Pumpkin, orange and raisin loaf

I love to bake. It just makes me happy. And one of the memories I have of growing up is baking on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and taking it out to my dad who was usually in the garage or watching some sport on TV. My mum wasn’t as much of a fan of our baking because we’d make a mess. So she would always say, without fail,  just make sure you clean up. And we never really cleaned up enough but we always had fun. And it’s so nice to be starting the love of baking early in this house. This picture could have been of Keira as a little one who was always in the kitchen with me.

I have to admit that this was the first time I’ve cooked with canned pumpkin. It’s just not very Australian but I had 3 cans of the stuff in my pantry and knew I had to do something with them before they went out of date. I opened the can, took a look and a whiff and thought I’d made a huge mistake. No one is going to want to eat this recipe. And I found it hard to find a pumpkin baking recipe in all my aussie cookbooks but I’ve adapted a CWA recipe that called for 500g butter . Now trust me you won’t miss it. This is much easier and better for you and tastes delicious.

And although I was a bit scared off by the pumpkin,  once you mix in all the good stuff – butter, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, eggs and more…… well it’s just delicious! I get it! I know why all those americans are pinning lots of pumpkin recipes.

Now I need to point out that I started this recipe in my Thermomix only to discover that it wasn’t all going to fit and moved it to my Kitchen Aid. Thermomix bowls are big but this is a huge recipe. So if you don’t have a big mixer or you want to do the whole lot in your Thermomix ,I have a few suggestions. Split the recipe in half and bake 1 loaf. Or start making the recipe with the ingredients as they are and then split the mixture in half after you’ve added the pumpkin and coconut. Continue in 2 batches before placing both in a large bowl together and mix in your raisins with a spatula. It’s up to you.

 

5.0 from 4 reviews
Pumpkin, orange and raisin loaf
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
A delicious treat that is great for lunchboxes or with a cuppa. This was a real hit with our family.
Author:
Recipe type: Baking
Serves: 20
What you'll need
  • 250g unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup caster sugar
  • 1 orange, rind and juice
  • a good dash of vanilla essence
  • 4 eggs
  • 425g can of pumpkin
  • 1 cup desiccated coconut
  • 1 cup raisins or sultanas
  • 1Tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup milk
  • 4 cups self raising flour, sifted
Instructions
  1. Place sugar and orange rind in TM bowl and process 10 seconds on speed 9. Alternatively do this in food processor or manually grate zest and add to sugar.
  2. Add in cubed butter and vanilla essence. Cream together in TM for 20-30 seconds on speed 4. You can do this in a Kitchen Aid, mixer or with a hand mixer.
  3. Add in eggs one at a time. I do this by taking out the measuring cup on my Thermomix with the machine running at speed 4.
  4. Mix well and add in the pumpkin, juice and the coconut. Process 20 seconds speed 4. At this point I moved my huge cake mixture to my Kitchen Aid.
  5. Now add in half the flour, all of the cinnamon and gently combine. I kept my Kitchen Aid on low speed.
  6. Add in the milk, combine again then add in the rest of the flour.
  7. Now you want to add your raisins and I take my bowl off the Kitchen Aid and using a spatula mix in the raisins. Dust them in flour to prevent them from sinking to the bottom.
  8. Line a loaf tin with baking paper and place half the mixture in. Spread the top over with a wet knife.
  9. Place into a preheated oven 170C/350F and bake for at least 50 minutes until a skewer or knife comes out clean. My first loaf took an hour and my 2nd 50 minutes.
  10. Increase your baking time if you are going to bake 2 loaves at the same time or put the whole mixture in one tin. It's a dense loaf so it's going to take time.
  11. Leave to cool before slicing. I couldn't wait that long so sliced off each end for myself and left it to cool on the rack.

Comments

  1. Yum!!!

  2. That looks so delicious! I can’t wait to give the recipe a try. Love the printable recipe feature on your new site :)
    Jasmine

  3. Oh my goodness, this sounds DELICIOUS!! Where can I buy the canned pumpkin? I think this will definitely go on my baking list for next weekend, thank you SO much for sharing!

  4. Canned pumpkin doesn’t sound very appealing but this sounds like a good way to sneak extra verges into kids.

  5. Oh this looks delicious. I am not sure about the canned pumpkin though.

    thanks for the recipe.

  6. Thanks Corrie I will be cooking this for my farmer hubbie tomorrow. Keep the yummy recipes coming.

  7. Yeah, we’re ALL about canned pumpkin over here!

  8. I have never seen canned pumpkin in the supermarket. Is it readily available? Does anyone know where you can buy it? Would love to try this recipe. Thanks!!

  9. Grade 1/2 Class Murtou College says:

    Hi we like your recipe and blog. We are learning about blogs in class, and yours is helping us how to understand. It looks yummy!

  10. Sounds great. I have been on the lookout for canned pumpkin in Australia for years – where ever did you find it?? I have an AMAZING pumpkin pie recipe that uses either canned pumpkin or fresh. Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll send it!

  11. Your quick banana bread was a hit in our family, can’t wait to try this one. Do think I can half the recipe to make one loaf? Loving your new website……

  12. This looks ymmy Corrie. I have a heap of yellow seet potatoes I think they are called Taros. Could I use them instead of pumpkin?

  13. The cake looks very yummy & I’ll be making one – but slightly ot looking at that can of pumpkin makes me very nervous – the type of can opener you’ve used should be banned, a family member suffered a very nasty injury after stepping on a can like that which had fallen on the kitchen floor & needed emergency surgery & extensive rehab for a severed tendon, so now we always warn of the danger of those nasty can openers which leave a razor sharp edge which from the pic looks like yours may do. So with so many little ones do yourself a favour & throw it out’

    Sorry to dampen your post – the cake does look lovely

  14. OK OK, I’m definitely going to make it

  15. Sam Savage says:

    Yum! Could you just use real pumpkin purée if you can’t find the canned stuff? So looking forward to making this :)

  16. Natasha Edwards says:

    OMG this is sensational! I made this recipe yesterday with a few adjustments to make it gluten and dairy free. Also used pumpkin purée instead of trying to find canned pumpkin. Sooooooo good. This ones made it into my fave recipes notebook after only one preparation! Thank you so much 😀

    • Rochelle says:

      Hi Natasha. Can I please ask what you used to make it dairy free. Coconut oil or Nuttalex? I make a pumpkin loaf with gf flour & coconut oil & this sounds lovely too.

  17. Off to try it! Sounds like a good Saturday cake!

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