Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting

Learn how to make the best whole-wheat pumpkin bread with this easy recipe. You can mix the batter by hand, like muffins, and the baked pumpkin loaf cake is topped with thick cream cheese frosting for a delicious fall baked good.

One of the best things to make when fall rolls around is a pumpkin loaf cake. You can serve them plain or top them with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting.

The traditional pumpkin loaf cake is made with all-purpose flour to lead to a tender bread that still holds up well. One common baking substitution would be to replace the all-purpose flour with whole wheat.

This works well in the recipe below. This recipe is a variation of my perfect pumpkin bread recipe but made with whole wheat flour.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Substitutions and Variations
• How to Make Pumpkin Bread with Whole Wheat Flour
• Top Tip
• Baking FAQs
• More Pumpkin Recipes to Try
• 📖 Recipe

Ingredients

Pumpkin breads are made from a simple list of ingredients, like most loaf cakes. Here's what you need to make this whole-wheat pumpkin bread:

• whole-wheat flour, preferably an all-purpose whole wheat or whole grain wheat flour that is good for cookies and muffins
• leavening agents—you will need both chemical leavening agents, baking powder and baking soda for this recipe
• spices—pumpkin pie spice mix works great here
• salt: preferably Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but if you are using regular table salt, halve the amount so the cake isn't too salty.
• butter, both melted to make the loaf cake and softened to make the frosting
• sugar—you can use either granulated sugar or brown sugar. Brown sugar will give the pumpkin bread more flavour
• eggs, specifically large eggs
• pure vanilla extract, either homemade or store-bought
• pumpkin purée, either canned or strained homemade pumpkin purée to remove excess water. Read about homemade pumpkin purée if you are unsure about how to remove the water and why
• icing sugar, also called powdered sugar, tends to clump and you may have to sift it before using
• cream cheese—I prefer to make cream cheese frosting with Philadelphia brand full-fat cream cheese (the kind sold in blocks)

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

With a simple recipe like this one, your options for making substitutions are limited. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind, depending on what you want to make:

• Flour - instead of whole wheat flour, you can use regular bleached all-purpose flour but, obviously, it won't be whole-wheat pumpkin bread anymore
• Butter - you can replace the butter in the cake recipe with canola oil (or another neutral-tasting vegetable oil). Use the same volume as the melted butter
• Eggs— if you'd like to bake pumpkin bread without the eggs, follow this healthier pumpkin bread, which has no eggs and less sugar and oil too and is vegan!
• Spices - if you don't have a pumpkin spice mix, you can use a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves
• Cranberries or raisins - if you'd like to incorporate dried fruit in this recipe, I recommend raisins, dried cranberries, or even chopped crystalized ginger would be great in this pumpkin cake recipe
• Chocolate chip—you can easily stir a cup (175 grams) of chocolate chips into the batter before transferring it to the pan to make chocolate chip pumpkin bread.

See this classic pumpkin loaf cake with cranberries for a version with all-purpose flour!

How to Make Pumpkin Bread with Whole Wheat Flour

The ingredients for this whole wheat pumpkin bread are mixed like muffins or other quick breads, where the wet and dry ingredients are whisked together in separate bowls before combining the two to make the batter. This is called the two-bowl mixing method.

Step 1: Mix together the wet ingredients in a large bowl. I like to first combine the melted butter and sugar (image 1), then add the eggs (image 2), then the pumpkin purée (image 3). Use a whisk to make sure the wet ingredients are smooth (image 4)

Step 2: Whisk the dry ingredients in a separate bowl (image 5), then add these to the bowl of wet ingredients (image 6). Stir the two mixtures together until combined (image 7).

Note: the batter will be thick because of the whole wheat flour's capacity to absorb moisture. You may need to switch to a wooden spoon, spatula, or even a Danish dough whisk to mix the ingredients (image 8) properly.

Step 3: Transfer the thick batter to a prepared loaf cake pan. I like to use the OXO 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf pan. Use a mini offset spatula or a small silicone spatula to spread the thick batter from edge to edge (image 9).

Step 4: The surface of the batter should be quite smooth (image 10). Bake the loaf cake for about an hour. The loaf cake will crack a little (image 11).

Step 5: Transfer the loaf cake to a wire rack to cool completely (image 12). Once the cake has completely cooled, you can spread the cream cheese frosting on top (image 13).

Tip: If you've struggled to make cream cheese frosting in the path, having to add too much sugar to get it to thicken, read about my trick to make thick cream cheese frosting with less sugar!

Top Tip

You may notice a gummy layer on the bottom of pumpkin bread and banana bread. That's because either there's too much pumpkin or mashed banana in the batter, not enough leavening, or the cake is underdone. To avoid the latter, use a cake tester inserted through the centre of the loaf cake to check that it's done baking.

Baking FAQs

More Pumpkin Recipes to Try

Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:

If you tried this whole wheat pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting recipe (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

📖 Recipe