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This Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake recipe is about to make all your pumpkin spice dreams come true.
This coffee cake has truly converted some pumpkin spice haters into total PSL lovers!
This Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake will take you to a new place in the heavenly world of fall baking.
The cake is, of course, made with pumpkin puree and lots of warm spices. But then I also added in sour cream to get that moist tang we all want in coffee cake.
Then there’s the streusel. What’s better than streusel?! Here we have a buttery brown sugar pecan streusel loaded with more cinnamon.
The streusel doesn’t just go on top of this cake. There’s a layer in the center that provides a flavorful crunchy ribbon of goodness to each and every bite.
Really, my goal here was to satisfy your cravings for fall flavors while also making your house smell amazing.
Then there’s the icing on top… literally. Just a simple powdered sugar and maple syrup icing does the trick. All of these flavors together are an autumn dream.
But the best part?
How quick and easy this recipe is! You can have a batch of this Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake cooling on your counter in about one hour. I think it tastes amazing warm. The cake itself can be covered and stored for up to 4 days and it somehow still stays moist.
Though I highly doubt it will last that long.
The Best Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake
The Star of the Show: The Pumpkin Puree!
- I used store-bought canned pumpkin puree for this Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake recipe.
- If you’d like, you could use homemade pumpkin puree in this recipe.
- Note: Be sure NOT to use canned pumpkin pie filling for this recipe – it is not the same thing as pumpkin puree.
- Be sure to check out my Fresh vs. Canned Pumpkin article for the differences between using fresh pumpkin puree, regular canned pumpkin, and organic canned pumpkin – and to learn how to make your own!
Why is There No Coffee in This Coffee Cake?
Generally, coffee cake is meant to be served with coffee, so it doesn’t typically contain coffee as an ingredient! Especially in this recipe where we want the pumpkin spice flavor to shine.
Why is There Sour Cream in This Coffee Cake Recipe?
Sour cream in coffee cake creates the most amazingly moist texture and flavor. If you don’t have sour cream, you can use plain full-fat yogurt instead.
What Baking Pan is Best for Coffee Cake?
This recipe was tested with an 8-inch square metal baking pan. If you’re using a glass or ceramic pan, you may need to extend the baking time by 5 to 15 minutes as those materials cook more slowly than metal. Learn more about Glass vs. Metal Baking Pans in my article here.
My Coffee Cake Sank in the Middle. Why?
- This cake is very rich, so it may sink very slightly in the middle. It shouldn’t be dramatic.
- If you do have a dramatic caving in the center, you may not have baked the cake for long enough.
- Check your baking time and that your oven is properly heating with an oven thermometer.
- Learn more about ovens in my article here.
Can You Double This Coffee Cake Recipe?
Yes! Simply double all ingredients and bake in a 9 by 13-inch baking pan and add about 5 minutes to the baking time.
How Long Can You Store Coffee Cake?
The Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake itself can be covered and stored for up to 4 days. This cake stays very moist and the pumpkin spice flavor actually improves over time! Make this cake the night before serving it to save yourself time.
Can You Freeze Coffee Cake?
- I’ve had surprisingly good results from freezing the entire baked Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake in an airtight container, then allowing it to defrost at room temperature before icing and serving.
- Slices will also freeze well – just wrap each slice well in plastic wrap and place inside an airtight container or freezer bag, to prevent freezer burn. Allow slices to defrost at room temperature before icing and serving.
More Delicious Fall Breakfast Recipes:
For the streusel:
-
1/2
cup
(100 grams) light brown sugar
-
1/4
cup
(32 grams) all-purpose flour
-
1/2
cup
(60 grams) pecans,
finely chopped
-
1
teaspoon
ground cinnamon
-
3
tablespoons
(43 grams) unsalted butter,
melted
For the cake:
-
2
cups
(254 grams) all-purpose flour
-
1
teaspoon
baking powder
-
1/2
teaspoon
baking soda
-
1/2
teaspoon
fine salt
-
1/2
teaspoon
ground cinnamon
-
1/4
teaspoon
ground ginger
-
1/4
teaspoon
ground nutmeg
-
1/2
cup
(100 grams) light brown sugar
-
1/2
cup
(100 grams) granulated sugar
-
1
cup
(244 grams) pumpkin puree
-
1/2
cup
(100 grams) vegetable oil
-
4
ounces
(113 grams) sour cream,
at room temperature
-
2
large eggs,
beaten
For the glaze::
-
1/2
cup
(63 grams) powdered sugar,
sifted
-
2
tablespoons
maple syrup
-
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray the bottom of an 8-inch square pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Make the streusel:
-
In a small bowl, combine all of the streusel ingredients with a fork until crumbly.
