, but if you want to swap in dairy products for the non-dairy, I know readers have done this with success!
I didn’t follow the prep step and didn’t realize that pumpkin spice was missing from the written instructions until I was just about to put it in the oven! I mixed it in at the end and turned out well. It’s delicious!
Perfect for rainy autumn days 🥰. The main recipe (the section towards the bottom) doesn’t mention when or where to put in the pumpkin slice! I noticed it wasn’t used after I baked the cake but before the frosting so I just mixed it into the frosting.
Personally, the frosting was perfectly sweet with even 1 whole cup less sugar than what the cream cheese frosting recipe called for.
pumpkin spice*
Oh I’m so happy you loved them!! And so sorry for the confusion on that, I accidentally edited that out when I was updating the recipe!! Just fixed it 🙂 So glad overall you loved them!! Thanks for the review!
Thank you for the wonderful vegan recipes!