This moist and delicious loaf will fill your home with the smell of pumpkin spice and blacksrap molasses whilst it bakes.
If you are using a conventional oven pre-heat it to 165 degrees (we will cook it low and slow).
To make a standard loaf tin loaf approx 8 generous slices
Ingredients For the pumpkin loaf
1 cup of tapioca flour
1/2 cup of ground almonds
1/2 of a cold cooked medium onion squash flesh (I cooked mine in the instant pot for 10 mins on high pressure and mashed it up with a fork and refrigerated it in an airtight container for a day until I was ready to use it).
2 eggs
1/2 cup of blackstrap molasses
1/4 cup of honey
1 heaped tsp of mixed spice (a commonly found spice blend for cakes such as carrot cake and gingerbread).
Pinch of salt
1 tsp of GF bicarb of soda (such as Doves)
3/4 of a can of full-fat no additives coconut milk - that's 3/4 of the fat at the top and a 3/4 of the liquid (you could save the remaining 1/4 in the fridge for a smoothie or add to soups or curry- it also freezes well).
Optional glaze
1 cup of powdered sugar
Juice of 1 medium orange
1. MIx all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and then add the wet ingredients and stir until lump free- you may want to blend the onion squash flesh in a blender but I just used a fork as I like the consistency a little more in the finished loaf.
2. Poor the batter into a lined loaf tin (I used a ready-made paper loaf tin liner from Lakeland which makes it easy.
3. I then baked on the 'baking' setting in my air fryer for a full hour. If using a conventional oven bake at 165 for about an hour to ensure it is cooked through.
4. Once the loaf has cooled a bit you can make the glaze if using. Simply stire the orange juice into the sugar until you have a liquid icing and pour over the loaf whislt it is in the paper liner and tin as a lot runs off.
5. Store the leftovers in the fridge in an airtight glass container to prevent it drying out. This cake will only be good for up to 2 days max.
This loaf is lovely served with a cup of coffee mid-afternoon on a cold day!
Enjoy! Nicola
Nutrition fact: Blackstrap molasses is one of the best sweeteners to use in terms of nutrition. It has a much lower glycemic load than other sweeteners with a score of 55. Just one tablespoon contains 42 calories, 20% of the RDA of iron, 7.5 % of the RDA of B vitamins, 11% of the RDA of magnesium, 17.6% of the RDA of calcium, 27% of the RDA of manganese among other nutrients. It is actually classed as a nutrient-dense food! (It still contains sugar though)!
