A pumpkin bread with a coffee twist – topped with a generous layer of delicious coffee frosting.
Once Labor Day hits, do you also start craving all things pumpkin and pumpkin spice? (Pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin spice coffee creamers, anyone?!)
Apart from those pumpkin-y, maple-y and cinnamon-y flavors associated with fall and warm coffee drinks, I love baking when the weather starts turning colder.
One of those recipes that’s always back in the rotation during fall is pumpkin bread.
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This year, I wanted to add a coffee twist to my usual pumpkin bread recipe, which I adapted from my much loved and very stained from all the years of use Betty Crocker cookbook from the 70s.
We are CoffeeSphere, so to incorporate coffee, I decided to top it with a delicious and buttery coffee frosting, which pairs perfectly with the pumpkin bread.
Pumpkin Bread with Coffee Frosting Ingredients
For the Pumpkin Bread:
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup pumpkin
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- Walnuts (optional)
Canned Pumpkin
This recipe calls for 1 cup of pumpkin. Most canned pumpkin comes in 15 ounce cans. So the 1 cup (8 ounces) of pumpkin for this pumpkin bread is just over half of the can.
If you’re not sure what to do with the extra pumpkin, we have plenty of recipes you can make. This extra pumpkin is perfect for a fall classic, the Pumpkin Spice Latte.
You can also make an iced pumpkin spice latte or pumpkin spice coffee creamer. Or add some pumpkin to your overnight oats too for Pumpkin Spice Latte Overnight Oats.
The possibilities for using the extra pumpkin is infinite. You may even need to buy a couple more cans to last the season of pumpkin flavored drinks and baked goods.
Cinnamon
I like my pumpkin bread best with just cinnamon. If you’d like, you can also use a ½ teaspoon of other spices like cloves in addition to the cinnamon.
Walnuts
This is an optional ingredient that I used to top on my pumpkin bread. You can also stir this into the pumpkin bread batter and bake it. Or after you’ve frosted the bread, add a few walnuts on top.
For the Coffee Frosting:
- ½ cup butter
- 1 ounce cream cheese
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tbsp instant coffee (I used Nescafe Clasico)
Butter
I use unsalted butter and leave it out at room temperature before making the frosting. It’s a lot easier to work with when it’s not cold coming straight out of the fridge.
Cream cheese
Same with the butter, I take it out of the fridge for it to become room temperature. It’ll easily mix with the room temperature butter. 1 ounce of cream cheese is an ⅛ of a standard bar of cream cheese. There are usually markers on the foil package so it will be easy to measure.
Confectioners sugar
Making this coffee frosting will work best with confectioners sugar aka powdered sugar. It is not recommended to switch it out with any other sugar like white granulated sugar.
But if you don’t have confectioners sugar at home but have white granulated sugar, it is possible to turn the granulated sugar into confectioners sugar. All you need is a blender and time. Blend the granulated sugar until it turns into a powder and you have confectioners sugar.
Instant coffee
For the coffee frosting, I used Nescafe Clasico. This is the instant coffee I tend to use for all my baking that contains coffee.
I find instant coffee is a lot easier to work with than brewed coffee when baking. But if you really don’t want to use instant coffee, you will need to make a very concentrated coffee in whichever method you choose (espresso machine or moka pot might work) to replace the instant coffee.
I didn’t want to overpower the pumpkin in the bread so I only used a ½ tablespoon of coffee, but you can taste it as you mix the frosting and add more if desired.
Use an instant coffee that you like the taste of. You can check out our guide to the best instant coffees from around the world to find your new favorite.
If you decide to use Nescafe Clasico, there is also a decaf version if you prefer a caffeine free dessert.
How to Make Pumpkin Bread with Coffee Frosting
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease loaf pan.
Step 2
Whisk vegetable oil and sugar. Mix in eggs, pumpkin and water.
Step 3
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Step 4
Add dry flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture. Mix and pour into a loaf pan.
Step 5
Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes.
Step 6: Coffee Frosting
While pumpkin bread is baking, make the coffee frosting.
- Dissolve instant coffee in equal amounts of room temperature water. (If using ½ tablespoon of instant coffee, use ½ tablespoon of water to dissolve.)
- Using an electric mixer, mix butter and cream cheese while gradually pouring in confectioners sugar.
- Stir in vanilla extract and dissolved instant coffee.
Step 7
Take pumpkin bread out of the oven, let it cool. Then top with coffee frosting and nuts if desired.
Pumpkin Bread with Coffee Frosting Recipe
Pumpkin Bread with Coffee Frosting
A pumpkin bread with a coffee twist - topped with a generous layer of delicious coffee frosting.
Materials
For the Pumpkin Bread
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup pumpkin
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- Walnuts (optional)
For the Coffee Frosting
- ½ cup butter
- 1 ounce cream cheese
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tbsp instant coffee (I used Nescafe Clasico)
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease loaf pan.
2. Whisk vegetable oil and sugar. Mix in eggs, pumpkin and water.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
4. Add dry flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture. Mix and pour into a loaf pan.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes.
6. While pumpkin bread is baking, make the coffee frosting.
Dissolve instant coffee in equal amounts of room temperature water. (If using ½ tablespoon of instant coffee, use ½ tablespoon of water to dissolve.)
Using an electric mixer, mix butter and cream cheese while gradually pouring in confectioners sugar.
Stir in vanilla extract and dissolved instant coffee.
7. Take pumpkin bread out of the oven, let it cool. Then top with coffee frosting and nuts if desired.
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