Prepare Your Oven and Tin: Preheat your oven to 175°C (160°C fan/350°F). Grease and flour a 23cm x 13cm (9x5 inch) loaf tin, or line it with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the longer sides to help lift the finished loaf. This step ensures your beautiful bread won't stick, coming out with a clean, golden-brown crust.

Whisk Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, ground cloves, and salt. Make sure there are no lumps and the spices are evenly distributed, creating a pale, fragrant mixture.

Combine Wet Ingredients: In a separate, even larger bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar and vegetable oil until thoroughly combined and light yellow. Crack in the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition until the mixture is pale and slightly thickened. Stir in the vanilla extract, pumpkin puree, and water until everything is smoothly incorporated and the mixture takes on a lovely creamy, orange hue.

Combine Wet and Dry: Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined. Be careful not to overmix; a few streaks of flour are perfectly fine. Overmixing can develop the gluten too much, leading to a tough bread instead of a wonderfully tender one. The batter will be thick and spoonable, holding its shape well.

Fill and Top: Pour the batter into your prepared loaf tin, spreading it evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle the pumpkin seeds generously over the top of the batter. They should sit nicely on the surface, ready to toast and become crunchy during baking.

Bake to Perfection: Place the loaf tin in the preheated oven and bake for 60-70 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when the top is a deep golden brown, slightly cracked, and a wooden skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. The kitchen will be filled with a glorious, warming aroma of pumpkin and spices. If you notice the top browning too quickly, you can loosely tent it with foil for the last 15-20 minutes.

Cool and Serve: Once baked, remove the loaf from the oven and let it cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes. This cooling period helps the loaf to set and prevents it from crumbling. Then, using the parchment paper overhang, carefully lift the bread out of the tin and transfer it to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Slicing it while warm is tempting, but a fully cooled loaf will slice much more cleanly and taste even better.