Moist Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting

Nothing says pumpkin season like a moist, homemade pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting, filled with warm spices. It's a classic baking staple for any pumpkin lover and the perfect fall treat.

I can't believe I've never posted this pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting. I've shared pumpkin coffee cake and pumpkin cookies and so many more pumpkin recipes but never pumpkin bread!

Well here you go... It's a quick bread so that means easy peasy folks! No electric mixer required, just two bowls and a whisk.

But to take it up a notch, I'm topping this moist, flavorful bread with cream cheese frosting. Feel free to skip the frosting if you like. A plain slice of pumpkin bread will be just as good!

Ingredients You Will Need:

You will need these simple ingredients that are probably already in your pantry: all purpose flour, granulated white sugar, baking soda, salt, eggs, vegetable oil, and milk.

I developed this recipe with white sugar for a lighter crumb, but brown sugar is a common swap if you want a deeper, more caramel note.

For the pumpkin puree, use canned pumpkin puree and make sure it is pure pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling! Pumpkin pie filling is spiced and sweetened. It's not the same thing!

You will also need the following mixture of spices usually found in pumpkin pie spice: ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger. Make sure your spices are not expired as they lose flavor if they have been sitting in your pantry for too long. 

If you choose to make the frosting, you will also need full fat cream cheese, unsalted butter, vanilla extract and powdered sugar.

Why Does This Pumpkin Bread Recipe Make TWO Loaves?

This recipe is built around a full 15 ounce can of pumpkin, so nothing goes to waste. To be honest, it started because I hated leaving a few spoonfuls of pumpkin in the fridge with nothing to do, but it turned into my favorite part of the recipe: one loaf to enjoy now and one to freeze or give away. Really, who says no to free pumpkin bread?

You still might be thinking you don't need two loaves, and that's fine. Rather than halving the batter and ending up with an awkward half can of pumpkin, make one loaf and turn the rest of the batter into muffins. I don't frost my pumpkin muffins but I do add chocolate chips because I always need my chocolate.

How to Make Pumpkin Bread:

First prepare your baking pans and/or muffin tins. I like to brush with melted butter and then line my loaf pans with parchment paper leaving an overhang on opposite sides so I can easily remove the loaf.

Set up your oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.

Quick breads are made by combining wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately and then combining the two. You can do all the mixing by hand or use an electric mixer. Both ways work just fine for this recipe. 

First, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and spices in a large mixing bowl and mix well using a whisk. Using a whisk will also help sift the flour mixture. 

Next, in a separate bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, combine the remaining ingredients and again mix well with a whisk or electric hand mixer. All the ingredients should be evenly incorporated. 

Finally, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula until just combined. Overmixing develops the flour and can make the loaf tough, so stop as soon as you don't see dry streaks, and the crumb stays moist and tender.

Divide the pumpkin bread batter into the two prepared loaf pans. Each pan or muffin liner should be about two-thirds full. 

Bake the loaf bread for 50-60 minutes. If you are making muffins, adjust the time to 20-25 minutes. Insert a toothpick into different parts of the loaf to check if it's done. It should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no wet batter.

Let the pumpkin loaf cool in the pan for about 20 minutes. Loosen the edges with a butter knife and then transfer it to a wire rack and allow it to cool completely.

Adding Cream Cheese Frosting to Pumpkin Bread

This pumpkin bread is not overly sweet, which is exactly why the cream cheese frosting works so well. The sweet, tangy frosting balances the warm spices without tipping the whole loaf into dessert territory. The recipe below makes plenty of frosting for both loaves.

You can spread the frosting on with an offset spatula, or get fancy with a piping bag and your favorite decorative tip.

My loaf baked up with a slightly uneven dome that I couldn't hide by spreading the frosting on flat. Piping it with a star tip covered the dome neatly and looks pretty too!

Pumpkin Bread Tips and Storage

As I've mentioned, this pumpkin bread is not really sweet. If you are not frosting it and prefer a sweeter bread, you can add ½ cup more sugar to the recipe. My personal preference is to add semi sweet chocolate chips to the batter instead, which sweetens it and gives you a little melty chocolate in every slice.

Storing frosted pumpkin bread. Because the cream cheese frosting is perishable, keep the frosted loaf in an airtight container in the refrigerator, where it will stay good for up to five days.

Storing unfrosted pumpkin bread. An unfrosted loaf is more forgiving. It keeps in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple of days, or in the refrigerator if you want it to last longer.

Freezing. Unfrosted pumpkin bread or muffins freeze well for up to one month. To retain the most moisture, wrap the loaf in plastic wrap and then store it in an airtight container. Thaw at room temperature and add the frosting after thawing.

Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting FAQs

Can I make the cream cheese frosting into a glaze or drizzle?
For a pourable drizzle, use the cream cheese glaze from my pumpkin cinnamon rolls, which is made to pour and set. The frosting in this recipe is a thicker, butter-based cream cheese frosting meant for spreading.

What can I use instead of cream cheese frosting?
If cream cheese isn't your thing, this pumpkin bread is just as good with a simple dusting of powdered sugar or left completely plain, since the warm spices carry it on their own. You can also top it with vanilla buttercream for something sweeter, or salted caramel frosting if you want to lean further into fall flavors.

Can I use pumpkin pie spice instead of the individual spices?
The cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger in this recipe add up to about a tablespoon of spice in total, so pumpkin pie spice can stand in for that mix if it's what you keep on hand. The blend is cinnamon-forward, so the flavor will shift a little that way. I measure the spices individually here because it lets me keep the other spices more pronounced.