Pumpkin Gooey Butter Bars

November is flying by and, sadly for the turkeys and leaf garlands, Thanksgiving is getting passed up.  While I may be guilty of already decorating for Christmas (my tree is lit and sparkling at this very moment!) I definitely haven't forgotten about the Thanksgiving desserts.  I love pumpkin and these pumpkin gooey butter bars are a great new addition to the recipe book.  With just a couple little tweaks to Paula Deen's recipe, don't worry I didn't take out any of the butter, I had a pan of easy to share and even easier to eat pumpkin pie-esque bars of goodness.  Thanks to the richness of the stick, or two, of butter and the warm spice of pumpkin, these bars flew out of the pan before I could blink and the recipe requests are streaming in at about the same pace.  Though there are doubters, I promise this was an easy bake that ended with more butter wrappers to trash than dishes to wash.  An extra bonus of this tasty treat is the wonderful holiday smell of it baking in the oven, and it was even better than the smell of my candles because I got to eat it...lots of it!  So, if you're like me and are already counting down to Christmas, take a moment and save some room in your stomach for these festive fall pumpkin gooey butter bars.

Ingredients
1 box               Yellow Cake mix
1                     egg
1/2 cup            butter
15 oz               Libby's Pumpkin Pie Filling
8 oz                cream cheese, softened
3                    eggs
1 tbsp             vanilla
1/2 cup           butter
2 cups            powdered sugar
Plus extra powdered sugar for decoration.

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Spray 13x9in baking pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper.
3.  Melt 1/2 cup butter.
4.  Mix yellow cake mix, 1 egg, and melted butter until consistency similar to cookie dough.

5.  Press mixture into baking pan, evenly covering bottom of pan.

6.  Melt 1/2 cup butter.
7.  Mix pumpkin pie filling and softened cream cheese until smooth.
8.  Mix in 3 eggs and vanilla.
9.  Mix in melted butter.
10.  Mix in powdered sugar.
11.  Pour pumpkin batter evenly over dough in pan.

12.  Bake for 50-55 minutes, making sure not to overcook so it stays gooey!
13.  Let cool, just a little, and enjoy :)

Pumpkin, gooey, and butter...three great words and one fabulous Thanksgiving dessert!  Happy early Turkey Day and happy baking :)