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When the nights draw in and the cold creeps along, what better way to comfort ourselves than with these cute Mini Pumpkin Bread Loaves?! Hello autumn, and HELLO sweet treats. So easy to make and the house will smell amazing. Get baking!
Baking is one of my favourite things to do as the season changes to autumn and we need a little cosiness and comfort in our lives. And we definitely need CAKE!
These Mini Pumpkin Bread Loaves are a classic. They fill the house with wafts of cinnamon and spice and they’re fantastic with a cuppa to treat yourself with, for serving to guests or for packed lunches.
They’re a little bit spicy, a little bit warming, golden in colour, and they taste exactly like autumn (if autumn was a flavour). They’re also super simple to make, even for baking beginners (or indeed lazy bakers, like me!)
We don’t even have to faff around with actual pumpkins for this, we just use a handy pumpkin puree instead! (Which is a relief because I really don’t enjoy scooping out pumpkins and chopping them up!) A lot of supermarkets stock them these days.
Why you’ll love this Pumpkin Bread recipe
⭐️ Comforting and spicy autumnal flavours
⭐️ Easy but impressive cakes
⭐️ Great for packed lunches or an elevenses treat
Other easy autumnal recipes
⭐️ Roasted Butternut Squash Soup ⭐️
⭐️ Easy Apple Cake ⭐️
⭐️ Salted Caramel & Apple Autumn Pavlova ⭐️
⭐️ Parsnip Soup ⭐️
⭐️ Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole ⭐️
⭐️ Beef Bourguignon ⭐️
⭐️ Slow Cooker Porridge ⭐️
⭐️ Vegan Chilli with Butternut Squash ⭐️
More pumpkin recipes
⭐️ Pumpkin Cake {Better Than Starbucks!} ⭐️
⭐️ Halloween Pumpkin Bundt Cake ⭐️
⭐️ Pumpkin Spiced Latte Cake ⭐️
⭐️ Easiest Ever Pumpkin Cake (simplified version!) ⭐️
Mini Pumpkin Bread Ingredients
- Tinned pumpkin puree – See notes on this below
- Soft dark brown sugar
- Caster sugar
- Sunflower oil
- Water
- Eggs – I use medium free range
- Lemon – Just the zest
- Plain flour
- Baking powder
- Sea salt
- Cinnamon
- Ground nutmeg
NOTE: A tin of pumpkin puree is approx 425g and this recipe uses far less, which is a bit annoying but unavoidable. To avoid wastage, you can freeze the remainder to use in a cake for another day. Simply spoon it into a freezer bag, remove the air out of it and freeze. Defrost thoroughly before you use it.
How to make Mini Pumpkin Bread Loaves
- Preheat the oven to 180C and grease the tin with butter, being sure to reach the corner.
- In a bowl, mix together the pumpkin, sugars, oil, water, eggs and lemon zest. Beat until combined. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and spices.
- Add the dry and wet ingredients together and fold to combine. Spoon into the loaf tin.
- Bake for about 20 minutes until cooked through. Cool and repeat until your batter is finished.
- Mix the icing sugar and lemon into a paste and drizzle over the cakes.
Substitutions
- Gluten free – This recipe can easily be made gluten free by substituting the plain flour for a gluten free equivalent.
Storing
Store these in a cake tin or sealed airtight container. You don’t need to refrigerate. They should last at their best for up to 3 days (if they haven’t been devoured by then!)
Freezer friendly These are also fine to be frozen. Just make sure you wait until they’re completely cooled and when you’re ready to eat, defrost them thoroughly first.
Top tips
How to zest lemons
The best way to zest lemons is to invest in a great zester. It will change your cake-making life! I like this Microplane Zester, which I’ve had for years and it makes the job SO easy.
Type of mini loaf cake tin
I love this mini loaf tin as it makes really striking little cakes and is really handy to use and the cakes pop out easily.
Mini Pumpkin Bread FAQs
You can use a skewer or thermometer to check. A skewer should come out clean.
Yes, you can if you like! You’ll have lots of pumpkin – to use it all up, scoop out the flesh, cook it, puree it and then freeze any leftovers into portions so you can bake another day.
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
Mini Pumpkin Bread Loaves
Ingredients
- 150 g Tinned pumpkin puree
- 50 g Soft dark brown sugar
- 150 g Caster sugar
- 6 tbsp Sunflower oil
- 3 tbsp Water
- 1 Medium egg, Free range.
- 1/2 Lemon, Zest only.
- 125 g Plain flour
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Sea salt
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Ground nutmeg
For the icing:
- Juice of the lemon
- 150 g Icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Grease the mini loaf pans with butter, being sure to get into all of the corners.
- Mix together the pumpkin, sugars, oil, water, eggs and lemon zest. Beat until combined.
- In another bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and spices.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold in until just combined.
- Spoon into each of the loaf tin sections, filling about two thirds of the way. Don't overfill or your loaves will be difficult to get out and look a bit wonky.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool for a few minutes and ease out the loaves allowing them to continue cooling on a wire rack.
- Rinse the tin and repeat the greasing, filling and baking. Do this until you've finished using all of the batter.
- When all cool, make the icing with the icing sugar and enough of the lemon juice to make a thick paste. Drizzle or pipe over the cakes and allow to set.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These look amazing and I definitely want to bake these. I was wondering though, with this recipe would you be able to make a big one out of it?
Yes! In fact I’ve done so over on the Sanctuary Spa blog, it will be up there soon 🙂
Hi my name is Kuenia, i’m brasilian, i’m so exited to do this recipe, looks delcious… to grease the mini loaf pans i use only butter? ou butter and flour? And can i mix together the pumpkin, sugars, oil, water, eggs and lemon zest in the hands? or i use a food mixer?
Made these mini loafs today, took them to feed a Police & community choir before their rehearsal. They absolutely loved them. They were so surprised that pumpkin was the main ingredient. These are now a firm favourite with everyone. Thank you for sharing your recipe. X
Aww thank you for letting me know Alison, I love hearing when people have enjoyed my recipes!
These look amazing! I need to get my hands on a mini loaf tin. I haven’t made anything with pumpkin yet this year, need to so it feels like autumn! x
Love, love, love these little loaf cakes. I now need a mini loaf tin in my life. Shared on Facebook and pinned for later my friend. 🙂 x
These are LITERALLY the best cakes I have had bab! I scoffed the lot and then took one little one to work! AMAZING! x
I am one of the fab recipients of the monthly cake delivery! It’s been such a treat over the the past year to eceuve these little boxes of delight! These pumpkin loaves are just gorgeous! I bet they would go down a treat on bonfire night too!
Sarah you are a star baker!!! Defo should enter the great British bake off next year!!!! Xxxx
Sarah, I’ll take one of those with a nice strong cup of Assam with just a splash of milk!
They look absolutely amazing! I think I need to invest in one of those pans x
These look so gorgeous Sarah and you KNOW I can’t get enough pumpkin! Putting a mini loaf pan on my Christmas list!