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Pumpkin Coffee Cake is my mom’s coffee cake made with pumpkin – it has a thick and crunchy streusel on top! We could not stop eating this pumpkin coffee cake recipe – it’s moist and sweet and has tons of pumpkin spice flavor.

square slice of pumpkin coffee cake on a white plate.

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. My pumpkin pull-apart and my pumpkin spice snowballs go wild this time of year so I know I’m not the only one excited!

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.

ingredients in pumpkin coffee cake laid out on a white counter.

How to make Pumpkin Coffee Cake

  1. Make sure to use canned pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix.
  2. The cake has brown sugar in the topping and the cake has granulated sugar.
  3. Because of the pumpkin, this recipe does not need eggs!
  4. You can use any kind of milk (even nondairy milk or nonfat milk).
  5. This cake bakes in a 9×9-inch square pan, but you could also do it in a 9-inch round cake pan.
  6. It’s easiest to stir together the topping ingredients with a fork.

Click to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions. See below the recipe card for even more information: process shots, variations, FAQ and more.

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Storing Pumpkin Coffee Cake

  • Store leftovers covered tightly. They can be kept at room temperature or in the fridge.
  • You can freeze the fully baked and cooled coffee cake or freeze slices wrapped individually.
square slice of pumpkin coffee cake on a white plate.

Dorothy’s Expert Tips

  • My mom’s original coffee cake 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.
  • 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.)
4.87 from 152 votes

Pumpkin Coffee Cake Recipe

By: Dorothy Kern
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
Servings: 16 servings
square slice of pumpkin coffee cake on a white plate.
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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.

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.

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

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Step by Step Photos

process shot of pumpkin coffee cake being made.
process shot of pumpkin coffee cake being made.
process shot of pumpkin coffee cake being made.
process shot of pumpkin coffee cake being made.
  1. Whisk dry ingredients together first (all-purpose flour, baking poweder, sugar, salt).
  2. Add in the remaining cake ingredients (oil, pumpkin, vanilla, milk). The batter will be thick.
  3. Stir the topping ingredients with a fork (brown sugar, melted butter, flour, and cinnamon).
  4. Spread topping on top of the cake and bake until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the pan.

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Dorothy Kern

Welcome to Crazy for Crust, where I share recipes that are sometimes crazy, often with a crust, and always served with a slice of life.

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4.87 from 152 votes (114 ratings without comment)

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99 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