Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Crumb Topping
This pumpkin coffee cake is the cozy fall bake you’ll want on repeat! It’s soft, warmly spiced, and topped with a buttery crumb that pairs perfectly with your morning coffee. Made with simple pantry ingredients and real pumpkin purée, it’s an easy, make-ahead treat that brings all the flavors of autumn into one comforting slice.
Servings: 1 cake
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
- 1 cup all purpose flour or your favorite GF flour blend
- 6 Tablespoons cane sugar
- 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar sifted
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter or plant butter cut into ½-inch cubes, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour or GF flour blend
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour or GF flour blend
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
- heaping ½ teaspoon sea salt more than ½ teaspoon, but less than ¾ teaspoon
- 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice*
- 1 cup pumpkin puree NOT pumpkin pie filling
- ⅓ cup brown sugar light or dark
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup plain unsweetened Greek yogurt or sour cream
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup milk or plant milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Coffee Glaze (optional)
- 2-4 Tablespoons cold coffee made with instant espresso powder
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Place a rack in the center of your oven and preheat to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan with butter and line with unbleached parchment paper.
To make the topping:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, spices, and salt. Add the butter and vanilla and, using a fork, or your fingers (faster), break the butter into the flour until crumbs form and you can squeeze the mixture together to form clumps. There should be no dry spots. You’ll end up with crumbs of different sizes. Set aside. -OVER-
Make the cake:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, white whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, brown sugar, oil, yogurt, maple syrup, milk, and vanilla until evenly combined.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Do not overmix. This is a thick batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth the top with a spatula.
- Remove the topping from the refrigerator and sprinkle over the top of the batter.
- Bake the cake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with some dry crumbs. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and allow to cool before drizzling with icing, if using.
Make the icing:
- Whisk together the powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, and cold coffee. Start with 2 Tablespoons of coffee. The icing should be smooth and pourable but thick. If it's too thick and you can’t drizzle it, add more coffee, 1 teaspoon at a time. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar 1 Tablespoon at a time. Drizzle over the cake.
Notes
- Instead of making the coffee glaze, you can add instant espresso powder to your favorite cream cheese icing.
- If you don't want to add the coffee glaze, you can simply dust powdered sugar over your pumpkin coffee cake.
- Pro Tip: Chill the crumb topping while you make the batter. This helps it bake up extra crisp and golden.
- For a more traditional variation, try it plain with a dusting of powdered sugar, or make it dairy-free with plant butter and milk alternatives.
DIY Pumpkin Pie Spice
*Makes 1 teaspoon (triple this for 1 Tablespoon)- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg