Pumpkin Bread with Bay Leaf Syrup

An easy, moist pumpkin bread filled with warming spices and topped with an herbal bay leaf syrup and crunchy pumpkin seeds.

Does the world need another pumpkin bread recipe? Probably not. Am I going to give you one anyway? You bet your bottom dollar.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a pumpkin spice latte kinda gal, but a good loaf of pumpkin bread is something I can get behind. Like banana and zucchini bread, pumpkin bread is just good. It’s good in the morning with a cup of coffee, it’s good in the afternoon slathered with butter. It’s good fresh out of the oven, and it’s good 3 days later. It’s good in a house or with a mouse or here or there…you get the idea. It’s easy and satisfying and exactly how I want to celebrate the first few minutes of fall.

a very simple pumpkin bread

This pumpkin bread is fairly straight forward featuring a blending method technique and your usual cast of characters: flour, sugar, brown sugar, leavening agents, salt, spices, oil, eggs, and pumpkin. The addition of brown sugar gives a more caramelized flavor, while the oil, eggs, and pumpkin make this bread super moist. (And that’s a good word in this case!)

I’ve included a bunch of warming spices, but if you have a chai spice blend or hawaij spice blend laying around from our Dirty Chai Banana Bread or Hawaij Snickerdoodles, feel free to sub that instead. You could also use store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice.

Finally, the thing that makes pumpkin bread so dense and moist is oil. Oil is a liquid fat with no water content so it gives a softness and density to this cake that a creamed butter recipe wouldn’t. I used avocado oil, but you can substitute any neutral oil (like grapeseed or vegetable) in its place. Or, if you are like me and love that savory olive oil flavor in your desserts, a good, fragrant olive oil would work really nicely.

bay leaf simple syrup

You know I couldn’t just make a basic pumpkin bread and leave it at that.

We finish this loaf with a bay leaf simple syrup made by simmering sugar, water, and dried bay leaves. It’s herbal and grassy and complements the pumpkin flavor so well. It also sticks to the pumpkin seeds creating a crunchy outer shell that I’m 100% here for.

Yield

one 9x5" loaf

Author

Anna Ramiz

Prep time

10 Min

Cook time

1 Hour

Total time

1 H & 10 M

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Pumpkin Bread with Bay Leaf Syrup

An easy, moist pumpkin bread filled with warming spices and topped with an herbal bay leaf syrup and crunchy pumpkin seeds.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups (280 g) all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon*
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom*
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg*
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves*
• 1/4 tsp ground all spice*
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger*
• 1/2 cup (106 g) brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup (150 g) avocado oil*
• 2 eggs
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
• 2 tbsp demerara sugar, for sprinkling
• 3 tbsp pumpkin seeds, for sprinkling

for the bay leaf syrup

• 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (50 g) water
• 3 dried bay leaves

Instructions

to make the pumpkin bread

1. Preheat the oven to 325° F. Line a 9x5” loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, sugar, and avocado oil for 1-2 minutes, until mixture is lightened slightly. Add the eggs and whisk again until smooth and homogenized. Whisk in the pumpkin.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and whisk until batter is smooth and no flour clumps remain. Pour the batter into your prepared baking pan and sprinkle the top with demerara sugar and pumpkin seeds.
5. Bake for 55-65 minutes, until a skewer or knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. When the bread is done, remove from oven and pour the bay leaf syrup over the top. Let cool completely in the pan.

to make the bay leaf syrup

1. Combine sugar, water, and bay leaves in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes, until fragrant and sugar has completely dissolved.

Notes:

• You can substitute the spices for 1 3/4 tsp of my chai spice blend or hawaij spice blend.
• If you don't have avocado oil, you can use another neutral oil like vegetable, sunflower, or grapeseed.

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Honey Lavender Orange Loaf Cake

This simple honey and orange loaf cake recipe is drizzled with a lavender simple syrup. Plus, recipe includes tips for making a great loaf cake and advice on how to adapt your cakes based on the fruit and florals you have on hand.

The large majority of my recipe ideas come from me trying to figure out what to do with random ingredients that are left hanging out in my fridge or pantry. Being a recipe developer, I’m often left with deli containers filled with small scoops of custards, syrups, or ganaches that I’m continually working to repurpose. I am also passionate about cooking and baking with as much in-season produce as possible, a habit that regularly leaves me buying more fruit than I need just because they are in season and oh so pretty. This is how this honey lavender and orange loaf cake came to be. A scrap bake at its finest.

