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Our Pumpkin Coffee Cake is made with the biggest, fattest streusel you’ll ever see. Plus, we packed in as much pumpkin as possible, giving this cake a texture that’s a cross between pie and cake – so rich and dense, perfect for fall, and totally irresistible!

I feel like this pumpkin coffee cake recipe needs a disclaimer. Let’s just get that over with right off the bat –
Warning: What you are about to see is disturbing in the best way possible. This pumpkin coffee cake is so moist and dense, much like a pumpkin pie, that you’ll wonder how life can be so magical. Your eyes will struggle to take in the gloriousness that is the humongous gobs of streusel topping. Ordinary coffee cake will never taste as good to you after eating this one.
There. Now that all the legal disclaimers are out of the way, let’s talk about this recipe.
It is, in a word, phenomenal. In fact, it’s one of my favorite recipes that I’ve developed over the years and let’s be real…I’ve created a lot of dang recipes.
I took my very favorite cinnamon swirl pumpkin coffee cake that I make year after year and I doctored it up into this glorious piece of heaven topped with magical streusel. The streusel. I can’t stop talking about it.
I used the streusel recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks – (affiliate link) Baked Explorations. The streusel comes out in thick chunks and the recipe makes a lot.
The cake itself is not like your normal cake. It’s a cross between a pumpkin pie filling and a cake, which sounds weird but is actually quite delightful. The cake, thanks to the two full cans of pumpkin, is super moist and dense, like a custard, but not quite so heavy. It’s just really, really good.
Let’s do this!
Ingredient Notes:
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Pumpkin – Be sure to use 100% pure canned pumpkin. You won’t want the can of pumpkin pie filling that has the spices and extra liquids added to it.
Cinnamon – Did you know that pumpkin itself doesn’t have a whole lot of flavor? That familiar flavor we all know and love is from the spices added. We call for plain cinnamon in this recipe, but you could also use our homemade pumpkin pie spice for even more warm, fall flavor.
Butter – We love the rich flavor of real butter in this pumpkin coffee cake and between the streusel and the cake itself, you’ll use a full pound of it. We only live once, so let’s do it right.
Streusel – The streusel ingredients are brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, flour, and cinnamon. Easy peasy.
Glaze – We’ll whisk together powdered sugar and milk to make a simple glaze that you’ll spoon over the top of the cake.
What We Love About This Recipe:
- Streusel: I can not stress enough how good this streusel is. The pieces are huge and the layer of streusel is thick. We don’t skimp here.
- Moist & Dense: This is NOT your traditional cake! We were going for a cross between a pumpkin pie and a coffee cake and that’s what we achieved. If you’re looking for a light and airy crumb, you’ll want to find another recipe.
- Fall Favorite: This is one of those recipes that you’ll make year after year. Everyone raves about it and looks forward to enjoying it every year.
- Simple: While the ingredient list does look a bit long, the recipe comes together quite easily. There is nothing fussy about this recipe, so long as you have a bit of time to put it all together.
Tips & Tricks:
Streusel – Unlike most streusel recipes, this starts with melted butter! Makes it so easy. Because we’re using melted butter though, you’ll want to make the streusel first and then let it sit to dry a bit as you work on the cake batter.
Cake Batter – You’ll want an electric mixer for this one as we’re creaming together butter and sugar to start the cake batter. We’ll stir in the pumpkin, eggs, and flour until just combined to help keep the cake from becoming tough.
Bake – This recipe is meant to be super moist and dense, which makes the toothpick test a little tricky. A toothpick should come out mostly clean, but not fully dry. If it’s fully dry with no crumbs on it, you’ve probably overbaked your cake.
Glaze – This is totally optional, but we love a simple powdered sugar glaze. Feel free to doctor it up by adding a dash of vanilla extract or maple extract. You can’t go wrong with either.
What Readers are Saying!
“I’ve made this recipe over ten times and have it bookmarked because it is SO good. Crowd pleaser for sure. Everywhere I bring it, the people RAVE. It is moist and delicious. If you don’t like this, go get yourself checked…” – Rachel
FAQ:
Coffee cake is traditionally served with a cup of coffee, as a sweet afternoon or evening treat. We consider this pumpkin coffee cake to be dessert, thanks to the copious amounts of cinnamon streusel and the sweet vanilla glaze.
