This breakfast guava bread is a tropical vacation for your mornings. Light, crumbly and packed with guava and coconut flavors. A sweet way to start your day.
Bread or cake? It’s kind of hard to say with this one since this delicious guava recipe is shaped like a loaf, but sweet like a cake.
Cakes can come in all shapes you know! Call it what you want, you’re going to love this sweet treat for breakfast or for dessert.
Guava Bread
Anyway, recently a friend said to me, “a woman at work gave me a bunch of guavas from her tree. Do you want them?” Never being one to say no to anything, I readily accepted. That’s when I realized that I had no idea how to even eat a guava.
After a bit of googling, I learned that guavas can be eaten whole. Skin, seeds and all. There’s no way I could have eaten all the guavas she gave me before they went bad, so I wanted to use a bunch of them in a recipe.
I thought guava cake sounded like something nice to have for breakfast, and made me think of tropical destinations I could daydream about while waking up with coffee each morning, so I set out to create this sweet frosted breakfast bread.
It turned out great! Fruity, crumbly, yet moist, and just enough tropical flavor to transport me on a mini vacation in my mind each morning.
Too bad the fantasy didn’t last long. Olive learned the very next day how to snatch stuff off of the kitchen counter, and helped herself to rest of the cake.
Jerk puppy. She’s lucky she’s so cute or there would have been breakfast cake hell to pay!
So now we’re in the phase of trying to teach her not to counter surf, which is one of the joys (ha.) of owning any kind of large dog. So far she’s also gotten a loaf of bread and a stick of butter. We’ve tried booby trapping the counter to no avail, so basically we’ve just been trying to catch her in the act and scold her instantly.
Anyone have any tips on how to stop this? In the meantime, I’ll try to get my hands on some more guavas in order to make this again.
Tip: Your guavas are ripe if they change from dark to light green and become very soft. Once they give of a very strong, sweet fragrance, they are ready to eat.
If you give this recipe a try, I’d love to see it! Tag me @betsylife on Facebook or Instagram and I’ll share your creations!
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Breakfast Guava Bread
This tropical and fruity Breakfast Guava Bread doubles as breakfast or dessert! It's moist, light, and delicious, and perfect for guava newbies.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups butter softened
- 1 cups brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
- 1 1/2 cups finely chopped guava peeled, seeds removed
- 1 cup powdered sugar sifted
- 3-4 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1/2 cup coconut flakes toasted
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
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In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Set aside
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In a large bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until fluffy
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Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Mix in extracts
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Turn the mixer to low and gradually add in the flour mixture until well combined
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Fold in chopped guava
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Pour mixture into a greased loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
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Cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Invert onto a wire rack and cool completely
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Whisk together powdered sugar and heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time, until desired glaze consistency is reached. Pour over cooled bread. Sprinkle with toasted coconut.
Recipe Notes
While you can eat the whole guava, I chose to peel and remove the seed from my guavas before baking this bread solely for texture purposes.Â
This post was updated in 2019
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Brandon @ Kitchen Konfidence says
I love the smell of guavas! This cake looks super tasty. I’m thinking it I would eat it with a schmear of butter or mascarpone!
betsy says
OMG mascarpone would be so awesome on this!
Patti says
Have you tried less butter. I’m hesitant to make this with so much butter. Banana bread is successful with much less ??? I guess I could give it a shot. But hate to waste some gifted guavas. Thanks, Patti
Grace says
I make it with 1 cup of butter and it comes out fine!
Lanelle Devlin says
Got a bunch of guavas in my co-op basket and found your recipe. Gonna try it out. They smelled so good as I cut opened and cleaned out the seeds!
Sarah says
I made substitutions to make it healthier than 1 1/2 cup butter and 3 eggs. I used 1 1/2 sticks butter and 1 1/2 cup applesauce. I also used only 2 eggs. I added slivered almonds and sweet shredded coconut, and did not add coconut extract. Finally, I used only 3/4 of a cup guava flesh, so it would have a milder flavor. Came out fantastic, and even my dad who hates guava was eating them.
Maggie says
Did you add coconut and nut to mixture? Or were you referring to the topping?
Prajakta says
I want to try this but not sure if I want to waste seeds. I am thinking the seeds will be just like having nuts in the bread. Have you tried it without removing seeds?
Amy Cataldo says
I did. They were way too crunchy in my opinion , hurt my teeth when you caught one unexpectedly.
betsy says
i know it’s a pain but you can definitely remove the seeds before adding guava to the bread. It’s really a personal preference
Janet Wayman says
I am pleased to have found a recipe for using fresh guava, and it tastes pretty good, but….salt! It needs a little bit of salt, like 1/2 teaspoon.
raiza says
Hi, everyday I harvest a basketful of guava, i saw your recipe, I will be trying it today!
