Growing up watching movies and series, I never understood why Americans loved pumpkin so much to the extent of having ‘pumpkin’ as a pet name, having pumpkin spice lattes, and pumpkin spice scented candles and using them as ornaments and decorations during Halloween. As in?! Nobody hated pumpkin more than I did but honestly I was justified because the amount of pumpkin I was fed growing up was a lot. Not to mention it was always just pureed and if anything was added it was just sugar or other veggies. I couldn’t imagine these people on TV would willingly and genuinely enjoy a pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup and all these other amazing pumpkin meals.
Fast forward to later in life during my teenage years were I saw my mum make butternut (a member of the squash family just like pumpkin) not taste like shattered dreams and I had a little hope. My first pumpkin love was soup. With time I started experimenting a lot with different members of the squash family and one of the beautiful recipes that come into being was this amazing marbled loaf. The warmth of the spices, and the accents that chocolate and coffee give off make this cake loaf worth every bite –even if your jeans will stop fitting. If you didn’t like pumpkin, I’m sure this recipe will make you appreciate them more. So get your aprons on and let’s bake your home a better place!
Prep Time: 15 mins | Bake Time: 60 mins | Total Time: 1 hr 15 mins | Yield: 1 loaf
Ingredients:
Pumpkin Loaf
· 2 cups All Purpose Flour
· ½ cup Sugar (3/4 if you’re a sweet-tooth)
· 1 tsp Baking Powder
· 1 tsp Baking Soda (Bicarbonate of Soda)
· 2 tsp Chai Spice (or Tea Masala)
· ½ tsp Salt
· 1 cup Pumpkin Puree
· ¼ cup Non-dairy Milk
· ½ cup Oil
· 1 tsp Vanilla Extract or Essence
Mocha Swirl
· 3 tbsp Cocoa Powder
· 3 tbsps Hot Coffee
Method:
1. Preheat oven at 180C for 10 mins.
2. In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients until well combined. Add in the oil and mix well until the flour is coated with oil and in clumps. This will help us avoid the gluten in the flour acting up from over-mixing since we will mix this batter twice.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, milk and vanilla extract until well combined.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the flour and oil mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon until you have a thick, slightly smooth, batter.
5. Mix the ingredients of the mocha swirl in a separate bowl and add half of the pumpkin loaf batter to it and mix until well combined.
6. Brush a loaf tin with some oil or butter and lay some baking paper (optional). Add 1/3 cup of the pumpkin batter into the tin and a 1/3 cup of the mocha batter on top (it doesn’t need to look perfect). Do this repeatedly until you have used up all the batter and have 3 pumpkin layers and 3 mocha layers.
7. Using a skewer or a butter knife, make little swirls in the batter by moving it in a wavy or figure-8 motion. Just a few of these motions are necessary as you don’t want to mix the different layers together.
8. Bake the loaf for 60 mins at 180C. At the 40 min mark, check to see if your loaf is over-browning at the top. If it is, cover it with foil and return it to the oven for the remaining 20 minutes.
9. Once done, allow it to cool in the tin for 20 minutes and transfer it to cool on a wire rack for 10-15 more minutes.
10. Slice it and serve it with some hot cocoa, coffee, tea, custard, or some caramel sauce, milk or chocolate glaze.
Wasn’t that simple? After this not only will you have a beautifully marbled pumpkin loaf, but your kitchen will smell like friendship too. I hope you and yours enjoy this recipe as much as I did.
When you make it please remember to share it with me on my Instagram, I’d love to see how it turns out!
Until next time, Nawapenda sana!
