The return of cold weather also signals the return of pumpkin flavored food (and drink)! My absolute favorite thing to eat at Thanksgiving is my dad’s pumpkin pie. Every year, he’s kind enough to make me my own pie; I’m never quite able to get through it on my own, so I end up sharing some with the family a few days later. :-P But still! It’s the idea of having my very own pie that delights me.
Last year at the Renegade Craft Fair, I bought my dad this pie print. It really reminded me of him because he’s a master pie creator and he also used to quote Dr. Evil from Austin Powers. :) His favorite gesture was the “Dr. Evil pinky.”
Okay, back to the pumpkin bread! To create this loaf, you use a pumpkin cookie cutter to cut out pumpkin-shaped slices of bread. You place the cutouts back into the loaf pan and pour the pound cake batter over them. Then everything bakes and the pumpkin surprise inside is revealed once you slice into the pound cake.
The Makings:
- Pumpkin bread mix – 1 box
- Pound cake mix – 1 box
- Eggs – 4
- Canola oil
- Butter
- Orange food coloring
- Cream cheese icing
- Chopped nuts – I used walnuts for the topping
- Pumpkin cookie cutter
The Sweetness:
1. Prepare pumpkin bread mix as directed on the package. Stir in food coloring to give the batter more of an orange color. I used drops of red and yellow food coloring to create my orange tint.
2. Pour batter into a 9×5 inch loaf pan. Consult recommended baking times on package and bake for 5-10 minutes less. (The bread will have time to bake again.)
3. Remove loaf from pan and let it cool. Cut into thick slices and then use pumpkin cookie cutter to create pumpkin shapes from slices. (My cookie cutter was too large to use for slices, so I only used about 2/3 of the shape. I marked my end points with masking tape to ensure evenly sized cutouts.)
4. Place cutouts in greased loaf pan and then prepare pound cake mix as directed.
5. Pour pound cake batter atop pumpkin bread slices in loaf pan. Be careful not to overfill the pan. (You will likely have extra pound cake batter remaining.)
6. Bake pound cake as directed. Remove from loaf pan and allow time to cool. 
Make Me Something Sweet 