Make the cake:
-
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. In a small bowl, stir together the pumpkin puree, oil, sour cream, and eggs. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, then pour in the wet ingredients. Gently stir until just combined.
-
Spoon half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of the streusel. Spread the remaining batter over the streusel. Sprinkle with the remaining streusel.
-
Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Glass and ceramic pans will take longer to bake than metal. Cool for 15 minutes.
Make the topping:
-
In a small bowl, combine the sugar and maple syrup until a thick, pourable icing forms. Drizzle over the warm cake. Cut into squares and serve. Store leftovers, covered, at room temperature for up to 4 days.
This recipe was published in 2017 and recently updated with additional recipe tips. Photos by Sarah Fennel.
November 2020 Baking Challenge
This recipe was the November 2020 pick for our monthly baking challenge! Every month you can join the challenge by baking the recipe and snapping a photo for a chance to win prizes! Learn more about my monthly baking challenges here. Check out everyone’s coffee cakes:
Such great pumpkin flavor, and the cake has a beautiful texture! I think that next time I will omit the topping. I love the maple flavor it adds, but I had to add quite a bit more than 2T of syrup to make it even close to pourable, and it ended up too sweet for me (and yes, I did measure the sugar by weight and sift it, and I was using 100% pure maple syrup).
Could you let me know how I should measure out my homemade pumpkin purée? From what I have read, the homemade purée has a ton of moisture so should I weigh with the moisture or after dabbing it out with some kitchen roll?
This coffee cake is so delicious! There hasn’t been a single recipe I haven’t loved on this whole site. It’s super easy to make and the pumpkin really adds a nice fall touch!
Another perfect recipe! I was excited to make the Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake for this month’s baking challenge! It’s a perfect combination of pecans, cinnamon, maple, and pumpkin in a really moist and tasty coffee cake!
So moist and delicious. Tastes like fall.
This coffee cake is SOO good! Such a great fall dessert recipe.
We made the cake this morning and the recipe is super easy! It’s great whenever we don’t need to use a mixer because it’s quieter. The cake turns out really tasty and we omitted pecans since we did not have any in the house and also omitted the glaze because we don’t always like the extra sweetness of frosting/glaze. We had to bake an extra 5 minutes to get the center fully cooked using an 8″ square metal pan, but that might be our oven variance. Overall, this is a recipe we would make again!
So excited to hear that you enjoyed this recipe!
Really delicious recipe. Everybody loved it! X
Came out super good- everyone loved it! I did have to cook it or around 50 mins not 35 and it rose a decent bit. Could’ve stood to use a slightly bigger pan.
what size of a baking pan???
8×8 She specified in the recipe
Would oat flour work instead for this recipe? Or any gluten free type flour?
I don’t think oat flour would work but you could try it with a 1:1. I’ve never tried it myself though
I would recommend a Gluten Free 1:1 all purpose flour! Though I haven’t tested that myself.
Has anyone tried this using a gluten free flour like Cup 4 Cup?
This came out delicious! I skipped the pecans (for family with nut allergies) and the streusel was good, but there wasn’t quite enough of it. Does anyone have any non nut replacement ideas?
I think oats might work well!
Too moist
Seriously delicious! Gets better as it sits….YUM
I might try a bourbon glaze.
Hi…how can we make our own pumpkin puree..do we boil n then churn…or roast n churn.. thank you
This might be a silly question…can I make this in a bundt pan? Would I need to adjust the baking time?
I am also wondering if a bundt pan would work. Has anyone tried it? If so, please add if you needed to double the recipe and how long you baked it. Thanks!
AMAZING!!!
Tessa, you took the best thing about my favorite season and made it into this amazing recipe that I’ll keep coming back to well beyond Fall!
Everyone loved this. I’m making it for the 2nd time in a week!!!
Great recipe! I doubled it and baked it in a 9×13” pan and it was a bit too much batter so it turned out really tall and took about 10min longer to bake, but was delicious all the same! Very moist and great flavour
I made this for my co-workers and they devoured it! I got so many compliments. I doubled the recipe and baked in a 9×13 and it worked beautifully. So moist and the perfect balance of pumpkin and spice!
Fantastic, festive, easy to make. My family absolutely loved it. Thank you!