You guys know how much I love teaching fundamental baking. For so many, baking can be scary and rigid and needs specific ratios and times in order for things to turn out correctly. While this is somewhat true, once you understand the roles that ingredients play in a product, baking can be creative and inspired and uniquely your own. I’m so passionate about this idea, that I wrote an e-book on it and I teach virtual baking classes to help you gain confidence and learn how to adapt baked goods to suit your refrigerator.

a very simple loaf cake

Loaf cakes are a great back-pocket bake. Because of their shape and density, they hold moisture well and last a bit longer than individual bakes, like cookies and brownies. They are also a great travel bake—it’s easy to wrap a slice up and take it on the road with you. They are also fairly straightforward, utilizing ingredients you probably already have in your pantry, like flour, butter, sugar, and eggs. This makes them the perfect vessel for flavor adaptation.

how to adapt your loaf cakes

You can definitely use this recipe as is and it will turn out beautifully. The honey lavender syrup complements the floral orange flavor in a way that shouts “spring is here”! But because I’m invested you experimenting and playing with flavors in your kitchen, here are a few ways you can adapt this recipe.

The fruit

Citrus is a great baking fruit because you’re able to use all of the components: fruit, zest, and juice. You can easily substitute another citrus fruit, like lemon or lime, in place of the orange in this recipe. You can also fold in whole fruits, like raspberries, strawberries, or blueberries. Simply omit the orange zest, replace the orange juice with milk or buttermilk, and fold your berries in just before pouring the batter into the pan.

The syrup

You can swap the lavender for pretty much any herb or flower that you like. If you want to omit the honey flavor, make a sugar syrup by replacing the honey with sugar and simmering until all of the granules have dissolved. Soaking a cake in a flavored syrup contributes both moisture and flavor to your final baked good.

a few other scrap-baking projects to explore:

Fig Butter and Bleu Cheese Rugelach

Bananas Foster Eton Mess

Caramel Brownie Ice Cream

Floral Strawberry Poptarts

Yield: makes one 9x5" loaf cake

Author: Anna Ramiz

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Honey Lavender and Orange Loaf Cake

Prep time: 25 MinCook time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 25 M

Inspired by Violet Bakery's Lemon Drizzle Loaf, this citrus pound cake is soaked with honey lavender syrup.

Ingredients

for the honey lavender syrup

• 1 cup of honey
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp lavender buds

for the cake

• 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (85 g) honey
• 1 large orange, zested
• 3 eggs
• 1 3/4 cup (220 g) all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 3 tbsp whole-milk, plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup honey lavender syrup

Instructions

to make the honey lavender syrup

1. Combine honey, water, and lavender in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until mixture is bubbly and fragrant. Remove from heat, cool, and strain out lavender buds. Store syrup in the fridge for up to a week.

to make the cake

1. Preheat oven to 350° F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a small measuring cup, whisk together yogurt and orange juice and set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, sugar, honey, and orange zest. Cream for 3-4 minutes, until mixture is light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. With the mixer on low speed, add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.
5. Gradually add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the yogurt/orange juice mixture. Mix until just combined and no dry streaks remain. Fold the batter a few times with a rubber spatula to ensure everything is well-mixed. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, until cake is deeply golden brown and a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Prick the warm cake with a fork and pour honey lavender syrup over the cake. Let cool completely before removing from the baking pan and slicing.

Notes:

This recipe makes more honey lavender syrup than you need for the recipe, but that's okay because it's so versatile. I love to add it to cocktails and I drink it in my iced coffee all summer long.

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Grapefruit Poppy Seed Cake with Bay Leaf Glaze: Bundt-Muffins and a Loaf!

I don’t know about you, but it has a been a week over here! Last week, I went to plug my external hard drive into my computer and it started making a very suspect clicking noise. It refused to show up on my computer and when I tell you that my heart dropped into my stomach, I am not exaggerating. I spent the next few hours unsuccessfully trying to get my computer to read my hard drive, followed by a few days of anxious hand-wringing and lots of tears. Friends, it’s gone. My pictures from the last three years. All of the typed copies of my recipes. Invoices and business information. It’s all gone. (I’m still planning on sending my hard drive away to a magical technologically-advanced person in hopes that they can recover all of my data, but that’s a pricey expense, so at least for now, it’s all gone.) It’s been a lot to wrap my head around and part of me feels a little like I’m starting over completely, which is a very scary thing. I’m very thankful that I run this here blog, where all of my recipes are saved on the internet. I’m also thankful that I have a plethora of notebooks full of scribbled recipes. I’m extra thankful that I’d already uploaded a bunch of images for the freelance projects I was working on and that I use a design website for a lot of my invoicing. All of that being said, losing all that you’ve created over the past three years is very emotionally-taxing and calls for cake.

