Name: Vegan Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 50 min
Ingredients: 1 cup (200g) pumpkin puree; 1 cup (250mL) plant-based milk, such as almond, soy or coconut; 1/4 cup (65 mL) light-tasting vegetable oil, such as sunflower or rapeseed; 2 cups (300g) plain or all-purpose flour*; 1/2 cup (100g) cane sugar; 3 tsp baking powder; 2 tsp ground cinnamon; 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg; 1/2 tsp ground cloves**; 1/3 cup (55g) coconut or brown sugar; 1 tbsp ground cinnamon; 1/2 cup (60g) plain or all-purpose flour (or white rice flour for gluten free); 1/2 cup (50g) pecans; 1/4 cup (55g) vegan butter; 3 tbsp (~ 40g) cane, coconut or brown sugar; 1 tsp cinnamon

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Spiced vegan pumpkin coffee cake with a cinnamon swirl and generously topped with pecan crumble! Tender, moist and utterly delicious!

Vegan pumpkin coffee cake with two slices taken out revealing the cinnamon swirl in the cake

This cake is the perfect accompaninent to your morning or afternoon coffee. If you’re in North America, it’s amazing for Fall and Thanksgiving! The cake is:

Not too sweet and lightly spiced
Melts in your mouth
Fluffy and moist
Vegan (egg and dairy free)
EASY to prepare
Perfect for breakfast, afternoon tea or dessert
Will convert pumpkin skeptics (such as my partner)

Ingredients for the vegan pumpkin cake

The main component of the recipe is an easy vegan pumpkin cake (surprise!). You’ll need basic ingredients including:

All-purpose / plain flour
Cane sugar (if you’re in the USA, use organic such as this brand to make sure it is vegan)
Pumpkin puree (I used homemade)
Plant-based milk
Sunflower oil or any liquid oil
Spices including cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves
Baking powder. It may sound like a lot of baking powder in the recipe but this is needed to make sure the cake is fluffy. You will not taste it in the final cake.

I didn’t have ground cloves so I popped it in a blender with all the liquid ingredients then used it in the recipe.

You can probably use just the vegan pumpkin cake recipe in muffins, and layered cakes too! Though, I really do love the cinnamon swirl and crumble for this coffee cake.

Flatlay of ingredients for vegan coffee crumble cake

Preparing the batter for the vegan pumpkin coffee cake

This step is SUPER easy. Simply add all the liquid ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix until there are no lumps. We need to do this first to ensure there are no lumps of pumpkin puree.

Then add all your dry ingredients and mix through! The batter will be relatively thick for this recipe but it will bake beautifully!

Two bowls showing mixed wet ingredients and final cake batter for the vegan pumpkin cake

Preparing the cinnamon swirl and crumble

To make the mixture for the cinnamon swirl, simply combine coconut or brown sugar and cinnamon.

To prepare the crumble, add all ingredients to a bowl and mix until it is crumbly. Try to make sure there are no chunks of butter or flour! However, we want some chunks/bits/crumbles as this is what makes it a ‘crumble.’

Pecan crumble in a bowl for the vegan pumpkin crumble cake

Assembling the vegan pumpkin coffee cake

After you line a 20 cm (8 inch) cake tin with baking paper, spread half the cake batter in the tin. As the batter is quite thick, you’ll need to smooth the surface.

Liberally sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top. I left some chunks of sugar in the layer and it was fine. Top this with the remaining cake batter.

The last step is to sprinkle the crumble on top. It may look like A LOT of crumble but it works with the final cake

Step by step images showing the different layers of the pumpkin crumble cake in a cake tin. Layers include: cake batter, cinnamon sugar, cake batter, crumble

Baking the vegan pumpkin cake

It’s pretty straight forward baking the cake. However, my only tip is if your crumble is browning too quickly but your cake is still uncooked, cover your baking tin with a small baking tray or aluminium foil. This traps in the heat and forces the middle of the cake to cook, rather than the outside.

See my other simple vegan cakes and bakes