I made this yesterday! I loved it however I have a sweet tooth, so maybe next time I make this again, I’ll add a bit more sugar.
This was just amazing! I wish I could attached a photo of the end product!
Will canned pumpkin pie filling work instead of the pumpkin puree?
No, it’s not the same, it has added sugar and spices.
It was absolutely delicious!!
So moist absolute 5 star! I did sub brown sugar sweetener and combined half granulated sugar with sweetener to make the half cup measure required. as there are diabetics in family .
It rose beautiful , I used Tin square pans.
This is a keeper recipie ! Thank you
It’s a terrific recipe but it took more than 35 minutes to cook in the prescribed size pan at the prescribed temperature .. and with the fan on as well.
Moist and delicious.
Thanks for the inspiration.
I loved how the ingredients were all weight specified.
I’ve made this 4 or 5 times. Each time, it’s been phenomenal! Thank you for such a wonderful & delicious recipe!!!
I made this and it was SO GOOD oh my gosh. My new fall favorite.
This is a very moist beautiful cake. I did make some changes ……. Instead of all purpose flour, I used about 1/3 of the amount wholemeal spelt flour and 2/3 white spelt. For the sweetener, I used just a little coconut sugar and some maple syrup and also honey and I put less than what it called for (it was still PLENTY sweet). I used melted coconut oil instead of vegetable oil (nasty stuff!). I doubled the recipe and used a metal 13×9 inch pan. It was done in about 50 minutes. I tripled the spices and added cloves and allspice (I find a lot of American things bland and overly sweet). I may quadruple the spices next time and use less sweetener. Also, I think I’ll try to figure out how to use as much streusel but make it less sweet as i didn’t use the glaze but it was still too sweet. Overall a very good recipe!
This recipe is amazing!! The cake is the perfect amount of sweet and the streusel adds the perfect crunch. It’s so easy to make, and I recommend it for anyone looking for an easy dessert or breakfast that tastes so good:) I made the cake this morning for my family and it was gone within the first 45 minutes!
I made this for a parting gift and everyone loved it!! I doubled the recipe to fit in a 9×13 pan and it was perfect! I would probably make more streusel for the middle next time but it turned out amazing!
Is it possible to sun the vegetable oil with another fat (butter or olive oil for example)?
I’ve made this cake with browned butter and melted coconut oil, both with excellent results.
Delicious, moist…easy to prepare!
This recipe is amazing, definitely adding this to my thanksgiving morning brunch
Fantastic cake, easy to make and delish!!
Perfect for the fall
This cake is really delicious! So soft and tender and just the right amount of sweet. I absolutely love the brown butter coffee cake on this site, so I took a cue from that recipe and used melted browned butter in place of the vegetable oil here. My only issue was the baking time. Mine took 45 minutes for a tester to come out clean, but even then, the very center fell a little while cooling, so it could have used another few minutes in the oven still.
Am currently eating a big square of this cake still warm from the oven and it’s absolutely delicious! It’s pure autumn in a cake!
I had to use more maple syrup with the half cup of icing sugar but it may be a difference between US and UK icing sugar.
Will definitely be making this again!
This coffee cake is amazing! I hadn’t made a coffee cake in probably ten years, but I can’t wait to make this one again! It’s so flavorful and delicious!
I just finished baking. I made my own pumpkin puree and overall turned out delicious even though I did not add pecans. The texture is moist, soft and tasty but pumpkin flavour not strong. For the cake, I reduced granulated sugar to 85g and it just right sweetness for us. For the streusel, it was a little too sweet so next try will reduce to 80g instead of original 100g.
Questions:
(1) can I add more puree and how much should I add for my next try?
(2) recipe does not call for coffee and why the name of this recipe is called pumpkin spice coffee cake?
Hi Annie–
The name “coffee cake” is misleading, as they rarely contain coffee. Coffee cakes are a type of breakfast baked good that typically accompany coffee. Most commonly seen in the US, they can also be found in Canada and parts of Europe, but might have a different name (streusel or crumb cake, for instance).
Hope that helps!
Kate
This looks so good! So moist and that streusel topping…Delicious!
This was so good! I made this for company and it was delicious!
Delicious- the cake rose up nice and high, all the way to the top of the pan. It tasted light despite the oil. Next time I make it I will add more nutmeg and ginger, as I like a spicier taste.
Delicious! “best cake ever” comments from the bake sale today – another great recipe 🙂
Hi is there a replacement for egg in the pumpkin cake recipe?
