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Pumpkin Coffee Cake is my mom’s coffee cake made with pumpkin for fall breakfast. It also has a thick and crunchy streusel on top!
We could not stop eating this pumpkin coffee cake recipe…no, that’s a lie. I couldn’t stop eating it, ha!
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Best and ONLY Pumpkin Coffee Cake recipe you need this fall!
I’ve alway said, if I make it, fall will come. I say that every August when I post my first PUMPKIN recipe: in the hopes that me wishing for fall, it will actually show it’s head here in Sacramento.
School has started, yet it’s still in the 90s on the regular…and will be until mid-October. Then it will rain on Halloween. It does that every year: hot hot hot COLD. We don’t get a traditional fall here in the Valley and it’s irritating.
This is why, even though most people will scream NO NOT YET when I post my first pumpkin recipe, I do it in August.
I’ve been posting pumpkin on Facebook for a few weeks (y’all are still in love with my pumpkin pull-apart and my pumpkin spice snowballs) so I know people are ready, just like I am.
I give you my first pumpkin recipe of 2018: Pumpkin Coffee Cake!
(But, um, well, this is awkward. It’s not actually NEW: it’s new and improved. You see, I originally posted this recipe in 2011 and recently updated the photos and fixed all the quirky things in the recipe. There’s a really good chance you’ve never seen or tried this before so it’s actually NEW for most of you!)
This EASY Pumpkin Coffee Cake recipe is adapted from my mom’s coffee cake. It’s moist and dense and full of pumpkin spice flavor with a thick and crunchy streusel on top.
How to make Pumpkin Coffee Cake
I realized after making this that I’ve never posted my mom’s original coffee cake recipe. (OOPS!) I need to do that, but know that her recipe has inspired Banana Coffee Cake, Funfetti Coffee Cake, Peanut Butter Coffee Cake, Mocha Coffee Cake, and even these Mini Crumb Muffins.
(And don’t forget: it even was the source for my single-serve MUG Coffee Cake!)
Easy Pumpkin Coffee Cake is the best fall breakfast and is super simple to make.
This coffee cake recipe starts with canned pumpkin puree. Make sure to use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix, because you’re going to add sugar and pumpkin pie spice.
Because pumpkin is so wet, this cake doesn’t need eggs or much milk or oil. In fact, the recipe only has 1/4 cup oil in the whole recipe. Because there are no eggs in this coffee cake, it’s easy to turn it into a vegan coffee cake recipe by using a non-dairy milk if you want.
The cake bakes up to be a dense and moist cake, just like a coffee cake should be.
And then…then there is the streusel on top.
Coffee Cake streusel needs to be abundant. There should be a super THICK layer of streusel on top of the cake and the streusel should be so dense it stands alone. (Those are my coffee cake requirements.)
My pumpkin coffee cake version fulfills all my requirements; in fact, I could eat that streusel alone, without the cake!
How do you make a thick streusel topping for coffee cake?
Just a few simple ingredients:
- Melted butter
- Brown sugar is a must for streusel
- Flour for binding
- Cinnamon
- A pinch of salt – to cut through the sweetness and add a bit of depth to the flavor.
Just stir those together with a fork easy peasy and spread on top of the cake. I absolutely LOVE this coffee cake recipe!
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Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Recipe Video
Ingredients
For the Coffee Cake
- 2 cups (248g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 cup pure pumpkin puree
- ¼ cup (59ml) vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup (118ml) nonfat milk
For the Streusel
- ¼ cup (57g) unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup (31g) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (200g) brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- Pinch salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9×9” pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Mix 2 cups flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Stir in pumpkin, vegetable oil, vanilla and milk until mixed. Pour into prepared pan. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix melted butter with 1/4 cup flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Stir with a fork to combine. Spread on top of pumpkin cake layer.
- Bake 30-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted 2” from the side of the pan comes out clean.
- Store covered on the counter for up to 2 days or freeze for up to one month.
Recipe Notes
Recipe Nutrition
Love coffee cake? How about trying Aimee’s Cream Cheese Coffee Cake, Lindsay’s Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake, or Michelle’s Peach Coffee Cake!
Peanut Butter Coffee Cake has a chocolate chip streusel!
Banana Bread Coffee Cake marries two of my favorite breakfasts!
Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread is another fall favorite.
**Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!**
Made exactly according to directions for my daughter because she wanted pumpkin coffee cake for her birthday. It was not good, no one liked it and we had to throw it away.
This is super delicious. I would double the strudel topping next time, but I have an aggressive sweet tooth.
Subbed the sour cream with Greek yogurt and only put half the sugar. A delicious autumn coffee cake!
I made this delicious cake in my loaf pan without the topping. This made for easy slicing and cut back on the sugar calories. It is a bit hit in this family. Also shared slices with friends.
I found the cake to be too heavy and we did not enjoy it at all.
This recipe is delicious and smells so good when it is baking. Perfect for a cooler fall day. I make it every fall (sometimes several times). Thanks for sharing.
It literally says that it is NOT light and airy like a cake; this is meant to be dense and thick.
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