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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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coffee cake on a dark blue plate next to a fork


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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.

coffee cake on a dark blue plate next to a fork

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!

coffee cake on a dark blue plate next to a fork with a bite taken out

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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slice of pumpkin coffee cake on blue plate

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

4.93 from 139 votes
Pumpkin Coffee Cake is the perfect fall breakfast with a thick streusel! It’s also an egg-free coffee cake that’s thick and moist and has the perfect pumpkin spice flavor
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Yield 16 servings
Serving Size 1 slice
Rate RecipePrint Recipe

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
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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 Video

Recipe Notes

Please note this coffee cake, as described and showed in photos, is dense, thick and moist. It’s not light and airy like a cake.
The video forgot to add milk. FOLLOW THE RECIPE not the video, as is a good rule for ALL recipes on all sites.

Recipe Nutrition

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 218kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 7mg | Sodium: 82mg | Potassium: 131mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 2485IU | Vitamin C: 0.7mg | Calcium: 57mg | Iron: 1.3mg
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Author Dorothy Kern

Did you try this recipe? Click the stars to rate the recipe below

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!**



Dorothy Kern

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78 Comments

  2. There is a bit of an error because it says to mix 2 cups flour for the cake part and it should be 1 and 3/4 cup for the cake. It was still good though.

    Reply

  3. Lion Lady, Recipe is correct. The remaining 1/4 c of flour is is streusel recipe which is what you were making.

    Reply

  4. I think this is a delicious cake. However, if you’re really getting 16 servings from it you must be feeding mice. I got a much more believable 9 servings, and sufficiently fed my family. Let’s keep it real, shall we?

    Reply

  5. Okay. I fell for it. I made this. But there’s a problem with the recipe as written.

    As I sat down to add this to my collection, I realized that there’s something wonky: See up there where the ingredients list says “2 cups all purpose flour, DIVIDED” ? Yeah, that.

    Then step 2 says, “Mix 2 cups flour…”

    Now, down in step 3: “remaining 1/4 cup flour,” WHAT REMAINING 1/4 CUP FLOUR? Hmm?

    Too late. Already committed. I even made TWO like this. I noted that the batter seemed a bit thicker and less orange colored than the video, so I did add a bit extra pumpkin. They’re both out of the oven and smell heavenly.

    I added about a 1/2 cup of chopped pecans to the streusel topping. Because pecans just go with pumpkin in my opinion.

    Taste test: Wonderful!! Very moist, in spite of the recipe error. Adding pecans to the streusel makes for a nice contrast to the soft cake. Oatmeal would also work.

    1 cup of pumpkin from a small can left not quite enough for a second cake. I had two cans that were close to expiration so I just opened the second can so I had enough for two cakes.

    Reply

  7. This recipe looks so healthy and delicious! Thanks for posting a recipe about the DIY pumpkin pie spice too! It’s so hard to find pumpkin pie spice here.

    Reply