Starbucks Copycat Pumpkin Loaf
I've been making this for over a decade
IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
Inner monologue: (not) monetizing my social media
Recipe: Starbucks Pumpkin Loaf
I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself lately to create content. If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while you’ll have noticed a common theme in my inner monologue: monetization.
When I started posting on social media 3 years ago, it was all around promoting my web app foodshake, which lets you convert your recipes from non-vegan to vegan.
But once I started connecting with other vegans, I realized it was fun to create just for the sake of creating.
But after some initial success (i.e., my first viral rice cooker video) I started to think, “Wait, could I actually make money posting on social media?”
In the end, no, I haven’t really monetized. There are a few of you who pay to support this newsletter, and I am incredibly grateful for that.
But other than that, I’m just too busy with my day job to figure out a monetization strategy at the moment. If any of you have an idea about how I can monetize, let me know.
For now, I will keep sharing for the sake of spreading veganism through positivity!
Anyways, let’s get to the recipe.
It’s pretty much a copy of the Starbucks Pumpkin Loaf, but I’ve been making since I was in first year university. Or even before that! So that’s about… over a decade. I’ll let you guess how many years exactly, lol.
This recipe is great because:
it’s super beginnger friendly,
it’s vegan (of course),
uses normal ingredients (no fancy stuff here),
doesn’t require a specific egg replacement (the pumpkin and baking soda/powder take care of that),
AND it can be made gluten free if you use ground oats instead of white flour.
Starbucks Copycat Pumpkin Loaf
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes
Tools:
An oven
A loaf pan - typically 9x5 inches
Ingredients
Wet
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/4 cup pumpkin purée
1 tsp vanilla
Dry
1 1/2 cup white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
Spices
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Optional
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
Method
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Celsius. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper or grease it.
Mix together all the wet ingredients in a large bowl.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet, and then add in the spices. Mix until just combined.
Pour into the loaf pan.
Optional: top with pumpkin seeds.
Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
This could be between 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes (or more!) depending on your oven, and depending on whether or not you use white flour or oat flour (more on that in the Substitutions and Notes section).
Enjoy! It keeps in the fridge for a week. And it freezes well. And it makes a great gift :)
Link to printer version.
PS: if you look closely, you might notice this is eerily similar to the Rice Cooker Sponge Cake I shared last week…
Make it gluten free! Ground up 2 1/4 cups oats into a flour. Use in place of the white flour. You will need to bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Don’t like pumpkin? Try swapping out the pumpkin purée for mashed banana.
What’s the egg replacement? The of baking soda, and baking powder make up for the leavening effect of an egg. The pumpkin makes up for the moistening effect of egg.
Vegetable oil: sub for any oil of your choice. Coconut oil, olive oil, etc.
Brown sugar / white sugar: Feel free to use entirely white sugar, or entirely brown sugar. It’s up to your tastes.
White flour: Sub oat flour (grind 2 1/4 cup oats into a flour). You will need to bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.