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Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting is a quick bread recipe you’ll be dreaming about all season! Decadently moist, soft, sweet and spiced pumpkin bread is incredibly easy to make and is topped off with the best (and most simple) homemade cream cheese frosting.
Grab your loaf pan, because it’s time to bake some quick bread! Really, there’s nothing better than making homemade bread without all the kneading and rising, right? This quick and easy pumpkin bread is an all-time fall favorite recipe of mine! It always rises to perfection in the oven while still being oh-so moist from the perfect amount of pumpkin puree.
The spices are what really seal the deal on that classic fall flavor we all know and love. Just a few pinches of cinnamon and nutmeg compliment the pumpkin beautifully and give you all of the cozy autumnal feelings! While I find that the cream cheese frosting adds the perfect amount of tang and sweetness to this recipe, feel free to make the bread even more indulgent with some chocolate chips. Because, well, why not?
Why You’ll Love This
- Perfect for Fall. Whoever said pumpkin spice was basic might be right… But sometimes basic is best. There’s no better flavor for fall than some classic spiced pumpkin, especially when it’s baked to perfection in bread form!
- SO easy. Yes! This easy pumpkin bread recipe takes just about 20 minutes to prep. It’s a super simple recipe that you can have ready to go with minimal steps and inexpensive ingredients that you might already have on hand.
- The frosting. Cream cheese, powdered sugar and milk are all you need to make this homemade cream cheese frosting! It’s sweet, simple, and perfect for slathering all over your pumpkin bread. And yes, it’ll make you want to lick the spoon!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Here is a list of ingredients you will need to make pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting. Make sure to scroll down to view the full recipe for exact measurements.
- White granulated sugar
- Vegetable oil
- Eggs
- All purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Water
- Pumpkin puree
- Dark chocolate chips (optional)
For the cream cheese frosting:
- Cream cheese
- Powdered sugar
- Milk
How To Make Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting
Here is a general overview of the steps involved to make homemade pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for the full recipe.
Prepare. Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease a 9×5 loaf pan with cooking spray.
Mix the wet ingredients. Using a stand mixer, beat the sugar and vegetable oil together. Add the eggs one at a time.
Whisk the dry ingredients. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg until combined.
Make the batter. Add the flour mixture and water to the stand mixer, alternating as you go. Beat in the pumpkin puree. If using chocolate chips, fold them in as a last step.
Bake and let cool. Bake the bread for about 55 minutes. Let the bread cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before flipping onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
Make the cream cheese frosting. Beat together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and milk.
Enjoy! Pour your frosting over the pumpkin bread, slice, and serve.
Recipe Tips, Substitutions, and Variations
Keep these notes in mind while making your pumpkin bread with frosting!
- Let the bread cool. I know that the smell of freshly baked pumpkin bread is intoxicating! It’s hard to wait, but it’s also very important to let the bread fully cool to room temperature before frosting it. If frosted while still warm, the frosting will melt.
- Create the best consistency for the frosting. If your frosting is too thick, you can thin it out by stirring in a little more milk. Too thin? Add more powdered sugar.
- Measure with care. As it goes with all baking recipes, a little bit too much or too little of an ingredient can throw the whole thing out of whack. Make sure you pay attention to all of your ingredients (especially ones like flour and baking soda) and measure accordingly for the best results.
- Chocolate chips. I think that a cup of dark chocolate chips adds something pretty wonderful to everything, especially this recipe! Feel free to add them or skip them – your bread will be delicious either way.
Storage Instructions
In an airtight container at room temperature, your frosted pumpkin bread will stay fresh for up to 5 days.
If you’d like to freeze your pumpkin bread, do so WITHOUT the frosting! Frozen pumpkin bread will stay fresh in an freezer-safe airtight container for about 2 months. Let it slowly thaw in the fridge before serving.
More of Our Favorite Pumpkin Recipes
Enjoy the best flavor of the fall season with all of these scrumptious pumpkin recipes!
Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (600 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (237 ml) vegetable oil
- 2 (4) eggs
- 1 ⅔ cup (417 g) all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon (2 teaspoon) baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon (1 ½ teaspoon) salt
- ½ teaspoon (1 teaspoon) ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon (1 teaspoon) ground nutmeg
- ⅓ cup (158 ml) water
- 7 ½ ounce (425 g) pumpkin puree
- 1 cup (180 g) dark chocolate chips, optional
For the cream cheese frosting:
- 8 ounce (227 g) package of cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 cups (240 g) powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 °F (177 °C). Lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together sugar and vegetable oil. This is going to look odd, but just keep going. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk to incorporate.
- Alternate adding the flour mixture and water to the stand mixer, beating well after each addition. Finally, add in the pumpkin puree and beat well. If you're adding chocolate chips, this would be the time to stir it in!
- Bake for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning it onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the cream cheese frosting, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and milk until a thick consistency forms. If it's too runny, add more powdered sugar. If it's too thick, add more milk.
- Pour over cooled pumpkin loaves. Slice and serve.
- Store in airtight container for up to 5 days.
Sorry, but I’m Spanish and I’m not used to US or UK measurement units… I’m not sure to understand… “1: 15- oz can of pumpkin puree” is about 450 grams, right?
Thank you! And congratulations for your great blog… and for your new kitchen!
It says on the can 425grams…and thank you for the comment about the kitchen!
Can you make this into muffins and they turn out OK?
I’ve never made them into my muffins myself so I can’t tell you if they’ll turn out OK or not, but with my experience, I believe you’d be ok making these into muffins – just keep in mind, since this recipe is for TWO loaves of bread, you will end up with a lot of muffins!
Just ate a slice of this bread- found the recipe on Pinterest. The bread looks beautiful. The texture is perfection- very moist. However, it’s almost like there isn’t enough pumpkin in the recipe for both loaves ): my house never had that lovely pumpkin smell while baking, and the pumpkin taste is lacking. So sad. I added pecans instead of chocolate chips. Overall, the bread is still good- but as far as pumpkin bread, this recipe needs tweaking only because the pumpkin flavor is not very strong. I found crockpot chicken tortilla soup on this site today, I won’t be discouraged! (: hope to try that this weekend!!
Aw such a bummer you couldn’t taste much of the pumpkin! The cinnamon and nutmeg should’ve given that Fall smell! Well, thanks for letting me know, sorry it didn’t turn out the way you envisioned, but I do hope you enjoy the crockpot chicken tortilla soup :)