This is a quick, tall, not too dense quick bread that is moist and has good flavors! What more could you ask for? Have you ever wondered whether you can substitute cream cheese for the butter in a cake or quick bread? It turns out you can, but you may want to add a little oil with it.

This cake is based on a lemon poppy seed cake, with a substitute of cream cheese and oil for the butter, and, of course, guava for the lemon ingredients and flavors. I decided not to add guava puree, pulp, or paste, because I wanted to keep the ingredient list short and the recipe to be easy. And what could be easier than a quick bread recipe, right?

If you can only find frozen guava juice concentrate that is mixed with another fruit like strawberry or pineapple, go ahead and use that. Also, if you can’t find any frozen guava juice concentrate, you could probably use guava nectar, just make sure to boil it down a little to concentrate the flavor. The cream cheese icing is just a suggestion, but a strong one. It goes really well with the flavor of guava.

guava poppy seed quick bread with cream cheese icing (based on this recipe)

ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp + 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2.5 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup guava juice concentrate, thawed to room temperature
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
2 drops of pink or red food coloring, optional

optional cream cheese icing: 1 ounce cream cheese, 1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar, pinch salt, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract , and 2-3 Tablespoons heavy cream. Whisk together until pourable or spreadable but still slightly thick; adjust with either more heavy cream or powdered sugar, if it’s too thick or thin.

method

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line an 8.4 x 4.5 rectangular loaf pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, and salt and stir with a whisk in a bowl several times. Set aside.

Cream the cream cheese and oil together first, then add the sugar and beat or whisk until all is fluffy and soft.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition until all is blended.

In a small bowl, add the guava juice concentrate with the heavy cream and beat thoroughly until blended.

Add about ⅓ of the flour/poppy seed mixture to the creamed cream cheese and beat until most of the flour ingredients are moistened.

Add about 1/2 of the guava juice concentrate mixture and beat on low until mixed in.

Repeat these additions (the flour mixture and the guava concentrate mixture) again, continuing to beat on low and scraping down the sides and bottom between each addition, until the last third of the flour/poppy seed mixture is mixed in.

Add a few drops of red or pink food color to make it more pink, if using. Beat on low until there are no more streaks of color.

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake in the center of the oven for about an hour until the cake is risen and when a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean without wet batter. Remove and let cool on a wire rack while making the cream cheese icing (recipe above). Pour and spread icing on top before slicing and serving.