Pumpkin cake bars. They sound so sweet, don’t they? For me, just the name brings to mind visions of holiday family gatherings peppered with sinful desserts full of sugar, refined grains, and unhealthy fats. Not only is it hard to stay away (so hard that I’m rarely ever successful), but it’s even harder to not pack on the pounds. But you know me, I wouldn’t bring you a recipe like that! These Pumpkin Cake Bars are not only devoid of refined foods, they’re actually grain-free and dairy-free, too.
They’re the perfect alternative to sickly holiday desserts, and you won’t even feel like you’re depriving yourself.
This recipe for Pumpkin Cake Bars was shared by Megan Keatley of Health-Bent. Meagan used to be a pastry chef. These days she’s an avid CrossFitter and healthy, Real Food rebel. She’s also a web designer. Just take a look at her site’s logo, and you’ll already see that we have a lot in common:
Did you miss it? Here’s a hint:
Now to the recipe for delectable Pumpkin Cake Bars!
Pumpkin Cake Bars with Cinnamon Icing
Yield: 9 bars
The Players
For the Pumpkin Cake
1 c pumpkin puree
1 c almond butter (where to find nut butters from properly soaked nuts)
1/2 c raw honey (where to find raw honey)
2 eggs (from pastured hens!)
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t vanilla extract
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves
Click here to find bulk, organic spices online.
For the Cinnamon Icing
1/4 c coconut butter (where to find coconut butter)
1/4 c coconut oil (where to find coconut oil)
1/4 c raw honey (where to find raw honey)
1 t cinnamon
The How-To
For the Pumpkin Cake
Preheat your oven to 350F.
In a medium sized bowl, combine all the cake ingredients and mix thoroughly to combine. Pour into an 8×8 oven safe baking dish (I suspect you could squeeze 12 cupcakes out of this recipe if you use a muffin tin). Bake until completely cooked through, about 30 minutes.
For the Cinnamon Icing
In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and use either your mixing blade attachment or a whisk to beat the ingredients until fluffy.
Once the pumpkin cake has cooled, cut it into 9 squares and remove from the pan. Now…if the cake isn’t completely, 100%, no doubt in your mind, cool you are not allowed to proceed. I’m telling you, if your cake isn’t cool, the icing will just slide right off into a pile of goopiness and all will be wasted. If you haven’t experienced what disastrous-ness comes from not heeded the above warning, you only need try it one time to learn.
Use a small offset spatula or a spoon and drizzle the frosting over the top.
Store the Pumpkin Cake Bars you haven’t immediately annihilated in the fridge. The icing will harden in the fridge, let it come to room temp if you’d like it soft. If you’d like it softer, faster (for the impatient types, like myself) the frosting will melt beautifully if you stick the cake bar in the microwave for 30-45 seconds. Goes great with your morning coffee or tea!
I have just found out I have a sensitivity to dairy but eggs are OK. Finding a recipie that doesnt require milk or butter has been so hard. You have answered my prayer!! Thank you!!!!
This sounds really good. What is coconut butter? I’m not familiar with that ingredient – I use coconut oil, flakes, milk, etc., religiously in my diets, but never coconut butter. Or, maybe I’m just familiar with it under a different name.
I’m going to have to give these a try soon. I’m currently working on some real food pumpkin recipes myself. Tis the season for goodies … just need to make sure they’re REAL goodies!!!
Coconut butter is like peanut butter, but for coconuts. Imagine finely blending coconut meat & cream together. That’s what you get. Click on this link to see some.
I like to make my own coconut butter. Process dried coconut (unsweetened, of course) in a food processor for 15 – 30 minutes. I like to give my food processor a break after about 10 minutes so it doesn’t get too hot. If it’s not getting creamy after 20 mintues, add a dab of coconut oil. More work than just buying a jar, but since my natural food store sells dried coconut for $2.19/pound, I figure the savings make it worth the effort involved.