No, there is no actual coffee in most coffee cakes. These cakes are named coffee cake because they’re meant to be served with a cup of coffee.
While some coffee cakes will do fine on the counter for a few days, our pumpkin coffee cake packs in so much pumpkin that you’ll really want to store it in the fridge for maximum freshness.
More Fall Favorites!
- Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
- Maple Glazed Donuts
- Crockpot Apple Butter
- Apple Cobbler
- Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Streusel
Ingredients
For the streusel
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter melted
- 2 1/2 cups flour
For the cake
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup brown cup sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 2 15 ounce cans pumpkin puree
For the icing
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
To make the streusel:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick spray.
- Stir together the sugars, cinnamon, salt, and melted butter in a medium mixing bowl until well combined.
- Stir in the flour. Set aside while you prepare the cake batter.
To make cake:
- Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt to a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
- Add the sugars and butter to a medium mixing bowl and beat with a mixer until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs and pumpkin until just combined.
- Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
- Spread cake batter into prepared pan.
- Take the streusel topping in your hands and press together to form large crumbs. Top the cake with the streusel. It will seem like too much, but use it all for the best streusel experience.
- Bake for 50 minutes or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean.
- Cool completely.
To make the glaze:
- Whisk together the powdered sugar and milk to make the glaze. Drizzle over the top before serving.
Amanda says
Hi! Making this right now – is it really supposed to be 1.5 tbs cinnamon for the topping? That seems like a lot? Should it be tsp? Thanks!
Karly says
Yep, that’s correct. It’s a lot of topping. ๐
Lisa says
I made this yesterday, followed the recipe as written and it came out delicious! I couldn’t find my 9 x 13 pan, so I baked in (2) 8 x 8 pans and gave one to a friend. Thank God because I could have devoured the entire cake. I like pumpkin spice, so next time I will add a little to give the cake a little kick. Thank you for sharing…This recipe is super easy and a keeper!ย
Rachell says
I made this according to the recipe for a pot luck weeks ago, and was asked to make it aagain — it was THAT good!
TIP: I bake it under the time recommended and aad time as needed until my test stick comes out clean to avoid overbaking. ๐
Arielle Lilien says
I made this last night and let the cake cool over night. The crumbs got golden brown and now they are hardened. Serving it at lunch today for work, how do I save the crumbs from being too hard?
PLEASE HELP!
Karly says
The streusel topping will harden up some after it cools, but that’s normal. If they’re very hard, I’m guessing that the cake was overbaked or your oven was too hot.
Arielle Lilien says
Do you know how I can soften them ?
Karly says
No, sorry, I don’t.
Becky says
I would guess you could put a piece of bread in the pan and put plastic wrap over top. I think between the pumpkin mix on the bottom S the bread it would probably soften it up a bit.ย
Deanna says
Update: I made this into muffins and it came out great! I baked them for 28 minutes. Also I only had one can of pumpkin so I substituted a banana for the other can. It was good but I definitely taste the banana. Next time I’ll make sure I have all the ingredients…lol. Thanks for the recipe!!
Karly says
Thanks for the update! ๐
Erica Driga says
How long does it take for the streusel to “set?”ย
Karly says
If you make the streusel topping before the cake, it will be ready to go by the time you have the cake mixed together, so about 5-10 minutes.
Deanns says
Can you make these as muffins?
Anne Tabor says
Want to make this ahead of time for a bake sale. Can it be frozen?
Elena R says
So I’m looking over this recipe and then I’m watching the video and it looks like when its get to the part of mixing the dry ingredients there is only 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of baking soda and also before this part only one egg? I made this cake last night and it did not come out as I expected it to and I will be trying again today so I just want to make 100% sure
Karly says
Please follow the directions in the written recipe. This is a longer recipe with a lot of ingredients, so showing each individual step in a timely manner on the video is tough. It’ll be easier and more accurate to follow the written recipe.
