Fill your house with the lovely aromas of autumn with this Pumpkin Frosted Bread. It is soft, moist, and delicious!
To be completely honest, I didn’t grow up eating pumpkin everything in the fall. But after tasting a Frosted Pumpkin Bread, everything changed.
Now, I can’t wait for the fall season to start making creamy pumpkin flan or pumpkin soup.
My version of pumpkin bread is delicious. It is tender in the middle with a nice crust all around. The bread itself has a mix of warm spices and is not overly sweet, which complements the sweet cream cheese frosting.
In the morning, I like to serve this bread with a fruit salad, coffee, or cold orange juice. As a dessert, I typically serve it with a scoop of my coconut sorbet recipe or vanilla ice cream topped with caramel.
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Why This Recipe Works
- It can be made year-round with any canned pumpkin puree.
- You can have it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!
Pumpkin Bread Ingredients
- All-purpose flour- I used 2 cups of all-purpose flour for this recipe. The all-purpose flour helps the bread to form a good crumb.
- Spices- I used a combination of cinnamon, ginger, and allspice. If you prefer, you can use pumpkin spice instead or add ground nutmeg or ground cloves individually.
- Eggs, baking soda, and baking powder – These are used as leavening agents.
- Pumpkin- I used 1 cup of Lybbi’s canned pumpkin puree. I like this brand because it always has the same consistency.
- Oil- I used vegetable oil. I like using a neutral flavor oil.
- Sugar- In this recipe, I used white sugar, but you can substitute it with brown sugar. I only use 1 ½ cups of sugar because I don’t like the cake to be too sweet.
- Vanilla- I used vanilla extract, which goes very well with the spices in this cake loaf. A good substitute for vanilla can be almond extract.
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
- Cream cheese- I used 4 ounces of Philadelphia brand cream cheese. Try using quality cream cheese for a better taste. Remember to use cream cheese at room temperature. You can leave it at room temperature or microwave it for 10 seconds at a time until soft.
- Butter- I used 4 tablespoons of room-temperature unsalted butter.
- Vanilla & cinnamon- I added these 2 for flavor. You can use other spices like nutmeg or allspice to give your frosting flavor.
- Powdered sugar- I used 1 ½ cups.
- If you are looking for a different frosting, you can try the almond buttercream frosting, or if you want something more simple, add a dollop of tropical guava butter.
How To Make a Frosted Pumpkin Bread
- Photo 1: Mix the flour, spices, baking soda and powder.
- Photo 2: Mix your wet ingredients plus the sugar.
- Photo 3: Now you want to add your dry ingredients to the wet mix. In reality, it doesn’t matter if you pour wet-to-dry ingredients or dry-to-wet is just my preference. Make sure to mix all the ingredients well but try not to overmix.
- Photo 4: Line your mold with parchment paper. You can also butter and flour your mold instead.
- Photo 5: Pour the batter in and bake at 350°F for 1 hour. Insert a toothpick through the middle of the loaf to check for readiness. Once ready, let the bread cool. If you want to prevent the top of the loaf from browning too much, you can loosely cover the top with foil. Do this only in the last half of the cooking.
- Photo 6: Beat the cream cheese and butter until soft.
- Photo 7: Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Beat until it looks creamy and smooth.
- Photo 8: Frost the cake and serve. You can top it with nuts like walnuts or pecans.
Recipe Tips
- You can make 2 small loaves of this recipe by using smaller loaf pans. You can use 2 8×4 pans to do this.
- keep for up to 5 days in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer.
Frequently Asked Questions
In reality, you can use either fresh or canned pumpkin. Sometimes canned pumpkin is needed because you can’t find fresh pumpkins year-round. Both give a great taste to your cake. You just have to make sure that when using fresh pumpkin is not too watery. If so you can strain it. I like using a sugar pumpkin and roasting it for making a puree. Visit the Conscious Plant kitchen, she has a great source on how to make a pumpkin puree.
The reason for your loaf cake splitting is because of its density all the steam goes out from the crack. But this is perfectly fine.
You don’t have to refrigerate the cake. It is perfectly fine to leave it at room temperature unless it is summer and is blazing hot. I just leave it in an airtight container. If the loaf is frosted then I do refrigerate.
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Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 bread loaf pan 9×5
Ingredients
Pumpkin bread
- 2 cups all purpose flour 284g
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ½ cup oil
- 1 cup pumpkin puree 226g
- 1 ½ cup sugar 334g
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream cheese frosting
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter or line your loaf pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, allspice, and ground cinnamon together and set aside. In another large bowl whisk pumpkin puree, sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and eggs together until everything is combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix until everything is well combined but don't over-mix. Add your mix to your loaf pan. Smooth the top of the mix with a spoon or spatula.
- Place the pan in the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the center of the loaf to check for readiness. You will know is done once your toothpick comes out clean. Once cooked you can set on a rack to cool.
- While the bread is baking make the frosting. In a bowl, add the butter and cream cheese. Beat them until smooth. Add the powered sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. Mix it until completely smooth. Set aside until the bread is cooked.
- Once the pumpkin bread cooled off, frost the top. Serve and enjoy!
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Recipe Notes
- Make- I use a 9×5 loaf pan. If you want to make this bread smaller use 2 8×4 pans and divide the mix into both of the pans.
- Store- Keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. Best to store it in an airtight container to prevent bread from drying.
- Freeze- You can freeze this recipe for up to 3 months. Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap. I suggest freezing it without the cream cheese frosting.
Stephenie says
That is great Jamie, enjoy!
Jamie Sonnenberg says
Thank you Stephanie! Gonna mix it up tonite! Like the simple and easy ingredients..have all of em’ in my pantry..yippee!