Great tip, Laura. You must have a workhorse of a food processor! When I first read that “15-30 minutes,” I thought it was a slip and that you really meant seconds. But then you typed it again! You really mean MINUTES. I’d be afraid I’d wear out my food processor’s motor running it like that. I wonder if there’s a way to do it in my kitchen aide? That motor’s built like a rock.
So yum!! These look delicious.
My son has a tree nut allergy – any suggestions for replacing the almond butter?
Also, what is coconut butter? I use coconut oil regularly. But I’ve not yet heard of coconut butter.
Thank you for posting this recipe. I might make it my daughter’s 1 yr birthday cake later this month.
Debbie,
I’ll ask Megan to comment on any alternatives to almond butter. As for coconut butter, check my reply Jessica above.
I had the same question!
My sons have nut allergies, too. I was thinking maybe Sunbutter? (sunflower seed butter)
That seems like a good shot. Since we’re using pumpkins, I also thought of making a butter from the roasted pumpkin seeds.
Oh, my gosh…that sounds super yummy! …if only I had the time…
These look amazing and I am excited that I have all these ingredients already on hand.
Oh yum! I’m going to have to try those, maybe with homemade pecanbutter to combine my favorite two pie flavors…
yum i wanna try these!
and, wow, Cara! pecan butter sounds like a great addition!
Oh my — these look amazing! I’m so excited for a nice holiday treat that I can actually eat!
These look AMAZING. My BFF recently found out she’s allergic to eggs – could you suggest an alternative? I’ve been using soaked flax seeds to create egg white substitute but I imagine this recipe needs a bit more structure than that.
Can I mention that these look amazing? Oh, right, I think you already knew that
If I don’t have coconut butter available to me what do you suggest? These look great and I’ve been wanting a fun gf holiday recipe lately. Thanks!
I wonder if Tropical Traditions Coconut Cream would work instead of the coconut butter. Has anyone used both and can compare?
Very, very nice! I especially like the icing since we keep bees.
I’ve used sunbutter in place of almond butter in recipes for my support group because we have a member who is allergic to almonds. It works really well. 
Shirley
Hi Kristen! Just became #1,400 to like your Facebook page 8-D! Love your blog so far…very inspiring! I never had anything with pumpkin except an occasional slice of pie every Thanksgiving. This recipe sounds so yummy, thanks for posting! I look forward to reading more!
I’ve made coconut butter and yes it does take about 20 mins, keep scraping coconut down. It starts to melt after a while. It does go hard in the jar though unless it is warm where you are?
Delicious looking recipe. I don’t eat grains and I am out of ‘baking’ to have with my cup of tea.
I have as whole pumpkin just waiting to be made into something luscious like this! Can’t wait to try it, but not sure I can get coconut butter around here. Might try a substitute and report my results.
So far a couple of comments have already shared about how they MAKE coconut butter from unsweetened dry coconut in their food processors. I’d try that first.
Getting unsweetened dry cocnut might be just as challenging! The health food store used to have it, but she stopped carrying it. I’ll be in the “big city” tomorrow and if I can remember will look for the coconut butter.
I had to look twice – I couldn’t believe there wasn’t any flour! These look delicious, and I love the promise of something sweet that won’t make me feel like sleeping for hours only minutes after eating it.
These look great and I am excited to see that they are not only grain free – but also have some volume! I am definitely going to be giving these a shot – I made some pumpkin blondies recently using coconut PB and they were DELICIOUS. So these are my next pumpkin indulgence!
Do you think I could use cashew butter? This will be my first venture into grain-free baking this season and already have a snag with daughters problems with almonds….
Jennifer — I’ve substituted cashew butter for almond butter quite well in the past. I think it would work here.
I have this in the oven right now using my homemade pumpkin butter and a bread loaf pan.
Please let me know how it turns out with the homemade pumpkin butter.
It turned out delicious. The butter was about the consistency of pumpkin from a can, just with more flavor. I used concentrated apple cider to make it. I don’t the loaf pan was a great idea. It had to bake much longer to be done all the way thru and it got to dark on the bottom and top. I’d make it again in the cake pan. I also didn’t make the icing, but rather put butter or more pumpkin butter on the slices.