I used flax eggs in mine! 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds with 6 tablespoons water
This turned out moist and delicious! The perfect way to warm up a cold Monday. 🙂
Wonderful, just absolutely wonderful recipe. Soft and spongy coffee cake. I only had to extend the baking time by about 20 minutes extra…used a metal tin. Other than that, excellent. Love the flavours.
In my review on 10/24/18, I forgot to mention I doubled the recipe for the 18″ x 13″ x 1″ pan & it worked perfectly.
Tessa, I just made your Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake! It’s absolutely mind blowing delicious!! I linked your FB page on mine as friends are asking about it. I made 2 batches. Thank you so much for a fantastic recipe!!
Have been buying the little pie pumpkins and roasting my own pumpkin all season this year. My two dogs go crazy in the kitchen with the aroma of pumpkin floating all over the place. Made the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies and to be honest, I don’t think we’ll ever eat regular chocolate chip cookies again. They are out of this world good! Made the pumpkin butter to put on rolls last night with dinner – again, amazing. I made it to test it out before considering it for rolls at Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks. Will definitely be making it again for the Thanksgiving dinner! Making this coffee cake today but for some reason I had left out a page with the baking directions when I printed it out so I got back online today to finishing printing the coffee cake recipe. Thank you so much of all of these delicious recipes!!
Hiya – this was the first of your recipes that I’ve tried, and it’s fantastic! Delicate crumb, crunchy streusel, absolutely fabulous 🙂 I had pumpkin puree taking up room in my fridge (Canadian thanksgiving is earlier than yours) and there’s a soft snow falling, so baking first thing in the morning when it was still dark and the house was silent seemed a warm wintry cocoon-y kind of thing to do…the only problem is, I forgot about the daylight savings time switchback, so I was actually baking it at 4 in the morning and my husband is pretty sure I’ve gone mad. PS – I brought the eggs and sour cream to room temp before I added on your advice. Now, I’ve never been that finicky with my baking in my LIFE, and I was certain it wouldn’t matter (because after all, I’ve been baking longer than you have, I can tell by your photo that I have cookie sheets older than you are, and what could this young snip tell me about baking?) – but it DOES. Holy crow, does it EVER! Thank you! Cindy
Tessa, I made this superb recipe for our Sunday Morning Coffee Service at church. For ease in picking up and eating out of hand, I baked it in a Half Sheet Pan, 18″ x 13″ x 1″. It was perfectly baked at 20 minutes (I checked it at 15 min.). We received many compliments, including one gentleman who confessed he had 6 pieces! Thank you for this perfect Fall coffee cake…I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Awesome recipe! The cake was moist and dense, crunchy in all the right places, and the taste was pure bliss. My family and colleagues left no crumbs.
I had to modify it a bit, because some ingredients are hard to come by in my country. So I swapped the brown sugar for sugar beet syrup. Instead of canned pumpkin puree, I used freshly cooked pumpkin. For the pecans, I used walnuts.
By the way, thanks a lot for converting ounces/cups to grams! That was so convenient!
To all my fellow centigrade users: 180°C will do just fine!:)
Loved,Loved, Loved, this cake. It is my new favourite pumpkin cake. The streusel is the perfect touch to this moist delicious cake. I am so adding this recipe into my file to make again. And seriously I cannot wait to make it again. Thank you Tessa.
This looks amazing, but I need enough for a group. Do you think this recipe would do well doubled in a 9×13 pan?
Definitely!
This looks delicious! Can the recipe be doubled for a 9×13 pan? Perhaps it may not bake through well in the middle in a larger pan?
Don’t use a 9 x 13 it will be very thick and take over an hour to cook hence you may burn the topping the first double recipe I made I did that so go buy a Wilton 11 x 15 x 2 you can find these at Walmart, Michaels, or online. It will turn out perfect and bake in the time its called for too!!
Can i substitute walnuts for pecans?
I have this baking in my oven right now, and it smells divine! This is my first pumpkin recipe of the Fall season! Thank you!
I made this recipe last night and it was a huge hit with my friends! I love all your recipes, Tessa! I’ve done quite a few now… you are my go-to for baking! Thank you so much.
Can you make in several small coffeecakes?
We made two. The square is with yoghurt and the round sour cream. I added one cup (half cup each) to the mix and a 1/4 tsp of cloves to each cake. We also substituted oats for nuts and used rum soaked raisins (1/2 cup per cake).