This is one of my favorite holiday recipes. I love to buy cute little Christmas loaf pans and give mini loaves of this spicy, cake-like bread as gifts.

Preheat oven to 350° F

2 c. all-purpose Flour

½ t. salt

½ t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

¾ t. ground cloves

¾ t. ground nutmeg

1 t. ground cinnamon

½ t. ground all spice

2 c. granulated sugar

1 ½ sticks of butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 – 15 oz. can of pumpkin

Grease 2 – 8” x 4” loaf pans OR 12 muffin cups. (You can also use about 6 mini loaf pans – they make great gifts!)

Whisk all dry ingredients together in a medium bowl & set aside.

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric stand mixer & cream together. Add the eggs, one at a time & beat until light and fluffy.

Beat in pumpkin.

On low speed, add the flour mixture, a little at a time, until well combined.

Divide evenly into pans (or muffin cups) and bake at 350° F for about 60 minutes, or until a pick inserted near the center comes out clean. (This will be closer to 50 minutes for muffins or mini loaves.)

This recipe can be easily doubled, but use a rubber spatula and scrape the bowl to make certain that everything mixes well. You can, of course, mix it all by hand if you don’t have a stand mixer. I did it that way for many years myself.