Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Welcome in your fall mornings with this pumpkin coffee cake. Read on for the recipe details.

We decided to try adding pumpkin to our easy coffee cake recipe because fall means adding pumpkin to everything, right?!?!  It’s just as easy to make due to using a yellow cake mix!  Plus that crumb topping is amazing!

I first decided to try making pumpkin coffee cake after talking to a friend that mentioned that you could mix a can of pumpkin with any boxed cake or brownie mix (brownies, etc.) to get a pumpkin flavored “healthier” cake.  Yes, it’s still cake.  No, it’s not really healthy.

I also want to try the 2 ingredient frosting I keep hearing about that is just melted chocolate and a can of sweet potato puree.  I haven’t tried it yet, but I will soon!

Anyway, back to the pumpkin coffee cake. The cake part is just a can of pumpkin, vanilla, pumpkin spice or cinnamon, and a yellow cake mix.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake Tips

The amazing crumble topping is slightly different than our coffee cake as well.  In order to make it more like our crisp topping, we added in oats to the crumb topping.  Make sure you thoroughly mix the topping in a food processor with cold butter so that the end result is not powdery, but is closer to cookie dough.  I think you could also soften the butter and mix to avoid using a food processor, but it wouldn’t be quite as much like a crisp topping.  You can make the topping while the cake cooks for the first 20 minutes.  Then remove and sprinkle the crumb topping over the top evenly and put back in the oven to finish cooking.

I found that this coffee cake was even better the second day (if you can wait that long), so feel free to make ahead for brunch or gatherings.  I think it would also freeze nicely like the original coffee cake (just take out the night before you need to eat it).