Maple pumpkin bread

Learn how to make the best maple pumpkin bread with this easy recipe. This moist pumpkin cake is sweetened with maple sugar and maple syrup, iced with a thick layer of maple butter and garnished with maple flakes for the ultimate maple-flavoured dessert.

If you aren't into the traditional pumpkin spices and fall flavours of most pumpkin loaf cake recipes, this maple pumpkin bread is for you!

This is the perfect recipe to make if you have a leftover cup of pumpkin purée and you don't know what to do with it. Recipes you can make with canned pumpkin include pumpkin tarts, pumpkin spice shake, baked pumpkin donuts, and even cute pumpkin whoopie pies. Some of these recipes take less than a can's-worth of pumpkin, so you might have some left over.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Substitutions and Variations
• How to Make It
• Canned Pumpkin Versus Homemade Purée
• Top tip
• Pumpkin Bread FAQs
• Other Maple-flavoured Baking Recipes
• 📖 Recipe

Ingredients

Pumpkin loaf cakes including this maple pumpkin bread are made with a simple list of ingredients. Here's what you need to make this:

• flour, specifically bleached all-purpose flour—do not substitute alternative flours unless you are prepared to do a few tests to tweak the quantities
• leavening agents, specifically both chemical leaveners baking powder and baking soda
• salt, specifically Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, though regular table salt will work (use less as it's saltier)
• pumpkin purée or strained homemade pumpkin purée
• eggs, specifically large eggs
• maple in the form of both pure maple syrup and maple sugar to provide as much flavour
• oil, specifically canola oil or a neutral-tasting oil
• pure vanilla extract
• optional garnishes include maple butter which works beautifully as icing on top and maple flakes to add more maple flavour and a lovely texture to the top.

See recipe card for quantities.

Remember when you want to make a baking substitution where you are replacing a granular sugar product (either white sugar or brown sugar) with a liquid sugar, like honey or maple syrup, it's best to only replace a portion of the sugar, and not all, to maintain the texture of the cake and also to avoid having to make other adjustments to the recipe. This is why we used a combination of maple sugar and maple syrup here.

Substitutions and Variations

With its simple list of ingredients, there are a limited number of substitutions and variations that you can make without messing with the balance of ingredients. Here are a few options:

• Oil—instead of canola oil, you can use 115 grams (½ cup) of melted butter)
• Maple sugar—use regular granulated sugar or light brown sugar if you can't find maple sugar
• Pumpkin spice—if you like to add warm spices to your pumpkin bread, you can add pumpkin spice or a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg (at least 5 mL or 1 teaspoon should work here)

For an eggless version of this recipe, try this healthier pumpkin bread, which is also low in sugar, dairy-free, and vegan.

How to Make It

Pumpkin loaf cakes are quick breads made using a two-bowl mixing method, also known as the muffin method, where the wet ingredients are mixed separately from the dry ingredients before combining the two.

Step 1: combine the pumpkin, eggs, and maple sugar in a bowl (image 1) and whisk them to combine (image 2), then whisk in the oil, vanilla, and maple syrup (image 3). The wet ingredients should be quite smooth (image 4).

Step 2: whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda) until evenly combined (image 5), then pour the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients (image 6). Whisk the two components together until combined and thick but fairly smooth (image 7).

Step 3: Transfer the pumpkin batter to a prepared loaf pan and smooth it from edge to edge so that it's even (image 8). You can score down the middle of the batter in the pan using a greased bench scraper to ensure that the bread cracks down the middle when it bakes (image 9).

Step 4: bake the loaf cake until the edges begin to brown and pull away from the sides (image 11). Use a cake tester to check if the cake is done baking.

Step 5: Garnish the cooled pumpkin bread with maple butter and maple flakes to give it even more maple flavour (image 12).

Canned Pumpkin Versus Homemade Purée

For the pumpkin purée, you can use canned pumpkin or you can use homemade pumpkin purée, made by roasting a sugar pumpkin until the flesh is soft, then puréeing the flesh until smooth. If you do so, I highly recommend you strain the pumpkin purée through a few layers of cheesecloth to remove extra moisture. That moisture may lead to a gummy layer on the bottom just like with banana bread because the cake doesn't bake through.

Top tip

Unmould the loaf cake onto a cooling rack to allow it to cool faster. This will also promote better air circulation on the edges, drying them out slightly so that the edges are firmer and not tacky or wet.

In general, always take the time to check if your cake is done baking using visual cues, touching the surface of the loaf gently to make sure it bounces back and feels set, and poking a skewer or cake tester through the middle to make sure the loaf is baked in the centre. Take the time to use several methods to check if the cake is done before pulling it out of the oven, or you might find that your cake sinks as it cools.

Pumpkin Bread FAQs

Other Maple-flavoured Baking Recipes

I kept the flavourings in this cake very simple: it's all about the maple and the pumpkin. The cake is not overly sweet, but the topping of maple butter and maple flakes not only makes this loaf cake super pretty to look at, but also adds an extra hit of real maple flavour that can sometimes get lost in the baking.

Looking for other maple recipes like this? Try these:

📖 Recipe