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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.
Traci says
This is my son’s FAVORITE dessert. He begs me to make this for him at least once a month…for the 3 years! Love, love, love this recipe.
It is very dense, very rich…goes wonderfully with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
Karly says
Ah, love to hear that! Thanks, Traci!
Shelby Schmitt says
Can you use almond flour in this recipe? I am going to make it today for the first time using your recipe, but do not know if I can substitute flours for both the cake and the strudel…looks delicious!!!!!
Karly says
Hi Shelby! Almond flour doesn’t substitute 1:1 for all purpose flour. I would not use it in this recipe.
Rachel says
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…
Karly says
Haha, thanks Rachel! I’m so glad you all enjoy it! ๐
Stacy says
We absolutely love this recipe! The texture is phenomenal! Wish some of the people who donโt care for it could be kinder.
Karly says
Ah, it’s okay. We all have different preferences and I’m used to hearing about it. ๐ So glad you like the recipe though!
Sherry S says
My husband who loves desserts did not like this cake. He didnโt like the dense texture. We both thought it would be better with one can of pumpkin and then I saw the note about using one can to make it more like cake. Thereโs too much butter and calories for my taste but I made it anyway because the picture looked good. I would not make again.
Karly says
Hi Sherry – sorry you didn’t like this one. Too bad you didn’t see the note before baking. ๐
Melissa says
I make this every year for Thanksgiving. It is sooooo good. I half the recipe and bake in an 8×8 pan and it comes out perfect!
This year I am going to have some leftovers. Should it go in the fridge or can it stay out on the counter (covered)?
Karly says
It’ll last for a day or so on the counter, but 4-5 days in the fridge. ๐
Alyssa Williams says
Hi Melissa,
I’ve been wondering about halving this! How long do you bake for in the 8×8? Also, have you tried it in a 9×9?
Thanks!
Alyssa
Alyssa Williams says
How long do you bake in an 8×8?
Lucy says
Did not like the texture of this cake. Waste of time and products
Karly says
Hi Lucy, I’m sorry you didn’t like this one. I tried to make it clear that the texture is not at all like a traditional cake. It’s definitely very custardy.
Carol irminger says
Could never get this done would not make it again and for sure would only use one can of punkin
Karly says
Hi Carol! It’s meant to be very dense and moist, so I’m guessing it was done, but just not quite what you were expecting. Sorry this one wasn’t to your tastes.
Holly says
hi! is there anyway to half this recipe to make a 8×8 size cake? do you think that would work?
Karly says
Yep, I think halving it would work fine in an 8×8 or 9×9. You’ll want to keep an eye on the bake time as it will likely change.
Emad Aldaous says
The ingredients in video don’t match the written ingredients.. Also the instructions in video are different from the written instructions
Karly says
Hi there! The ingredients should match…I’m not seeing a difference. The instructions are also the same as far as I can tell, but the video is a bit out of order with making the streusel second. It’s hard to fit all the details in such a short video, so try to make it look as cohesive as possible. Either way, follow the written recipe and you won’t go wrong. ๐
Kimberly Davis says
If I were to make muffins using this recipe, would I need to add a crust? Or does the custard crust a bit around the edges?
Karly says
It’s not really a custard, it’s still a cake. Just very dense and moist. It should work fine as cupcakes.
Baba Fumi says
I tried other pumpkin coffee cake recipes, but this recipe was superior!
Youโve added a video which is very helpful. Thank you.
Karly says
So glad you enjoyed the coffee cake and video!
Sweet Tooth Baker says
Successfully baked in mini-loaf pans! Poured in about two inches of batter, topped with streusel. Baked about 30 mins. Covered the top with foil when the streusel was browning too quickly. I top the streusel lightly with melted chocolate drizzle (instead of powered sugar) and sprinkle of salt to balance the sweet. Pumpkin taste isn’t too strong so palatable for those who traditionally dislike the squash. Everyone loves these custardy, not too sweet coffeecakes.
Karly says
Thanks so much for sharing! That chocolate drizzle sounds delicious!
Rosario Rodriguez says
I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong!!! I added the pumpkin puree to the butter and sugar mixture and it didn’t come our smooth, but looked almost liked scrambled eggs. The butter was cold, not hot or melted from the microwave and I used an electric mixer! Please help!!
Karly says
Hello! It sounds like the cold butter probably just separated a bit when you added the pumpkin. It shouldn’t hurt anything. I’d still go ahead and bake it as directed. ๐
Hannah says
When listing the ingredients it should also have ICING. Because I just went through the ingredients to make this and added the icing ingredients to the cake because I thought it would be itโs own list like the Streusel. My mistake, but Iโm sure Iโm not the only one.
Karly says
Oh, shoot, you’re right. I’m sorry about that. I’ve updated the recipe. Hope it still turned out for you!