Too bad about the loaf pan! And the icing (I love cinnamon and coconut). Next time I make this, I’m going to spread my Pumpkin Spice Yogurt Cream Cheese on the bars instead of the icing.
Mine are cooling right now, can’t wait. Do you melt the coconut oil/butter for the frosting? Mine are really hard right now since its so chilly, don’t want to wreck the mixer!
Not melted, but soft enough for a whisk to pass through them.
thanks Kristen! Glad I didn’t ruin it!
Oh man, these are so good….so moist! I am going to make them for thanksgiving!
do not melt the coconut oil–i have made that mistake in baking a time or two. both ingredients should be a similar consistency to softened butter.
These just came out of the oven about 15minutes ago and half the batch is already gone! I made them into 24 mini muffins, the perfect size for my toddlers. They were so, so delicious! I LOVE that they are grain-free too. I skipped the frosting to make them more muffin-like and less cake-like, but they were still super yummy.
This was my first time making a recipe from your blog, but I’ll be coming back for sure! Thank you!
Wow! I just saw this from HEAB!!! I love your site! And those bars look super yummy! They remind me of my grain-free pumpkin spice bread!
Wow! how yummy the pumpin cake bars look and healthier too. Thanks for another great recipe!!
I’m going to get the stuff to make this sometime soon! I featured this post in my Weekly Recipe Wrap Up — I can’t wait for my grain and dairy-free friends to give it a try!
I don’t usually blog on a Sunday morning, but I made these last night and have to tell you how they turned out.
Here are some of the comments:
“This has the best texture for a gluten free baked good that I’ve ever eaten.”
“Are you sure there isn’t any flour in here? It’s just like cake.”
Now, I did modify the recipe some. None of use are dairy free, and I *love* dairy, so I used some. Also, I haven’t made my own pumpkin puree in awhile, so I had to use canned. A can of pumpkin is 15 oz. and a jar of almond butter was 16 oz., so I doubled the recipe and used a 9×13 cake pan. I also used a cup of maple syrup instead of honey. This increased the bake time to about 40 minutes.
For the frosting, I used a 1/2 cup of softened butter, 1/2 cup of softened cream cheese, 1/3-1/2 cup honey (I was eyeballing it at this point), 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.
The deliciousness is amazing. In fact, I may have a piece for breakfast right now. Thank you so much for a wonderful recipe that my gluten-free friends can enjoy as much as I do!
Monica, your modifications sound delicious. I thought about topping these with my Pumpkin Spice Yogurt Cream Cheese. It’d be along the same lines as your cream cheese topping, but with an enzyme-rich cultured food!
This recipe is the sh*t. I swapped honey for maple syrup as well and cut the amount in half. SO INSANELY GOOD, especially fresh out of the oven!!
These are amazing! I doubled the recipe and used a 9.5 x 14″ pan and they turned out great. Brought them to the gym to share following the WOD and everyone loved them!! Thanks so much for all your yummy recipes
OK, my frosting is NOT white, like your picture! The cinnamon has tinted it. Not that color matters, but it’s not whipping up into a frosting yet. I’ll give it some more time, but then I’ve GOT to try one!
Monica-I’m going to try your version too!
You may be over-beating the frosting. Coconut butter & oil will get creamy, but not as fluffy as a normal icing. They’re also very heat-sensitive (heat them too much and they’ll turn to liquid). So, I’d try cooling everything *really* well (but not so cold that it turns solid again), then gently beating it until everything’s well mixed.
I warmed the oil enough to liquefy so I could measure-our house doesn’t get more than 65 this time of year. I realized while mixing that it probably shouldn’t be this warm, so I tried cooling it, but it never really mixed together. I’m using it as an additive to my morning smoothie instead of on the pumpkin bars!
These are in the oven right now. I substituted Sunbutter for the almond butter and doubled the recipe. I also used raw, unprocessed honey, which I had to soften. I keep reading the comments and I’m salivating while they bake. I don’t know if I can wait until they cool…
Baked these as muffins this morning. Absolutely amazing! My new favorite thing for sure!
