CPumpkin spice Coffee Cake With Streusel Topping

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Want a delicious, moist, and easy-to-make Pumpkin Spice Coffee cake? This one has a sweet and crunchy streusel crumble topping with a pumpkin glaze. It’s the perfect coffee cake for a fall day!

When I think of fall, I think of pumpkins! I love to decorate with all kinds and varieties of pumpkins and make delicious recipes with them. How about you?

Today, I’m featuring a delicious fall-inspired coffee cake that will fill your home with pumpkin spice aromas! This cake is moist and delicious and perfect for a snack or dessert. I’m eating it for breakfast in a bowl of milk! YUM!

This pumpkin coffee cake has a secret ingredient that takes the pumpkin flavor over the top!

Is Pumpkin Coffee Cake The Same As Pumpkin Bread Or Pumpkin Cake?

I’m not a chef, so I don’t have the definitive answer to the difference between pumpkin coffee cake, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin cake.

Pumpkin Bread vs Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake

From my humble experience, I don’t see much difference between pumpkin coffee cake and pumpkin bread. They are both moist and have a denser crumb. Maybe it comes down to what we bake them in. Coffee cake is most often baked in a square pan and quick bread is baked in a loaf pan.

Traditional pumpkin bread is not topped with anything, but in recent years, it has often been topped with streusel and glaze, much like coffee cakes.

Pumpkin Cake vs Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake

There is a difference between coffee cakes and cakes. They are usually baked in different pans. I recently made a pumpkin cake, and it was baked in a bundt pan. Coffee cakes have a much denser crumb than cakes, and pumpkin cakes are much lighter. Of course, coffee cakes are often topped with streusel or nuts and sometimes a glaze, while cakes are generally iced, but not always.

If you know the difference between the three types of pumpkin bakes, let us know in the comments. Thanks!

I recently made a Pumpkin Spice Cake, and it was scrumptious! I used a yellow cake mix and doctored the box. My family loved it!

You might like Pumpkin Spice Cake With Maple Glaze.

A reader who made it said, “Yvonne, I made your maple glazed pumpkin Bundt cake, and it was a big hit! Everyone loved it, and it was easy to make. Thank you very much! I will make your orange cranberry cake next time!”

Tips For Success

A couple of things make this pumpkin spice coffee cake different from your ordinary pumpkin spice coffee cake.

The Secret To Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake

First, this recipe is a bit “spice forward”. I tried a few recipes and tweaked them until I found a lovely balance of pumpkin and spice. Adding extra cloves makes this cake smell and taste like fall!

The second thing that makes this fall coffee cake taste scrumptious is pumpkin spice coffee creamer. I used the creamer instead of milk in the recipe and in the glaze, too! What a difference.

You can use homemade Pumpkin Spice Creamer, which has all-natural ingredients and is made with pumpkin, or you can use the store-bought kind.

For this recipe, I used Coffee Mate Pumpkin Spice Creamer, and what a difference! I LOVE the flavor the creamer imparts to the coffee cake, and it gives it some extra sweetness, which the coffee cake needs.

EASY PEASY RECIPE

One thing I do when I bake is gather all my ingredients and any other small things I need, like measuring spoons, can openers, etc., on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Then, I have everything just where I need it. It’s my version of mis en place.

This recipe is so simple! No mixer! Just mix everything up with a whisk and a spoon! Don’t you love that?

Mix all the dry and wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Then, mix the wet into the dry ingredients. This is super easy and straightforward.

The batter is very stiff, so mix it well and incorporate all the dry ingredients at the bottom of the bowl.

To make sure the batter is even when spooned into the pan, dampen your fingers with water and pat the batter ever so gently to flatten it down and even it out.

There is a big difference between pumpkin pie filling and pumpkin puree. Use pumpkin puree in this recipe, not pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin puree is 100 percent pumpkin, while pie filling has added ingredients.

What Is Pumpkin Pie Spice?

Pumpkin spice is a combination of warm spices that remind us of fall!

Ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice are the most common spices used to make pumpkin pie spice, which we can buy in little jars at our local grocery store! It’s really easy to make your own pumpkin pie spice if you don’t have it on hand but have the spices that make it up!

Add all the ingredients into a bowl and mix well…

• 3 TBS cinnamon
• 2 tsp ginger
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp ground cloves

Put into a small jar with a tight-fitting lid

Preparing Your Pan

I used a ceramic baker. A metal pan bakes more quickly, but when I bake, I usually use my ceramic bakers!

I use the one below for so many things, savory and sweet!

Grease the pan well to make getting the coffee cake out easier. I also like to line my baking dishes with parchment to make them come out much easier. I learned this trick from the British Baking Show, and I’m a super fan! I wish I had remembered to line my baking dishes when I made this coffee cake!

While practicing this recipe one of my first Pumpkin Spice Coffee cakes fell in the middle. The cake tasted perfect, but it was underdone. The lesson to take away from a fallen cake is to NOT pay too much attention to the baking times on a recipe.

Baking, at least for me, is a finicky thing! I use the suggested baking times as a ballpark suggestion. Test your cake by putting a toothpick in the middle to make sure the middle is done. If it comes out clean or with a few crumbs, it’s done. If it comes out with wetter batter, keep baking; it’s not done.

This coffee cake may take 30 minutes in a 9 x 9-inch baking pan. But it will take 30-40 minutes in an 8 x 8 baking pan.

Streusel Topping

The streusel on this delicious fall coffee cake is sweet, crisp, and crunchy! This recipe is very generous with the streusel. The moistness of the cake is perfectly complemented by this topping!

The streusel was made with my grandmother’s pastry cutter. There is something so wonderful about working the cold dough into the brown sugar and flour.

I prefer to use a pastry cutter to combine the streusel ingredients into a topping. Put the ingredients into a deep bowl if you use a pastry cutter. If the pastry cutter slips as you press it down, some ingredients might fly out of the bowl if it is too shallow. I speak from experience. Using a deep bowl, keep the ingredients in the bowl.

Just think—my grandmother’s well-worn, lovely hands used this pastry cutter, too! She used it so much that only a whisper of red paint remains on the handle.

I loved my grandmother’s hands. They were always rough and scratchy. And I loved how they felt. God really blessed me when He gave me my Nani!

This streusel can be made by hand using a pastry cutter or two dinner knives, or it can be made in the food processor. If you use the food processor put all the ingredients in the bowl and pulse. You want the streusel to resemble coarse, wet sand.

My sister made streusel, following the recipe here. She baked it at 350 degrees until just barely brown. Then she cooled it, put it in zip-type bags, and froze it to put on top of ice cream or other desserts. Smart, right?

You can also add about 1/2 cup of chopped nuts to the streusel. Pecans or walnuts are good choices.

Pumpkin Spice Glaze

The Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake glaze is also infused with pumpkin spice flavor. The secret is to use pumpkin spice coffee creamer, which makes it so delicious! If you don’t have the creamer, use milk and add 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Freezing Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake

This cake freezes beautifully. In fact, I froze two Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cakes to take to a family birthday party this coming weekend!

I wrapped them UNGLAZED in heavy-duty foil, slipped them into a zip-type bag, and froze them. When I want to serve them, I’ll take them out of the freezer and let them thaw on the kitchen counter.

When they come to room temperature, I’ll unwrap them and slather them with the beautiful, yummy glaze!

GET THE RECIPE

Things You Might Need To Make This Recipe

I hope you will make this delicious fall coffee cake! Enjoy!

More Delicious Recipes

BANANA BREAD SCONES WITH MAPLE GLAZE

CRANBERRY ORANGE BUNDT CAKE WITH SUGARED CRANBERRIES

PUMPKIN BUNDT CAKE WITH MAPLE GLAZE

DELICIOUS SOUR CREAM SCONES WITH VANILLA GLAZE

Happy Fall, friends!