Pumpkin Crumb Cake
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This Pumpkin Crumb Cake features a moist, spiced pumpkin coffee cake that’s topped with a buttery cinnamon crumb topping. It’s the perfect pairing for your morning coffee!
Table of Contents
Pumpkin Crumb Cake: A Fall Breakfast or Dessert
You didn’t think I was going to let October pass without publishing a pumpkin recipe, did you? I mean, I’m not insane.
The truth is, pumpkin and I were on a break. I outpumpkined myself last year with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll and Healthy Pumpkin Muffins and Pumpkin Dirt Pudding.
I needed some space, some time to think and see other autumn fruits. But now I’m back, and I’m ready to give this relationship another go.
I could never stay away for long. Fall leaves and chilly mornings have me longing for those good old times with pumpkin. So I’m crawling back and begging forgiveness with this Pumpkin Crumb Cake.
If you ask me, there’s no better way to patch things up.
This pumpkin coffee cake is deeee-lish. Buttery and moist on the inside, crispy and cinnamony on the outside.
Spiced with nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, it’s got all the warm-you-up pumpkin spice flavor you need to start your day…or end it…or just get through it. Let’s be real, you’re going to be sneaking bites of this cake all.day.long.
Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Crumb Topping
Can we talk about crumb topping for a minute? What dessert is not improved by a little crumb topping?
Lemon Blueberry Loaf Cake? Ummm, yes.
Banana Crumb Cake? Of course.
Apple Crumb Cake? GIVE IT TO ME.
If I have to choose between frosting and crumb topping, I’m choosing crumb topping every time.
This crumb topping is made with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and it adds just the right amount of crunch to this cake.
But what makes this cake extra special is that the crumb topping is also inside the cake.
That’s right, a layer of crumbs is baked right into the cake. It melts away during the baking process, leaving a trail of buttery brown sugar goodness in its wake.
How to Make Pumpkin Crumb Cake
Step 1: Prep. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Step 2: Whisk dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
Step 3: Beat together wet ingredients. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and pumpkin puree until well distributed. It’s okay if it’s not totally smooth. Add the sugar and beat until well combined. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
Step 4: Combine. Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl in three additions, alternating with the milk. Beat on low speed until no white remains. Set aside.
Step 5: Make crumbs. To make the crumbs, combine cubed butter, flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a medium bowl and use your fingers or a pastry cutter to cut in the butter until it forms small crumbs.
Step 6: Layer and bake. Pour half the pumpkin batter into the prepared dish. Layer with half the crumbs and then the remainder of the batter. Top with the rest of the crumbs. Bake for 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Make Ahead, Storage, and Freezing Instructions
- The crumb topping can be made up to 2 days in advance and kept in the fridge or frozen for up to 1 month.
- Pumpkin Crumb Cake keeps well stored, covered, at room temperature for 3-4 days.
- Reheat individual slices in the microwave for about 30 seconds or pop the whole dish (covered) in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Uncover and heat a few more minutes to recrisp the topping.
- Crumb cake can be frozen for up to 3 months. Wrap individual slices or the whole cake in saran wrap and then aluminum foil, for added protection. Thaw at room temperature overnight and reheat, if desired, before serving.
More Pumpkin Recipes to Try:
If you’re bored of pumpkin, reignite the flames with this Pumpkin Coffee Cake. You’ll be back together in no time.
And if you need even MORE pumpkin recipes to fuel your pumpkin spice craving, try these:
- Easy Pumpkin Bread
- Pumpkin 7 Layer Bars
- Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Healthy Blender Pumpkin Muffins
- Fluffy Pumpkin Pancakes
- Frosted Pumpkin Cookies
Don’t forget to check out our full list of Leftover Pumpkin Puree recipes, with a recipe for as little as 1/4 cup puree!
Pumpkin Spice Crumb Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 cups flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- Pinch cloves
- 1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
- ½ cup butter (room temperature)
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup milk
For the crumbs:
- 1/2 cup cold butter, cubed (1 stick )
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and pumpkin puree until well distributed. It’s okay if it’s not totally smooth. Add the sugar and beat until well combined. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
- Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl in three additions, alternating with the milk. Beat on low speed until no white remains. Set aside.
- To make the crumbs, combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and use your fingers or a pastry cutter to cut in the butter until it forms small crumbs.
- Pour half the pumpkin batter into the prepared dish. Layer with half the crumbs and then the remainder of the batter. Top with the rest of the crumbs. Bake for 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Notes
- This cake also freezes beautifully.
What do you mean mix until no white remains?
You shouldn’t see any more streaks of flour in the batter.
I can’t find pumpkin puree in the grocery store. Could I substitute pure pumpkin instead
The pure pumpkin is the same thing! So yes, absolutely!
Would you consider adding email as a way to save your recipes?
Thank you.
Mary Ann Naylor
Hi,
What kind of cloves did you use? Did you use ground cloves or the actual cloves? If you used actual cloves did you take them out? If you used ground cloves how much did you put in? Sorry for all the question. So excited to try this.
I used ground cloves. Hope that helps and enjoy the recipe!
We made this today, and it was ……….AWESOME……….. Thank you, Jack & Polly
Thanks so much for coming back to let us know! It makes our day!