I just made them and they are sooooo good! My non-paleo friends loved them too!
Your icing recipe sounds like it’s delicious but healthy at the same time! And the picture looks delectable! I want a pumpkin cake bar now!!
I have been wanting to make these forever. I have not been able to find coconut butter but today I found a jar of Nutiva Coconut Manna at Whole Foods. Does anyone know if coconut manna can be substituted for the coconut butter for the icing? It says on the label that it is the ‘ideal everything cream that can replace butter.’ Looking forward to any suggestions, thank you!
Just made these for my son’s 2nd birthday.
Great recipe. I can see using it as a base and adding raisins, grated zucchini and chopped walnuts to make a hearty cake bar.
I topped them with the cream cheese icing recipe on health bent and it was SO GOOD!
These were wonderful!
Do you think peanut butter would work instead? I don’t have any of those other kinds of nut or seed butters. I’d like to give it a try but I really don’t want to waste all those ingredients if it’s likely to be gross!
I just made it with peanut butter (all-natural, no added sugars) from Trader Joe’s and subbed sucanat for honey because I didn’t have enough honey and it turned out good. The peanut butter has a stronger taste but the combo is still tasty and the cake has an awesome texture!
Do you think the overall product would change significantly if I substituted agave for the honey? alternatively, I have plenty of regular honey, but I’m not sure how that differs…any help would be much appreciated. Can’t wait to try this!
These look great.
I made your pumpkin custard yesterday and thought it was delicious. My kids are going to take a little more time to come around but eventually, when there’s nothing junky in the house they’ll love it.
I follow the SCD – do you think these would turn out if I omitted the baking podwer which is not allowed on the SCD?
Loved these! Thank you so much for the recipe. I am trying to create/brainstorm other recipes to put that frosting on – yum – since it’s probably not so good to eat it by the spoonful. Wondering if anyone has substituted the pumpkin for apple, banana, or some other fruit or veggie and if so, how that worked out.
Your pages are THE most interesting, informative and just-plain-fun pages I have ever encountered. Thank you for all the work you put into making them so. I am allergic to gluten, dairy, lactose and soy, and I always find something here to try. Thanks so much!
JMS
Holy calories Batman!
These are amazing, but definitely not a low calorie food. I made them thinking they would be healthier because of the ingredients and then looked at the calories for everything and couldn’t believe it. I guess it’s better than a cake with refined sugars and other bad stuff in it, and they are quite delicious, but oy!
pumpkin puree- 80 calories per cup
honey- 515 calories per 1/2 cup!
almond butter- roughly 1600 calories in a cup!
2 large eggs- about 147 calories
That’s 260 calories per serving (1/9 servings), adding up the carbs in each of those and dividing by 9 I got about 23.
Dear Ashley…
If you are counting calories you must not be familiar with the way of life into which you stumbled to find this recipe.
Nobody here does that. We eat real food. We are healthier because of it. I don’t care if Sugar-free Jello only has 10 calories! That isn’t food! And it sure isn’t going to help anybody out in the long run!
Please, go read this site some more.
I made these minus the icing. I could of easily ate the entire pan! I would love to share your site. We have a large community all doing g well eating paleo. Keep up good work!
these bars sound delish & i want to try them out…however, i am not a fan of honey at all. any suitable substitutions since it’s called for in the bar & also the frosting? or is the honey not really tasted in either the bar or frosting? thanks!
I sprinkled frozen whole cranberries on top before baking.
is there any way to sub the honey for applesauce maybe? i don’t use any sweetners except for stevia.
These look and sound SOOOO yummy! Will have to find a substitute for the almond butter but should be easy enough. Must make these soon!!!! Thanks for sharing this!!!
I’ve heard good things from people substituting sunbutter for almond butter.
This is so delicious and truly is better than traditional pumpkin bread!
