We've taken the quintessential fall pumpkin bread and leveled it up with a swirl of homemade cream cheese frosting on the top. It's so delicious that I may have referred to it as cake a few times as I was testing it. This moist pumpkin bread is made in one bowl and mixed by hand. It's full of warm spices, has plenty of pumpkin flavor and is a true treat with the cream cheese icing.

There's truly nothing better than fall baking in my opinion. This homemade pumpkin bread recipe is the perfect recipe to make for your next house guests and would be a delicious breakfast idea for Thanksgiving morning. Really is there anything better than a slice of pumpkin bread and a cup of coffee? If you're looking for other delicious fall baking recipes be sure to check out our Slow Cooker Maple Apple Butter or Apple Butter Bread.
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❤️ Why You'll Love This Recipe
Mix in One Bowl By Hand - The pumpkin bread is mixed up by hand in a large mixing bowl.
Quick and Easy to Make - This batter comes together in about five minutes and you can have this loaf into the over in less than ten minutes guaranteed.
That Easy Cream Cheese Icing - The cream cheese frosting really just takes this pumpkin bread to a new level. It becomes a decadent, flavorful slice of incredible pumpkin bread.
🍫 Ingredients

- pure pumpkin puree - You want to be sure to use canned pumpkin and not "pumpkin pie filling" for this recipe.
- unsalted butter and vegetable oil - many pumpkin bread recipes call for either butter or oil. In this recipe, we use a little bit of each resulting in a rich, decadent loaf that hangs onto its moisture.
- cream cheese - this is the base for the delicious homemade cream cheese icing on the loaf
- powdered sugar - used to make the creamy icing on the top pf the loaf
🥣 Instructions
Be sure to see the recipe card for the full list of ingredients and detailed recipe instructions.

Combine dry ingredients and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk until well combined.

Whisk together all of the liquid ingredients in a medium bowl.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Spread the batter evenly into a prepared 9 x 5 bread pan. Bake pumpkin bread at 350° for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Combine the softened butter, cream cheese, sifted confectioner's sugar, vanilla and milk in the bowl of your stand mixer. Whip until light and fluffy.

Once your pumpkin bread is completely cool, cover with a layer cream cheese frosting.
Hint: Be careful not to over mix your pumpkin bread batter. You want to mix until the batter just comes together and looks the same throughout. There may be a few lumps of flour or brown sugar - that's okay. Over mixing the batter will produce a tough texture and we are going for light and fluffy here.
🎃 Variations:
Gluten Free - make this loaf gluten free by swapping out the all purpose flour for your favorite gluten free flour. Make the perfect pumpkin bread gluten free!
Use Pumpkin Pie Spice - instead of using the mixture of spices, you can use 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice
🤓 Expert Tips
Make sure that the bread is cooked all the way through. The cook time on this recipe is 60-65 minutes. The bread is dense and it takes a while to cook through. It can also be a bit deceptive and will seem cooked though but if you check multiple spots, you will find an uncooked part. I recommend testing the bread with a toothpick or cake tester every five minutes starting at fifty five minutes.
Cover your loaf with aluminum foil as needed. If you feel that the bread is getting to dark on the top, you can cover it with a piece of aluminum foil. This allows the inside to continue cooking without the top getting too dark.
Be sure to sift your confectioners sugar. No one likes lumpy icing to be sure to sift your sugar into the mixing bowl for the icing.
Use a 9 x 5 x 3 (1 ¼ lb) bread pan. This recipe was created and tested using a 9 x 5 bread pan. To achieve a loaf that is cooked all the way through, you also want to be sure that you are using a 9 x 5 bread pan. If you use a different sized pan, you will have to adjust your baking time.
⭐️ Recipe FAQs About
You pumpkin bread may be dry because you used all butter and didn't include any oil in the recipe. When we were testing this recipe, we settled on half butter and half oil so that the loaf had a rich flavor and texture combine with plenty of moisture from the oil.
For this recipe, begin testing your pumpkin bread at 55 minutes. Use a toothpick or cake tester and test the bread in a few spots, not just in the middle. The bread is finished baking when a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.
Store pumpkin bread in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 4-5 days. You can also freeze pumpkin bread for 2-3 months. If you plan to freeze this pumpkin bread, I recommend not frosting the loaf. Freeze the bread and frost when you thaw the loaf out.

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Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- 1 9 x 5 x 4 bread pan
Ingredients
For the Pumpkin Bread
- 1 ¾ cups canned pumpkin one 14 ounce can
- ¼ cup melted butter
- ¼ cup canola oil
- ⅓ cup milk
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
For the Icing:
- 2 oz cream cheese
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 ½ - 1 ¾ cups confectioner’s sugar sifted directly into the mixing bowl
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
For the Pumpkin Bread
- Whisk together the dry ingredients and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the wet ingredients.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter may be a bit lumpy and that's okay.
- Spray a 9 x 5 x 4 bread pan with cooking spray. Pour the pumpkin bread batter into the prepared bread pan
- Bake pumpkin bread at 350° for 60-65 minutes - begin testing the bread for doneness at 60 minutes. Insert a toothpick or cake tester into the bread and be sure that it comes out clean. Be sure to check bread both in the middle and on the sides
For the Icing:
- Combine the softened butter, cream cheese, vanilla, sifted sugar and one tablespoon milk in the bowl of your stand mixer. Use the paddle attachment to whip the frosting until it is light and fluffy. Add additional milk if the icing is too thick.
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