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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
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 Video
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!**
Last Updated on August 9, 2022
I made this coffee cake today and it turned out absolutely scrumptious! The only change I made was to add 1/2 cup of chopped pecans into the streusel topping. This was sooooo good with my morning cup of coffee. Thank you for an awesome recipe!
It was good but the batter was super thick so instead of 1/2 cup of milk I added 1 cup and I definitely recommend adding way more pumpkin purée I couldn’t quite taste the pumpkin.
Can this be doubled for a 9×13 pan, any changes?
Yes, it will be a bit thicker and take a bit longer to bake.
I love this cake! It’s easy and delicious. I’ve made it a few times already when meeting friends for play dates and they also love it! My go to. Thank you for the recipe 🙂
The batter seemed way too thick — I added an egg to get it to stick together and had to push it down into the pan as though it were bread dough. I used homemade pumpkin purée (not canned) as that’s all that’s available where I live so I’m not sure if that affected the texture (I’ve used it successfully in other recipes), but I was a bit disappointed. It was definitely still tasty, but I wouldn’t use this recipe in the future — not enough moisture, and I think the topping would have been better if the butter were softened but not melted.
Amanda, I just made this and agree that the batter was very thick. But before I experimented with thinning it out with more milk, I baked it according to the directions and I’m glad I did because it’s delicious. It’s heavier than a regular coffee cake due to the pumpkin, so adding an egg like you might with a regular coffee cake was what changed the texture on you. You may enjoy making it again without that.
Great Coffee Cake- a bit too much sugar for me so I cut it down the first try to 3/4 in the topping and it was still rather sweet.
Can I use Canola oil instead of vegetable oil?
Yes!
This cake was delicious, I loved the crunchy streusel. My husband said it was “good”, which is high praise.
I wish you had this recipe in a keto friendly version!! I assume I can’t swap out the flour to almond flour and use sweetener instead of sugar?
What would be the difference when using whole milk?
Just richer – you can use any milk, even nondairy.
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