Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spice Bread

So given that we ate the Blueberry Coffee Cake in about 2 days (I could say my husband ate most of it, but I'd probably be lying), and I'm really bored waiting for more quilting supplies, I decided to bake something else!

I chose another sort of cake/bread recipe that I found on Pinterest again. This one is called Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spice Bread, originally from An Edible Mosaic.

Looks yummy, right?

Now, I don't have a loaf pan, sadly, so this was a bit of an experiment.

Ingredients:

   Cheese batter:

• 8 oz (225g) cream cheese, room temp
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup (30g) powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

   Pumpkin Spice batter:

• 3/4 cup (150g) brown sugar, lightly packed
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup (180g) pumpkin puree
• 2 Tbsp canola (rapeseed) oil or sunflower oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup (160g) all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp cloves

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). Lightly grease 3 mini loaf pans (or, in my case, 3 round cake pans).

Combine cheese batter ingredients in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Whisk together brown sugar and eggs in a medium bowl until light and fluffy, then stir in pumpkin, oil and vanilla.

The best kind of pumpkin, ask any American! 

It is ridiculously expensive, but well worth it :)

In a separate bowl, whisk or sift together the dry ingredients.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet, careful not to overmix.

This batter, btw, tastes incredible. I know, raw eggs and all that, but if you're into licking the spoon, I highly recommend it :) 

Divide the pumpkin batter between the 3 pans, then pour the cheese batter on top. It looked quite thin once I put it in the pan, but I figured I'd wait to see what happened when it was done.

Bake until golden around the edges, about 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted inside comes out clean. I checked mine after 30 minutes, and either because of the pan I used or my oven, it was pretty much spot on.

I decided because they were so thin to basically just stack them. I bet it'd taste really great with some cream cheese frosting in between the layers, but my second package of cream cheese went mouldy, so I just stacked them up as is, and it's just for us so the presentation doesn't really matter anyway!

It smells amazing, by the way. Nothing like the smell of pumpkin bread in the oven to make you drool! 

It was actually really good, but a wee bit on the bland side. I think possibly doubling the amount of cream cheese batter would go a long way toward making it less bland, because that had a nice tang to it and brought out the spiciness of the pumpkin bit. On the other hand, warmed up with a little bit of butter it was really delicious, so depends on your individual taste and what you want out of it. If it's a dessert, I think it needs a bit more sweet and spicy; if it's a smooth breakfasty sort of cake loaf you're after, I'd keep it as is and spread with butter.

Still, pretty yummy, so an overall success, I think :)