PUMPKIN COFFEE CAKE with the biggest, thickest streusel you’ve ever seen!
I feel like this pumpkin coffee cake recipe needs a disclaimer.
Warning: What you are about to see is disturbing in the best way possible. This 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.LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS RECIPE RIGHT NOW.
It is, in a word, phenomenal.
I took my very favorite 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 – Baked Explorations. It’s not a traditional streusel with oats or softened butter that requires a pastry cutter and a bunch of elbow grease. It’s melted butter, lots of sugar, cinnamon, and flour that gets stirred together. Much easier than cutting things in, in my opinion. It needs to set for a few minutes, so I always make the streusel first, then the cake, then it’s perfect for crumbling big huge crumbs over your batter.
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.
Give this one a try and let me know what you think! And don’t be scared off by the long ingredient list or directions – this is really straight forward and uses ingredients you likely have on hand.
Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Streusel
Ingredients
For the streusel
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 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 eggs
- 2 15 ounce cans pumpkin puree
For the icing
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray.
- To prepare the streusel, 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 the 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.
- Whisk together the powdered sugar and milk to make the glaze. Drizzle over the top before serving.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Simone says
hi! do you think i can sub canola oil for the butter?
Karly says
I’m not sure – the butter and sugars are creamed together so it may result in a different texture for the cake if you use oil.
Elise Leddy says
I made this year after year since I first saw it!! It’s like pumpkin pie in cake form, only with that gorgeous crumb topping!! I have a question though: I’ve been asked to make an apple crumb pie, and all the research I’ve done have the most wimpy crumb toppings!! Can I use these crumbs for the topping of an apple crumb pie?
Karly says
Hi Elise! I haven’t tried it myself, but I think it would work out great! They both bake for a similar time, so should be fine. Just tent with foil if the topping starts to get too browned. 🙂
Natalie T says
The cake is quite dense as mentioned. It isn’t like a moist cake at all. The flavor is bland and I added more spice than required. It isn’t sweet at all and needs a lot more sugar. The streusal topping wasn’t what was expected. I’ll try making this cake again but will include many changes.
Karly says
I’m sorry this wasn’t to your tastes.
Lexi says
Can you sub with almond flour? Any changes if so?
Karly says
Almond flour doesn’t usually sub 1:1 for wheat flour as it doesn’t contain gluten and is more dense. You can try it, but you’ll have a much more dense cake (and it’s already meant to be very dense so might not be great).
Renee says
I have made this several times and it’s my favorite pumpkin cake! The strusel topping is my favorite part too!
Karly says
So glad you enjoy the cake, Renee! That streusel is hard to resist! 🙂
Hannah says
Do I need to store this in the fridge???
Karly says
Yes, if you’re keeping it for more than a day I would store in the fridge since it’s so moist. 🙂
Alyssa Williams says
I find this takes hours to completely cool. Can you put it in the fridge to speed up the cooling process?
Thanks!
Karly says
I would let it cool on the counter for an hour first, but it should be fine in the fridge after that. 🙂
Alyssa Williams says
Thanks!
Michele says
I love this recipe, I make it for breakfast on Thanksgiving every year! I’m thinking of using the streusel topping for an Apple crumble.
Karly says
Oh, I bet it’ll be tasty on apples! 🙂