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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.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Kasey H. says
My entire office keeps begging me to make this on a regular basis! Sinfully delicious. Do you think making this in mini loaf pans to give as gifts would bake well? If so, how would you go about adjusting the recipe for that? Thank you!
Karly says
Hi Kasey! I’m so glad the recipe is a hit! I haven’t tried baking this in a mini loaf pan. I’d be a bit worried that the loaf pan is deeper than the 9×13 and that would make it harder to cook the cake through without burning the edges and streusel. It’s already such a moist cake. If you give it a try, let us know how it goes! It would definitely make a great gift! Another option might be as muffins? But I haven’t tried that either. 🙂
Lisa Pownall says
Do you store it in the refrigerator?
Karly says
Because it’s so moist, I’d store this one in the fridge.
Jayne says
I just made it!!! It was soooo goood!!! Is the streusel suppose to be crunch or soft?? Mine came out crunchy but my friend also made it and it came out soft!! Both were delicious tho!!
Karly says
Hi Jayne! It usually comes out with a bit of crunch, but not super hard, if that makes sense. If it was too crunchy, I’d lower your oven rack a bit as the top may have overcooked. 🙂
Claire says
Hands down the best thing I’ve ever baked. It’s moist & rich without being overly sweet, and has just the right amount of pumpkin flavor. Shared it with my roommates and we all raved about it for weeks. Definitely making again!
Karly says
Love to hear that! Thanks, Claire!
Amanda says
Can I skip the baking powder? I actually thought it was the same thing ?
Karly says
No, you need the baking powder.
Andrea says
very good but like the blog said it’s definitely not a traditional coffee cake. once i got the idea of it being more like pumpkin pie + cake, i liked it a lot more. i also found that it tasted even better the next two days which is a win.
Erica Rendell says
Have you ever halved the recipe? If so, what size pan and how long did you bake? TY!
Karly says
I haven’t, but I would try in a 9×9. Not sure on bake time – you’ll just have to keep an eye on it.
Pip says
It was definitely the consistency of almost pumpkin pie. Didn’t seem done. Won’t make it agai
Karly says
Sorry you didn’t like the consistency – that dense, creamy pie-like texture was what we were going for though. 🙂
Kelly Dagenhart says
Wow I can’t wait to try the pumpkin coffee cake looks so yummy
Karly says
I hope you love it, Kelly! 🙂
Jackie Krueger says
This recipe is so delish. Shared with neighbor while still warm…it was a big hit. Works well as a great dessert with a side of vanilla ice cream or whip cream. Topping is.,.wow!
Karly says
Thanks, Jackie!
Kailee Haddock says
It was very good, although the crumbly part was way dryer then the video shows… I’m going to try it about eventually with less flour
Kris says
Hi Karly –
I made this for my Thanksgiving day dessert tomorrow. My house smells like the best bakery….I want to get to bed by 9:30 so I can get up really early. My husband will get home from work around 10:30. I KNOW I will be presenting this on my table tomorrow with a big piece missing, even though I did my best to hide it in the fridge. He will smell that heavenly smell and find it! Thank you and have a wonderful holiday with your fam.
Karly says
Haha! Husbands…they just can’t wait for the treats, can they? Hope you love the dessert tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving!
Kris says
Karly- Yep! He found it. Ha-ha!
I put this on the table and didn’t say what it was. For your readers who don’t know what to expect, I didn’t glaze this, I didn’t want to risk that streusel topping getting soggy overnight. I did add one TBS of pumpkin pie spice to the cake part as some readers suggested. Everyone at my table thought this was a slab pie. When they asked where I got the recipe, they now call it Karly’s pumpkin slab pie and they all asked me to make it again next year.
This was the hands down favorite and I had all ages at my table. They put stars of whipped cream on top of the squares I had cut it into. I’m saving this recipe forever.
Karly says
Aw!! Love it. Thanks for sharing, Kris! So glad the recipe was a hit.
Karen says
This has been a bit every single time I have made it (4 times, will be 5 tomorrow) People rave about it. It is delicious! The only thing I do differently is dust powdered sugar on top instead of the glaze.
Margot says
Hi, does this use dark brown sugar or light?
Can’t wait to try it!
Karly says
Hi Margot! Either will work fine. I like the flavor of dark better, but you can use whatever you have on hand or prefer.
Emily S. says
Do you use salted or unsalted butter?
Karly says
I always use salted butter. 🙂
Jennie says
Can I make this the night before event? Just store on the counter overnight or refrigerate? Looks amazing. Thanks!!
Karly says
Hi Jennie! You can definitely make this one in advance. I’d store in the fridge and let it come to room temp before serving.
Karen says
Do you think it will work with gluten free all purpose flour in the same measure?
Karly says
Hi Karen! If you have a gluten-free flour that measures like all-purpose flour, it should work, but I really have no experience with gluten-free flours so I can’t say for sure.