jenojoon

My husband and I have been taking a personal finance course that meets once a week. We’re learning all kinds of cool things about saving and retirement and investing… but this post isn’t really about any of that. It’s about the treats I made to share with the class!

At the first session of our class (back in September) everyone signed up for a date to bring treats to share. I chose the Monday before Thanksgiving because I knew I wanted to bring something pumpkin-y (of course!).

I decided to make some sort of pumpkin quick bread. So I turned to my trusty Better Homes & Gardens cookbook for ideas. I love this book and I’ve been able to very easily modify lots of baked goods recipes to omit eggs and dairy. Sure enough, I found a recipe for pumpkin loaves and all I had to do to modify was use Ener-G egg replacer instead of eggs. Otherwise I followed the recipe, except I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract because I love the way vanilla mellows out spice cakes just a touch.

naked bundt!

So then it was time to spoon the batter in the pans… A Bundt pan makes the presentation so much more beautiful that a plain old loaf pan. The batter was very thick and it filled the Bundt pan up to the top! I was a little worried that it would overflow or that it wouldn’t cook evenly. But I monitored carefully (with thanks for the advice from the lovely Rosewater & Thyme) after the allotted 55 minutes recommended for two loaves, and ended up cooking the Bundt for 17 extra minutes. I covered the top loosely with foil after the initial 55 minutes because it was already perfectly browned by that point.The bread slid out of the pan easily and after it cooled I drizzled it generously with a simple vanilla spice icing. This icing would be awesome on cinnamon rolls for Thanksgiving brunch or on top of pretty much any pumpkin or spice cake, cupcakes, breads, rolls, or ginger bread! Go crazy- ice it up!

drizzled bundt!

Spiced Vanilla-Molasses Icing:

• 1 cup sift powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice blend
• 1 tablespoon soy, almond, or rice milk (or water)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 tablespoon molasses

Stir the sifted sugar and spice together. Add the milk and mix until mostly incorporated. Add the vanilla and molasses and stir until completely incorporated. It should be the perfect drizzling consistency but you can add more milk or water in drops until it reaches the thinness/thickness you desire.