Elena says
Okay thank you! And I’m just trying to figure out were I went wrong with the first cake I didn’t have room temp butter so I melted the butter do you think that would effect the tast of the cake? And I also added a pinch of cloves because I just love them but I could really taste the cloves or pumpkinย
Karly says
Did you follow the written recipe the first time? Curious what turned out about it that you weren’t a fan of – just not a strong pumpkin flavor? If that’s the case, I would probably double the cinnamon in the cake mixture or swap in pumpkin pie spice if you have that on hand. Cloves, ginger, nutmeg all scream pumpkin to me, so add a bit of those if you like and taste the batter. Add more as needed until it’s where you want it. ๐
As for the melted butter, that likely wouldn’t affect the taste so much as the texture of the cake.
Hope that helps!
Eli says
In the video it looks like she puts one cup of flour and one cup of baking soda – when I saw that I kinda gasped cause that’s not a thing… that’s A LOT of baking soda let alone equal to the amount of flour. ย I went back and read the recipe – it’s just the way the video is edited. ย Follow the recipe and disregard the video. ย I made this recipe over the weekend and brought it to work and everyone devoured it … I’ve never heard my office so quiet before. ย In fact, I made it again yesterday to share with my family. ย My recommendations: do not bake it for longer that 50 minutes (I did 55 minutes the first time cause I didn’t want the center to be undercooked and the second one came out much better without the extra time) and I personally love cinnamon so I doubled it *in the batter* the second time; I will most likely triple it next time. ย Anyway, follow the recipe, it’s fool proof!! YUM! ย
Karly: I plan to stalk your recipe’s online now… I’m officially your number one fan (did you get all that Kathy Bates Mysery reference?)ย
Karly says
Hi Eli!
Yes, I was a bit off on the times when editing the video and typing in the ingredients. Whoops!! ๐
Thanks for being a fan! Just so long as I stay off of back roads in the icy winter, I’ll assume I’m safe. ๐ Haha!
shari plis says
HI ANY SUGGESTIONS FRO A SUB FOR PUMPKIN OR…NO PUMPKIN AT ALL IF POSSIBLE. DONT LIKE IT TY SHARI
k says
Butternut squash or even sweet potato cooked and purees
Jeanie says
Karly,
This looks great and Iโd like to make for thanksgiving in a few days
My only ? Is the following
Recipe says pumpkin purรฉe…is this what I am to buy or canned pure pumpkin?
Hope you see this and reply as I see most comments are old
Thanks so much !
Karly says
The canned pumpkin is pumpkin puree, so just use what you normally use. ๐
Sandy says
Did you really mean you used 1 cup of baking soda ? It called for 1 1/2 teaspoon . That could be a huge problem
Amy says
When it came out of the oven, certain areas of my crumble seemed a little buttery. Is that ok?
Carole says
This recipe looks and sounds terrific ! Can it be frozen to serve at a later date ?
Karly says
I don’t freeze baked goods, but I imagine it would work fine.
Kathy says
If you like coffee cake and pumpkin, this cake is divine. Perfect combinations of sugars and spices. Delicious! Thanks for an amazing seasonal favorite!
Bridget says
Iโve made this before and it is amazing! Just wondering if it can be made 1-2 days ahead of time and refrigerated? Thank you!ย
Karly says
Hi Bridget! It should do fine in the fridge for a couple of days. ๐
Helen Coppens says
Does the cake need to be refrigerated after cooling? I am making it on Tuesday for a Wednesday night get together. Thank you.
Karly says
It will last longer stored in the fridge. It’s very moist, so it doesn’t last more than a day or so on the counter.
Cindy says
Can I make muffins with this recipe or will it be to moist?
Karly says
The recipe will be very moist, but the muffins would hold their shape fine. You’ll just need to adjust down the baking time as needed.
Bambi Borkowski says
Oh my!! This is one of the best coffee cake recipes ever!! The mix itself was a perfect blend of cinnamon, sugars, flour and pumpkin.
You do need to adhere to the recipe and how to blend the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. The streusel mixture is fantastic, again, make sure you use it all, ย you won’t regret the results!ย
Thank you for this superb dessert recipe!!
Karly says
So glad you enjoyed it!
Myrle Blady Grossman says
I made the Pumpkin Coffee Cake the other day and took it to a party. It was a hit! Being vegan I altered the recipe and used ground flax seed instead of eggs and Earth Balance instead of butter. I got so many compliments. Thank You!
Karly says
Glad to hear that! ๐
Maryann LaMothe says
Any changes to the recipie for high altitude?
Karly says
I don’t bake at high altitudes, so I can’t say.