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Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Perfectly sweet with just the right amount of pumpkin spice complemented by the maple glaze.
Texture: The cake is super moist, fluffy, and light, while the streusel brings a heavenly subtle crunch.
Ease: Super easy and ready in only 1 hour!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Easy and crazy delicious fall recipe.
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! In fact, it’s reigned supreme as my most popular fall recipe for years!
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.
What’s better than streusel?! TWO LAYERS of the stuff. One in the middle and one on top.
This is the most delicious pumpkin dessert I have ever tasted! It’s the perfect combination of pumpkin and cake!
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.
The cake itself can be covered and stored for up to 4 days and it somehow still stays moist while the pumpkin spice flavors intensify over time.
Though I highly doubt it will last that long…
The Star of the Show: The Pumpkin Puree!
- I used store-bought canned pumpkin puree (Libby’s)
- If you’d like, you could use homemade pumpkin puree in this recipe. Use a paper towel to blot off as much excess moisture as possible.
- Note: Don’t use canned pumpkin pie filling for this recipe – it is not the same thing as pumpkin puree.
- If you’re curious, here’s 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!
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 dip 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. Or, you used a glass or ceramic pan instead of metal (see above).
- Check your baking time and that your oven is properly heating with an oven thermometer.
- Learn more about ovens here.
Storage & Make ahead
Room Temperature: The cake can be covered and stored for up to 4 days. It stays very moist and the pumpkin spice flavor actually improves over time! Make this cake the night before serving it to save yourself time.
Freeze: Freeze the entire baked cake in an airtight container, defrost to room temperature, then drizzle with icing. Slices of this coffee cake 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.
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Ingredients
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 sea 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) neutral oil, such as vegetable, canola, or avocado 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
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray the bottom of a metal 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, plan to add anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. 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.
Notes
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
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.
Yes! Simply double all ingredients and bake in a metal 9 by 13-inch baking pan and add about 5 minutes to the baking time.
This recipe was published in 2017 and updated with additional recipe tips. Photos by Sarah Fennel.
This pumpkin spice cake is excellent! I replaced the sugars eith dark brown sugar and coconut sugar. I will definitely double the receipe next time. Thank you for the receipe.
Delicious and easy to make. The pecans really make it. I had to substitute the sour cream for plain full fat greek yogurt and it came out perfect. Way better than another pumpkin coffee cake recipe I tried recently. Adding this recipe to my fall baking favorites. Thanks for sharing!
I’m planning on making this tonight, but have a question for doubling it. I know you said bake it in a 9×13, but do I need to double the ingredients as well? Or will it just be flatter in the 9×13?
Hi! Yes, if you’re doubling the recipe, you’ll want to double all of the ingredients and bake it in a 9×13-inch metal pan. You’ll just need to add a few extra minutes to the baking time. It won’t be flatter since the recipe is doubled! I just edited the recipe note to make it clearer that all of the ingredients need to be doubled. 🙂
Overall the cake was good. Definitely not too sweet and I added a bit of pumpkin coffee creamer to the icing for more flavor. The only issue is the cake seemed not as moist as shown in the video. My batter was thicker and harder to spread and it took a while to fold the flour in completely which make have made the batter a bit tougher. Seemed like it could have used more moisture. Would love any suggestions you may have.
Hi! I’m glad you enjoyed the cake overall! 🙂 The batter definitely shouldn’t be especially thick or difficult to spread, so I’d love to help figure out what happened. Did you happen to weigh the flour, or measure it by volume? If measuring by cups, it’s easy to accidentally add more flour than the recipe calls for, which could make the batter thicker and the finished cake less moist. If you don’t have a digital scale, try using the spoon-and-level method next time.
It’s also important to gently stir the batter just until the flour is incorporated. If it took quite a bit of mixing to fully incorporate the flour, that could have made the cake a little tougher, too. I wouldn’t recommend adding more moisture to the recipe just yet, since the pumpkin, oil, sour cream, and eggs all provide quite a bit of moisture.
Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly. I did not weigh the flour but I do always scoop and level when I measure. I might also have used unbleached flour which could be adding to the dryness based on the email you recently sent out about flour. I was folding the mixture with a spatula and trying not to overmix but I just kept finding flour pockets!! Also, do you think it mattered that I used organic pumpkin from a can? I did feel like it got more moist the next day. I will try it again and weigh my flour and also be very mindful of the bake as I did it in a 9×9 pan and did reduce the time but I may have slightly over baked it. I also added more cinnamon as others recommended and next time I am going to add vanilla too. My guests loved it!! After I master this recipe I am moving on to cinnamon rolls! Can’t wait to back my way through fall.
Thank you again for your help. So kind of you.
Doubled the recipe, added more cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, crushed some cloves too and added them, also added vanilla to wet ingredients!
Over half the pan was gone within 2 hours of making this!
Yummy delicious!
Wanted to upload a picture but it keeps saying the file is too big!
Fantastic! I only had dark brown sugar which probably made the final product look darker but didn’t make any difference to my lady friends who finished it off in one seating like a group of football players. It did take a lot longer to bake. Maybe I need to double check my oven’s thermostat? Thank you for a crowd pleaser Tessa!