* 3 cups sugar
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 4 eggs, lightly beaten
* 1 (16 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
* 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
* 1/2 cup water
Aprox prep time: 15 minutes
Aprox cooking time: 1 hour
Directions:
- Buy half a pumpkin from your neighborhood vegetable stand. Buy flour and baking soda from Manandhar’s. Wait, do you have baking soda? Yes, ma’am, we do. Comes back with unlabeled bag of white powder costing 25 rupees. Just buy it and trust the guy that its baking soda.
- Cut pumpkin in half, and bake for one hour in a 175 degrees C oven. Make a cup of tea and watch “Sarkar Raj” while waiting for pumpkin. Pumpkin ends up taking 1 hour and 45 minutes to cook, requiring an extra cup of tea and more viewing of “Sarkar Raj.” After pumpkin cools and “Sarkar Raj” is finished, scrape pumpkin pulp into plastic Tupperware, mash with potato masher and put in fridge.
- Next day, decide that 1 cup of oil is a lot; will substitute applesauce instead as one online user suggested. Wait, I don’t have applesauce. Buy four apples, four eggs and one package of Coconut Crunchie biscuits from the corner store on the way home from work. Peel and boil apples, mash with potato masher. Add about 2 tablespoons of freshly grated ginger to the softened apples.
- Ok, I have electricity between 2PM and 8PM today. That should be plenty of time to make the bread.
- Wait, I don’t have nutmeg, cloves or allspice. Go to another corner store and come back with only ground cloves—80 rupees for 100 grams. Ginger, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom seeds will have to suffice.
- Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
- Combine only 2 cups of sugar, eggs and applesauce. Add pumpkin and mix well. Add double the amount of all spices. Add flour, double amount of baking soda, one teaspoon of baking powder (this will need all the help to rise it can get). Put into butter greased loaf pans. Wait, we have two loaf pans… go to upstairs flat to search for missing loaf pan. Return to lower kitchen triumphant. Pour batter into loaf pans and put into oven to bake.
- Wait, oh dang, I forgot the water…oh well.
- Wash up all dishes: wash, dip in boiling water, allow to air dry.
- Bread is baked! Enjoy with fresh cup of milk tea =)
