A delicious, moist pumpkin sour cream coffee cake is packed with warm pumpkin spice flavors and topped with a pecan brown sugar streusel topping and cinnamon glaze.
Love this combination? Try these Pumpkin Muffins and add the crumb topping - they're a fan favorite!
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Flavor - The base of this recipe, a pumpkin spice cake, is SO flavorful. Packed with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and the brown sugar cinnamon topping, you won't find a bland cake here.
Texture - This pumpkin sour cream coffee cake is super light and fluffy, yet remains incredibly moist from the liquid of the pumpkin. Paired with the crumbly streusel topping, you get the best of both texture worlds.
Festive - It's the epitome of fall! The cake is warm, cozy, and perfect for a crisp autumn morning. Heck, eat it for a snack or a dessert, too. Drop it off at the neighbors. Everyone will love this cake!
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Ingredients
- Pumpkin puree. This is canned pure pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. They are different entities!
- Spices. The recipe uses a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. You can use pumpkin pie filling in place of that mixture in the cake.
- Oats. The recipe calls for rolled oats (old-fashioned oats), which produces the best texture in the crumble topping. Either standard or quick rolled oats can be used.
- Pecans. These nuts go into the streusel topping and produce a lovely bit of extra flavor and crunch.
- Dairy. It's important that the butter, eggs, and sour cream are all at room temperature to create a nice, smooth batter.
See recipe card for the full ingredient list and quantities.
Substitutions
Here's a few swaps you can make in this recipe.
- Pumpkin - instead of pumpkin puree, use sweet potato puree or butternut squash puree. Note that the butternut squash puree will have more water, so wring it out in a piece of cheesecloth, first.
- Spices - use 2-2.5 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice in place of the spices in the cake.
- Sour cream - use an equal amount of full-fat greek yogurt or high-fat buttermilk, instead.
- Nuts - if you don't like pecans, try walnuts or pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds)!
Variations
There's a few baking and size variations you can make for this recipe:
- Bake the pumpkin sour cream coffee cake in a 9-inch cake pan if you'd prefer a round version.
- Double the recipe and bake it in a 9x13" pan for a larger version.
How to Make This Recipe
One: Mix together the ingredients for the streusel topping (with a fork) until medium and small crumbles form.
Two: Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
Three: Cream together the butter, sugars, oil and eggs, then add the pumpkin puree and sour cream.
Four: Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined. Fold in any extra flour with a rubber spatula.
Five: Pour the batter into the prepared pan (lined with parchment paper) and spread it evenly.
Six: Spread the crumb topping evenly over the cake batter then gently press down all over to compact it a bit, then bake.
Seven: Once cooled, mix together the glaze ingredients and drizzle it over top. Cut and serve!
Hot tip! Use a whisk to drizzle the cinnamon icing on top of the cake for best results.
Expert Tips
- Don't over-mix the batter. Once the flour is added in, only mix until it is just incorporated. Mix in any remaining flour by hand. Over mixing results in gluten development which leads to a tough and rubbery cake.
- Tent the cake with a piece of foil if the topping begins to brown too quickly.
- Allow the cake to cool for at least 30 minutes. Cutting into the cake too soon will result in the cake pieces falling apart after slicing.
Recipe FAQs
Definitely not! You can omit the nuts without any other changes to the streusel recipe.
The cake will still come out ok, but the batter may be lumpy which can cause an uneven bake. It's always best to use room temperature dairy and butter for cake batters for this reason.
Storage
Cover the cake with a piece of foil and store it at room temperature for 3-4 days. I do not recommend freezing this cake, as it doesn't hold up well.
More Pumpkin Recipes You'll Love
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📖Recipe
Pumpkin Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Pecan Streusel
Equipment
- 8-inch square pan or 9-inch round cake pan
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment, or handheld mixer
Ingredients
Pumpkin Cake
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour 210g
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- ¼ cup unsalted butter room temperature (57g)
- ¼ cup vegetable oil 60ml
- ½ cup light brown sugar 100g
- ¼ cup granulated sugar 50g
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
- 1 cup pure pumpkin puree 240g
- ⅓ cup full-fat sour cream room temperature (80g)
Pecan Streusel
- ½ cup all-purpose flour 60g
- ½ cup brown sugar 100g
- ½ cup rolled oats 60g
- ½ cup pecans chopped (45g)
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted (57g)
- ⅛ teaspoon coarse sea salt
Cinnamon Glaze
- ½ cup powdered sugar 60g
- 1 tablespoon milk
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
Instructions
Pecan Streusel Topping
- Melt the butter, then add the flour, brown sugar, oats, pecans, and salt and mix with a fork until the mixture becomes fully moistened. Keep the chunks to medium and small. Place in the fridge while you prepare the batter.
Pumpkin Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Grease and parchment line your pan for easy removal and cutting later. If you don't want to line it, just grease the bottom and sides.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or using a handheld mixer), cream together the butter, oil, and both sugars on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating the first before adding the second. Once combined, add in the vanilla, pumpkin, and sour cream and mix on low speed until incorporated.
- With the mixer running on low speed, add in the sifted dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Finish mixing in any flour on the sides of the bowl by hand.
- Add the batter to the prepared baking pan and gently smooth out the top. Fluff the streusel with a fork, then spread it onto the top of the batter and gently press it down a bit.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with no wet batter. Cool for about 30 minutes on a wire rack.
Cinnamon Glaze
- Whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, cinnamon and vanilla, then drizzle over the coffee cake (I like to do the drizzle with the whisk). Slice and serve.
Pam
Super easy & delicious- love the rise & lightness. Generally i find coffee cakes a bit heavy for my taste - this One is not heavy at all - love, love, love!
Morgan
We LOVE this pumpkin coffee cake, I usually don’t like nuts in recipes but the pecans make this so much better. The quinoa adds an awesome flavor but we tend to leave it out (we can’t handle the crunch)
The Cozy Plum
Totally understand on the quinoa crunch, and I do love pecans haha