Pumpkin Coffee Cake
This classic pumpkin coffee cake is filled with fall spices and topped with a buttery streusel topping. Make this simple recipe for your next holiday gathering, brunch, or weekend breakfast!
If you’ve only made classic coffee cake before, this pumpkin spice version will be the highlight of your fall baking!
It’s a moist and tender pumpkin cake that’s flavored with both pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. There’s also cinnamon in the buttery streusel topping, meaning there’s no shortage of fall flavor in any bite of this cake.
This is a wonderful make-ahead treat for weekend brunches, but it’s also perfect on slower weekday mornings paired with a steaming cup of coffee or tea.
Ingredient Notes
There are two parts to this simple recipe: the pumpkin coffee cake itself and the streusel topping. Let’s quickly review the main ingredients you’ll need:
- Pumpkin Puree: Check the ingredients list to make sure you’re buying pumpkin puree and not sweetened pumpkin pie filling. The only ingredient should be pumpkin.
- Oil: A neutral-flavored oil, like vegetable or canola, is best.
- Whole Milk: Whole milk provides additional moisture and keeps the cake super tender. You can replace it with another option like buttermilk, 2% milk, or almond milk.
- Sugar: This recipe uses both brown sugar for flavor and moisture and granulated sugar for additional sweetness. I used light brown sugar because that’s what I always keep on hand, but you may use dark brown sugar instead.
- Spices: I used a blend of pumpkin pie spice and ground cinnamon. You can easily make your own pumpkin pie spice if you don’t have any on hand.
- Unsalted Butter: This is used for the streusel topping. While I typically recommend using room temperature butter for things like buttercream frosting or vanilla cake, it’s important to use cold butter here. Cold butter will give you bigger clumps in the streusel and prevent it from spreading or melting all over the top.
How To Make Pumpkin Coffee Cake
- Make the streusel topping: In a large mixing bowl, combine some flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
- Add the cold cubed butter: Cut the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter or fork. You can use your hands too, just keep in mind that your hands are warm and it’s easy to over mix it by accident. Once it starts to come together and form clumps, cover it with plastic wrap and chill.
- Combine the dry ingredients for the pumpkin cake: In another large bowl, whisk together the flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix together the wet ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, sugars, oil, eggs, and vanilla.
- Finish the batter: Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir just until combined. Make sure not to over mix the batter! We’re going for a soft and fluffy cake, not a dense one, so mix until just combined.
- Assemble and bake: Pour the batter into a greased 9-inch baking dish. Remove the streusel topping from the fridge and sprinkle it all over the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can leave it off if you prefer! If you’re looking for more of a traditional pumpkin cake, I suggest making my pumpkin cake recipe instead.
Yes! Coffee cakes freeze incredibly well so long as it’s not topped with any kind of glaze. To freeze the cake, let it cool completely in the pan before slicing and sealing it in a freezer bag. Frozen coffee cake will last up to three months, if stored correctly.
Absolutely! The cake remains incredibly moist for up to three days on your counter as long as you cover it tightly with plastic wrap. Just keep in mind that this cake is moist, so the topping will start to soften over time and won’t be quite as crisp.
Baking Tips
- Take care to chill the streusel topping as instructed in the recipe card below. If you skip this step, the butter will warm to room temperature and the streusel won’t maintain its nice clumps.
- The streusel topping can be made a couple of days in advance and refrigerated until you’re ready to make the cake and bake it.
- I thought 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice was perfect for this recipe, but you may adjust the amount of spices as you see fit.
- Spoon your flour out of the container and into a measuring cup, then level it with the back of a butter knife. This will prevent you from measuring out too much flour, which will result in a dry and dense coffee cake. If you’re new to baking, I highly recommend reading through my post on how to measure flour correctly.
Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Streusel Topping
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour spooned & leveled (95 grams)
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar (100 grams)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Tiny pinch of salt
- 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cubed into small pieces (85 grams)
Pumpkin Cake
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (250 grams)
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil (120 ml)
- ⅔ cup packed light brown sugar (135 grams)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar (50 grams)
- ⅓ cup whole milk (80 ml)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour spooned & leveled (210 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- To make the streusel topping: Add the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt to a large mixing bowl and mix until well combined.
- Add the cubed butter and cut it into the mixture with a pastry cutter or a fork until the mixture starts to come together and is crumbly.
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator to chill while you prepare the cake.
- To make the pumpkin cake: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, milk, eggs, and vanilla until fully combined.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, ground cinnamon, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it around into one even layer. Remove the streusel topping from the fridge and sprinkle it evenly all over the top.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. If needed, tent loosely with foil to prevent excess browning on top.
- Remove from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack to cool completely.
I was wondering why you called it pumpkin coffee cake. I can not see the coffee as part of the ingredients.
Coffee cake doesn’t have coffee in it, it’s just meant to be eaten with a cup of coffee 🙂
Hi. In your pumpkin recipes which call for pumpkin puree, can you use pumpkin puree you’ve made yourself from steaming fresh pumpkin.
Yes, that should be okay! If it has quite a bit more moisture than canned pumpkin, it would be good to strain it or spread it onto some paper towels to remove some of the excess moisture.
Ingredients are superb! Can’t wait to make it!