So I’ve been trying to focus on things I can control, prying my eyes away from my computer and getting back to baking new things. These cute little bundt-muffins have been the perfect distraction this week. I set out to make little bundt cakes, but slightly over-filled my molds. When I took the cakes out of the oven, they had risen into perfect little muffin tops that I couldn’t bear to get rid of, so here we have bundt-muffins—the newest breakfast cake you didn’t know you needed. This cake recipe is also the most versatile I’ve ever made. In addition to 12 little bundt-muffins, it makes an entire loaf cake. Or you can make a bunch of bundt-muffins and no loaf cake. Or you can make two loaf cakes! Or you can make just plain muffins, no bundt. Or you can even try baking it in a 9x13 pan! SO MANY OPTIONS. Whatever combination brings you the most joy, I’m here for it.

A few practical notes: You can sub the grapefruit for any citrus you have on hand and the bay leaves for another hearty herb or flower. While I love the grapefruit-bay leaf flavor combo, a lemon rosemary pairing would be delightful, as would an orange-bay leaf or lime-coconut duo. As always with my recipes, I encourage you to play around a bit.

grapefruit, loaf cake, bundt, citrus, cake, baking

cakes and pies

Yield: Makes 12 miniature bundt-muffins + 1 loaf

Author: Anna Ramiz

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Grapefruit and Poppy Seed Baby Bundt-Muffins (+ Loaf) with Bay Leaf Glaze

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 20 M

Ingredients

for the cake

• 1 cup +2 tbsp (250 g) buttermilk
• 1/2 cup (130 g) whole-milk greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cup (280 g) granulated sugar
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• Juice of 1/2 of a large grapefruit
• Zest of a whole large grapefruit
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 2/3 cup + 1 tbsp (460 g) all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp poppy seeds

for the glaze

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 bay leaves (dried)
• 1 1/2 cups (180 g) powdered sugar
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Grease 12 miniature bundt pans with butter and dust with flour. Grease a loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
2. In a large measuring cup, stir together buttermilk and yogurt. Add baking soda and set aside while you prepare the rest of the batter. (The mixture will get foamy, it’s just the acid reacting with the baking soda.)
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and poppy seeds. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugar. Beat for 1-2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the grapefruit zest and vanilla and mix again to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
5. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, followed by the grapefruit juice.
6. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk in 3:2 increments- 1/3 dry, 1/2 buttermilk, 1/3 dry, 1/2 buttermilk, 1/3 dry. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and fold batter a few times with a rubber spatula to ensure that the mixture is combined and homogenous.
7. Place just under 1/2 of the batter into a piping bag and pipe into the prepared bundt pans, filling 2/3 full. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown, and then cool for 5 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a cooling rack.
8. While the miniature bundts are baking, pour the remaining batter into the loaf pan and smooth with an offset spatula.
9. Turn the oven temperature down to 350°F and bake the loaf for 45-50 minutes until golden brown and a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 20-30 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack.

to make the glaze

1. Combine heavy cream and bay leaves in a small saucepan. Turn heat to medium low and bring cream to a simmer. When hot and just starting to bubble, remove the cream from the stove and cover. Let steep for 30 minutes, then strain out bay leaves.
2. Place powdered sugar and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in 6-8 tablespoons of the steeped cream, adding more by the tablespoon to reach your desired consistency. Drizzle over muffins and loaf immediately.

Notes:

You can sub the grapefruit for any citrus you have on hand and the bay leaves for another hearty herb or flower. While I love the grapefruit-bay leaf flavor combo, a lemon rosemary pairing would be delightful, as would an orange-bay leaf or lime-coconut duo. As always with my recipes, I encourage you to play around a bit.

https://www.gatheredatmytable.com/main/2021/1/28/grapefruit-poppy-seed-cake-with-bay-leaf-glaze-bundt-muffins-and-a-loaf

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