The great pumpkin bake off.

So as you can imagine, with all this talk of pumpkins recently, that I in fact am far from short of supply. The thing is I don't actually 'like' pumpkin. Well not roasted or mashed or as a soup. Doesn't interest me, would much rather sweet potato. However, I do like pumpkin in baked goodies.

My Mum gave me a pumpkin scone recipe years ago when I left home. And it never really worked for me, and quite frankly the enjoyment of flavours was from the jams I used to eat them with. So this time I decided to hunt around and see what delicious pumpkiny baked goodness I could find.

As usual Taste.com.au come up with the goods, with this Pumpkin Loaf , and today I gave it a shot.
This recipe was easy to follow. I used jap pumpkin instead of butternut and found that 650g of pumpkin that is cooked and pureed does not equal 1 cup. I have a 2nd cup in the fridge waiting to be used for something else later. The tonne and a half of brown sugar is a little scary though. I am yet to pop this one in the calorie counter because then it might mean I won't be able to ever eat it again without making sure I sweat it out at the gym for 2 hours before hand.

The smell of it is divine! I just love that freshed baked spicy cake smell in the house, it makes everything feel so homely, especially on a windy drizzly day like we are having. I couldn't wait anymore than 10 minutes before I cut it for Buggles and myself to sample.

Of course it should have butter on it. Why waste a perfectly good opportunity to add butter to a freshly baked loaf of something delicious. And it was delicious! It was sort of like date loaf, spicy and sweet but not as heavy. More flavoursome than banana bread (I'm getting tired of banana things honestly) and definitely something you want to go back for more of. And again, like all things I bake, perfect to freeze and pop in lunch boxes. Just don't tell the kids there's pumpkin in it until after they tell you how yummy it was.

So with Pumpkin Loaf tested and highly appreciated, I did a bit more hunting and popped the word pumpkin in to the search engine at TasteSpotting.com . OMG! This site has you gain weight just looking at the photos. Everything is so ..... droolalicious!

Just a few that I fell in love with at first sight, and some I might just test out are:

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins from Vicarious Foodie
These look similar to the loaf recipe and again would make great lunch box filler, along with the Pumpkin Streusel Maxi Muffins care of canarygirl.com.

However, for something more decedent and for a special occasion, Peabody at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody has the heartwarming and gooey Pumpkin Raisin Bread Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce , and yes, it looks as good as it sounds. She also has Pumpkin Cheesecake Towers. How can this not taste awesome?! I am thinking of an excuse for a dinner party just so I have an excuse to try this one out.

Now, I best go find something to make with that cup of pureed pumpkin in the fridge. And make sure my gym gear is washed because I just know I need to go tonight!