Starbucks Gingerbread Loaf

I love the sweet breads they serve at Starbucks. The lemon bread and the pumpkin bread, but most of all the gingerbread loaf.

 I went online in search of the recipe and discovered it is right there on the Starbucks website. Who knew? I wish I had known this earlier, it would have saved me a decent amount of money (a slice is about $3.00 a piece!).  The bread turned out so good! Well, this is an understatement, I don't even know how to describe how delicious this is. I think it is the perfect balance of spices. When I saw the 2 1/4 teaspoons of ginger I thought this seemed like a lot, but it is just in perfect harmony with the cinnamon and cloves. The hint of orange elevates it even more. If you don't have any orange flavoring I would suggest zesting some orange peel right into the batter. The orange peel on top was a substitute for candied ginger, but it really just took the whole taste experience over the top. This is gingerbread bliss!

Here is the recipe slightly adapted (I introduced an egg!):

Ingredients for the loaf:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon orange extract (I used orange blossom water), or orange zest
1 egg, at room temperature
1 cup natural applesauce

Ingredients for frosting:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange extract (again I used the orange blossom water)
2 cups powdered sugar
Orange peel or chopped candied ginger, for garnish,

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and dust a 9x5 loaf pan, set aside.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in orange flavoring and egg. Mix well. Add applesauce and mix until well incorporated. Start adding flour mixture a little at a time and mix until batter is smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan and continuing to cool.

Make frosting:
Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add vanilla and orange flavoring. Slowly beat in powdered sugar.
Once loaf has cooled, evenly spread the frosting on top ( and sides if you want) as thick as you want it to be. Garnish with orange peel. The loaf and frosting will firm up nicely as it sits. The bread is possibly even better the next day as the flavors intensify.

Depending on slice thickness, this loaf will serve 8-10