Spiced pumpkin mini loaves

Happy Halloween peeps! So were you dressed up as the slutty nurse or the horny devil???  ;)

I had quite an eventful weekend with all the pub hopping and partying leaving me absolutely hung over and a wee bit bummed that my lovely cousins headed back to the US this evening. It was a really wild week and lemme just leave it at that.

With regard to the pumpkin, it was eventful as well. I had never ever tasted pumpkins and this time I decided to pick a small one and carve. Ended up with indeed a teeny tiny one and had no choice but to just stare at it and say how darn cute it looked. And then Ro got me all worked up to carve and I decided to head to the grocery store at 8 in the night. A trip that would have taken me 15 mins in total took over half an hour..talk about my absent mindedness. I was still unusually excited about the carving even after that long chakkar and so went ahead and did it anyway..well drew it all out and then got Ro to do it (that's really the trick you know). We were mighty pleased with the outcome and here's a pic...

Now I couldn't throw away the pumpkin so after googling quite a bit and when I put this question on FB, my brothers friend H who also happens to be a grad. from The Culinary Inst. of America suggested pumpkin bread and I knew that was it. So here goes:

Recipe halved from here

Pumpkin purée- 1 cup

Granulated sugar- 1 1/2 cups

Water- 1/2 cup

Vegetable oil- 1/2 cup

Eggs- 2

Plain flour- 1 1/2 cups

Baking soda- 1 tsp

Cinnamon powder- 1 tsp

Nutmeg- 1/4 tsp

Baking powder- 1/2 tsp

Ground cloves- 1/4 tsp

Salt- 1/2 tsp

I had no clue how to make pumpkin puree and so blindly followed DK's version from here

In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spice powders

In another large bowl, using a spatula or wire whisk, mix together the pumpkin purée, sugar, water, oil and eggs till well combined.

Mix in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients bit by bit and mix till well combined and lump free.

Pour into a greased loaf tin or mini loaves and bake in an oven pre-heated at 176C for 60 to 70 minutes and if it is in mini loaf tins then for about 30 to 40 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

Once done cool on wire racks and store in an air tight container for up to a week.

It was an incredibly moist cake and im in love with the flavours. Dab some cream cheese frosting on it and its a perfect Autumn tea-time snack.

Sending this to Monthly Mingle event hosted by Deeba, brainchild of Meeta, and the theme this month is Fruit in baking.