Where does the milk come in?? Help!
You can see it in Step 4. It’s added alternating with the flour mixture.
I am planning to make your recipe for my family this week for Thanksgiving .
Can I substitute oat flour?
They are gluten intolerant.
That’s a great question. I haven’t personally tried a gluten free version of this, but I would recommend using a GF flour blend instead of just oat flour. We like Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free baking flour or King Arthur Flour’s Measure for Measure flour.
OMG we LOVE this recipe. I’ve baked it at LEAST 10 times and EVERYONE always wants the recipe. I don’t change a thing. THANK YOU for sharing!!!!
Thank you for coming back to let us know. It always makes our day!
This recipe came out delicious. I did not have milk on hand, so I used a little heavy cream and Greek yogurt to substitute. Very moist and the crumb was the best. Everyone wanted more.
Thanks for sharing! So glad it turned out!
I followed your instructions for the crumb topping. Mine turned into crumb clumps. How do I get the topping consistency your photos show.
Hi Richard, I’m sorry the crumbs didn’t turn out for you. Do you mean they were in big chunks rather than small crumbs? If that’s the case, the topping probably just needed to be broken up into smaller pieces. The butter/flour mixture should be in pea-sized clumps.
Hi Richard, my husband cut up the butter than added it, with the rest of the crumb topping into our small blender & it came out perfect!!
Freeze the crumb mix first. I keep it made up in the freezer and sprinkle what i need. works perfectly.
That’s a great idea! thanks for sharing!
I made this yesterday, WOW!!!
Taste incredible and fairly easy to make. I live by myself, so now I’m freezing it in small pieces.
Thanks for this great recipe.
This came out really good. I dis 45 mins instead of 55 and it was super moist. I made it for my group at church and everyone loved it. Wish I can share a pic!
Can you make these into muffins?
I think that would work!
This was so delicious! We had it as dessert with pumpkin pie ice cream and the combo was pumpkin perfection!
I made this recipe last weekend and took it to work for my coworkers. It came out absolutely perfect and looked just like the picture. My coworkers devoured it and some asked for the recipe so I directed them here. Thank you so much for sharing this! I will be making it again this weekend!! 😊
Instead of using all the spices, could you use pumpkin spice instead and how much should I use if that would be ok with this recipe?
Yes, pumpkin pie spice should work! I would use 1 1/2-2 teaspoons.
How did this turn out with pumpkin pie spice? And how much did you use? Wanting to make this today but don’t have cloves so I might only be able to use pumpkin pie spice
Could I use less sugar, maybe 1 1/2 cups instead of 2?
Yes, I think that would work!
Can raisins be added to this cake and if so would you use regular raisins or golden i was thinking of poaching them in a little apple cider
I think golden raisins would probably go best with these flavors.
I would love to make this cake can I substitute the white flour for either whole wheat or almond or any suggestions & also a sugar substitute?
At least half the flour could be substituted for whole wheat flour. I’m not an expert on sugar substitutions, so you’d have to experiment on that one!
Hi!
Planning on trying this recipe. Can it be turned into muffins?
Thanks!
That should work! Just lower the cooking time to 18-25 minutes.
Can I cut the recipe in half?
Yes. That should work just fine.
can you use almond milk instead of milk???
Yes, almond milk should work just fine!
I just found your recipe yesterday and decided to make it tonight. My crumbs didn’t turn out crumby though. I think the butter was to warm, but I just dropped clumps of the so called crumbs between the layers and on top. It definitely did not look anything like yours did, but still turned out amazing and was so good. Thank you for sharing 🙂
This was a great recipe. Took it to my church group and everyone loved it. I put all the crumb topping on the top instead of 1/2 in the middle.
Hi,
Could I use buttermilk instead?
Is this recipe the correct one for the heading that says Coffee Cake?
The recipe says”spiced crumb cake”.
Yes, you’ve got the right recipe!
I want to mail this to my nephew after his surgery (200 miles from me). I assume I can freeze it, and mail it to him so it will be still moist a day or so in the postal system?
I would think that would work ok, although the crumb topping might get a bit soggy. Maybe have him put it in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes when it arrives to rewarm and crisp the top.
Made this for Fathers day looking forward to trying it other then liking the spatula clean, am going to surve it with saskatoon ice cream from save on foods.
My 13yo daughter made this yesterday, so we could all enjoy it today as a Saturday breakfast treat. She doubled the crumble , because that’s how we roll, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly.
It was gorgeous, and definitely looked company-worthy, but the taste surpassed the appearance!! So delicious. This was immediately entered into our collection of fall-favorites as an instant hit! Thanks for the recipe!!
Made it. Looks nothing like your picture, but it tastes fantastic.
Taste always trumps looks in this house. 🙂 I’m so glad you liked it!
Thanks for sharing this blog post about Pumpkin Spice Crumb Cake…it’s fantastic
Thanks for sharing this blog post about Pumpkin Spice Crumb Cake…it’s fantastic
Made this tonight and it was delicious. Flavorful and moist – everyone loved it! We ate it piping hot and loved it.
Made this tonight and it was delicious. Flavorful and moist – everyone loved it! We ate it piping hot and loved it.
This looks delicious.