Eliza says
I tried it and it was delicious. The guava seeds need to be removed. They will not feel like nuts and will be annoying every time you bite one. I would maybe lower the butter just a bit. My family loves guavas.
Jenny says
I didn’t have coconut essence so subbed half a cup of butter for coconut oil. It was really good. I think you could easily cut back on butter though.
Renuka says
Sounds good .iwas looking for a recipe with guavas.idecided to bake one,but I don’t have coconut essence and I”ll omit that.thank you for the recipe.
Arien says
Old but nobody answered. Let your dog in the kitchen and let her try to take something. Clap hands loudly with a sharp, “No!” When she drops, make her sit, give her a treat. Do it a bit until she stops trying to snatch stuff off the counter. Like the clicker method. Works well. How I got my dog to roll over, play dead at “Bang!” and other things lol.
betsy says
The problem is, she won’t try to snatch anything when we’re home. Only when we’re gone. I think we might set up a hidden camera and pretend to “leave” and then burst in on her when we see her on the camera.
Nik says
I made some modifications based on what I had on hand. I also Processed my guava on the stovetop to make a purée (seeds removed). I subbed unfiltered coconut oil for the butter because it’s what I had and it subs 1:1 with butter. I added fresh ripe mango finely diced and made mini muffins instead of a loaf. I topped the muffins with unsweetened flaked coconut. They came out awesome! A glass of POG would make this a complete breakfast in my home
betsy says
Sounds delicious! Great adaptation
Kathy says
I’m unsure, peel guavas or leave unpeeled?
betsy says
Either way is fine but I peeled mine
Amy says
I tried this recipe because I had been given a few guavas from a friend, and was beyond pleased with how it turned out. Added a teaspoon of salt to the recipe, and used milk for the glaze, instead of cream. The breakfast bread turned out super moist and I really liked it, despite my not being a big fan of guava. I will definitely make this again.
Joy says
Enjoyed this. It turned out great!
betsy says
So glad to hear it!
Frank says
I have a quava tree that produces twice a year and i have never ever treated the tree with insect repellents .the trick about worms in quavas is that all fallen fruit must be removed (picked up) every day .i am going to try this recipe thanks
Marsha Strobel says
Hi. I would like to make this for the kids at the school where I cook. Can canned guavas be used. I am serving 228 kids and adults. Thanks
Jane Wilcox says
We don’t have many guavas in Oklahoma, I may try this with Guava paste available in the local Latin markets. Has anyone tried that?
Celia M Pugliese says
Yes I used the Guava paste from the grocery as you have to soften it with a fork after letting stand off the fridge and I add a bit of rum to it then I use it in Italian cookies and also as filling in Italian pie called Pasta Frola that is made with the same recipe of the Italian cookies dough I sprinkle with bit of coconut flakes before before entering on oven.
Cheryl says
I made this but used swerve instead of sugar delicious.Froze quavas chopped and peeled for another cake.My husband can’t stand smell of quavas and he thought cake smelled wonderful. I put pecans in it and it tasted like a apple cake.Thank you
Carla Fischer says
Did I get a bad version of the recipe? I think there was way too much butter. Recipe calls for 1 and 1/2 cups of butter. Think it should have been 1 and a 1/2 sticks.
betsy says
Did the recipe not work out as written?
Jacqueline says
I’m also wondering if this recipe is supposed to be 1 1/2 sticks instead of cups? I made this today and the flavor is good, but it’s really buttery for a bread and combined with the guava juice releasing it was extremely difficult to tell when it was done. And it just seems like a lot of butter in general as others have mentioned.
Sue Martin says
It’s a grease bomb. Has twice the butter of other similar recipes. I had to throw mine out. Was a waste of time!
Analou L. Suan says
Hi! I live in the Philippines and I made this recipe using Jobs tears flour or Adlai flour, honey and dessicated coconut. It was delicious!!! I’m going to bake it again and this time, I’m going to take pictures.
Thank you for this recipe
Maggie says
What size loaf pan?
Lupita says
I made this recipe today as I had guavas in my pantry; the flavor is great , buy way too greasy. I am wondering if the measurements should be sticks instead of cup just as others had mentioned.
Ujwala says
Hey Betsy.
I will bemaking this soon. Is it possible to reduce the amount of butter and use yoghuert instead?
betsy says
It sounds like it would work, but I have never tried so I can’t say for sure
Jen says
I need to use up some 100% guava juice. How can I modify this recipe to do that? Also, I need to make it vegan. I already know that vegan butter works great in baking. Can I substitute vegan sour cream or yogurt for the eggs? Can I add shredded coconut within the cake and what would be a good amount?
Jessica P says
I am also looking to make this recipe vegan and gluten free. Has anybody tried flour alternatives?