Day 27: Pumpkin Bread

On to some belated creative day activities... this is from October 16th and 22nd!

In past years, I've used various mixes or the BHG pumpkin bread recipe, but given that Joe LOVES anything pumpkin (remember?), I figured I should have a better recipe. If you have any good recipes, do share them with me! I was also helping with a wedding shower today, and they wanted to do pumpkin bread instead of a cake (for a fall theme). So, it was time to try new recipes.

Two blogs I follow recently posted what they said were excellent recipes for pumpkin bread, so the competition began. I baked both recipes and got 6 people to try some of each. One was the clear winner - 5 to 1. Joe took some of the losing bread to work, and people still loved it (even asking for the recipe), so these are both great (but different) breads. I also tried a cream cheese frosting that was EASY and yummy. (A third blogger - the one who got me trying the 30 days of creativity thing - also shared a recipe, but it was very close to one of the others, so I stuck with just the two.)

The losing bread was a lighter color and much more dense. Still tasty, and you may prefer it's recipe if you like your pumpkin bread to have more of a pound cake consistency!

The winning bread actually rose a decent amount, so keep that in mind as you bake. The first batch I did accidentally had too much shortening, but it was good (maybe even better)! I somehow forgot that 1 cup of shortening is NOT the same as 8 oz. Okay, here's the recipe for the winning bread with my notes in italics.

Pumpkin Bread
originally from Michele Smith

3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1 cup shortening (or 8 oz for a crunchier top)
3 eggs
1 can pumpkin
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon (heaping)
1 tsp. cloves (heaping)
1 tsp. nutmeg (heaping)
1/4 tsp. salt
(note from kathryn: I thought it was a little heavy on the spices the first time, so I recommend what I did the second time - cloves BARELY more than 1 tsp, and cinnamon and nutmeg about halfway between a flat tsp and a full heaping tsp.)

Mix shortening, eggs and pumpkin in large bowl.
(I used a beater for a couple of minutes until it looked like this - no white lumps)In another bowl, mix all dry ingredients. (Really use another bowl - no one wants a clump of nutmeg in a bite!) Then add a little at a time to the liquid ingredients until all is mixed well. Put in loaf pan and bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. (I used cooking spray, but it only semi-worked on the mini-muffins and bundt cake. No problem with the mini-loaves. Makes 2 normal loaves, 6 mini-loaves, 48 mini-muffins, or 1 bundt cake - remember to leave room for it to rise. The top looks done way before the inside is actually cooked, so use a toothpick to be sure.)

it looked better than this in person, and tasted very good
bundt cake is a great option for this recipe - it bakes over an hour

I got the idea for the cream cheese frosting from a few different websites... here's my make-shift recipe.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese frosting
5 Tbsp butter (unsalted)
vanilla
powdered sugar (3ish cups?)

Melt the butter almost completely in the microwave. Thoroughly mix in the cream cheese (I just used a fork). I use Mexican real vanilla that is much stronger, so it was probably less than 1/4 tsp that I added, but it would be more than that with vanilla extract. I go by how it smells - you want to still smell plenty of cream cheese. Add powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time. I didn't dirty up a measuring cup, and I don't have a sifter - the lumps broke up on their own. I added powdered sugar until the frosting stuck to the sides on the bowl and was almost stringy. I also taste a little to see if it is sweet enough. :)


I tried going old-school with the frosting and put an extra large tip in the cut corner of a plastic bag. I'll admit it was HEB-brand, but it failed miserably. I broke two bags before I switched to a disposable decorating bag from Wilton via Wal-Mart. Ah, so much easier and worth the extra cost for sure! The tip costs less than a dollar (or did when I bought it). I didn't even dirty up a coupler. I highly recommend giving this a try - I got lots of compliments and it was faster and less messy (okay, it would have been less messy had I not tried to use plastic baggies) than trying to ice them like cupcakes.

the two broken zip-lock type bags and the successful Wilton bag