It was my first time baking sans any type of flour whatsoever. The almond butter (homemade in Vitamix a few min before) gave it a very creamy texture. I was impressed how much the cake rose and how fluffy it was.
Going to make this again during the holidays for the fam! And I can’t wait to try it with a pecan butter!
OMG! this cake is so ONO! I made it with almond flour because i dont have almond butter. It turned out really yummy and moist. I made one with raw honey and one with maple syrup. the one with honey is more tasty. Thnk you for sharing this recipe with us.
I made this for dinner tonight. I did not at all know what to expect because there was no flour of any kind in it. I just didn’t understand how it was going to turn out and look so cakeish like your photo. Well it was so good! It is kind of a mix between a pumpkin pie and a souffle type of thing. Thanks! Didn’t make the frosting cuz I don’t have coco butter but it didn’t need it.
These are awesome!!! Thank you!!
These were DELICIOUS! I just started paleo and was in need of something sweet, and these totally filled the spot! I added more spices, about double what was in the recipe, and didn’t put on any frosting because I don’t have the coconut oil or coconut butter and they are still FABULOUS!
Thanks SOOO much for posting! I plan to make these at Thanksgiving for my non-Paleo visiting adult children. I’m not going to tell them they are flourless, and see what they think!
Pumpkin puree? Do I just need to boil some pumpkin and whizz it into a puree? Like baby food? I don’t understand!
Well- yeah these were out of this world!!! What a great recipe combination!!! We are on the GAPS diet and this was SUCH a treat. I tested them out sunday to make sure they would make the thanksgiving menu- and they SURE do! To make it GAPS friendly I omitted baking powder, and did 1 tsp baking soda(some people disagree as to whether this is GAPS friendly…we fall on the side that it is!) ALSO- this was an extra unneccesary step- but I had two egg whites in the fridge that I didn’t want to go bad, so I whipped those up very fluffy, and added those to the icing! It was nice and tall on the bars ( I could have piped it out) and held its shape for a couple of days! Shared them with non-traditional food neighbors and they were AMAZED at how good they tasted! Thanks!
Yum! This pumpkin cake is amazing. I just made this last night. I used hazelnut butter instead of almond (because of an allergy to almonds) for the cake and it was perfect. It’s a soft moist cake with a great flavor. For the icing, due to a coconut allergy, I used with the exact same proportions in the original recipe: cashew butter, grass-fed butter, honey, and cinnamon. This also came out great and perfectly balanced the flavors in the cake.
Thanks
The cake was great, but the icing was just not happening. It tasted lovely, but the coconut butter and the coconut oil were not blending. I made my coconut butter in the food processor which came out with an excellent creamy consistency, but trying to combine the two was not happening. I used the paddle attachment and whisk on my mixer, tried room temp, slightly warm, and chilled…everything that I could think of. I am experienced in making my own icings with actual butter, so I am familiar with the consistency and icing making process. Also the honey and cinnamon darkens the icing to be brown like the cake. I am not sure how that photo got that white icing out of this recipe. Maybe I just went wrong somewhere. Does anyone have a good suggestion for keeping the cake from sticking to the pan without using butter? I have no objections to butter, but for this recipe I really wanted to try not using any dairy at all.
Hi Erin,
)
I make mine in paper lined cupcakes and they come out perfectly. The recipe makes a full dozen cakes, I just decrease the baking time to about 22-25 minutes. I haven’t made the icing before because I couldn’t find coconut butter, and really these cakes are devoured so fast I really don’t think we need any
Rae
I love the idea and all the ingredients but I can’t get over the amount of sugar in them from the honey. Do you think I could make them with stevia and if so any ideas how to do a swap out?
I cut the total sweetener in the cake bars down to 2 1/3 tbsp, didn’t make the icing, and they still tasted delicious! Not super sweet but just enough to bring out the pumpkin and spices – definitely still passed for a dessert. I used 1 tbsp sucanat and 4 tsp honey.
Since you are pointing out the most beneficial ingredients, maybe you should also mention to use Ceylon cinnamon, not the common Cassia cinnamon!