Pumpkin Pecan Coffee Cake | Love and Olive Oil

This fabulous fall coffee cake will satisfy your seasonal cravings, with a tender, moist crumb packed with pumpkin flavor and fragrant fall spices, with crunchy pecans and a crispy cinnamon sugar crust on top.

The wonderfully moist texture comes from the butter and sour cream base (sour cream being the key to the most tender, decadent coffee cakes ever, thank my Grandma for that secret ingredient!) with a crispy sugar crust on top and a cinnamon sugar swirl in the middle for extra cinnamon flavor!

This recipe is based on my grandma’s sour cream coffee cake recipe, which is, quite simply, the most perfect coffee cake ever. So despite being a chronic recipe tinkerer, I’ve felt no need to reinvent the wheel by changing it, rather simply adapting the same butter-and-sour-cream base to whatever flavor profile happens to be on my mind at the time (so far I’ve done blueberry cream cheese, chocolate chip, honeycrisp apple, and espresso, and also a version with Greek yogurt, and one that’s muffin-sized!)

In the case of this particular autumnal variation, I added pumpkin puree and fragrant fall spices for the perfect seasonal coffee cake to satisfy any pumpkin spice fanatic.

Why is this recipe so perfect? Well, the sour cream is the key to getting a super moist, tender crumb that’s not dry, dense, or oily. Paired with a creamed butter base (again, most coffee cakes use oil), the result is flavorful and moist and also surprisingly light and fluffy, with the perfect balance of sweetness, pumpkin flavor, and comforting spices.

Not to mention your kitchen will smell absolutely divine, like crisp leaves and cozy sweaters and a warm, pumpkin-spiced hug has enveloped your entire house (even if it still happens to be 82 degrees outside).

You can’t top this topping.

Most coffee cakes have a separate ‘streusel’ or ‘crumb’ layer on top, which usually involves another mixing bowl and dough-like mixture.

And yes, I love me a good crumb topping, but what if I told you you could achieve a crunchy top with a simple sprinkling of sugar? That’s the magic of this recipe: a simple topping of cinnamon sugar transforms into a delicately crunchy layer of crackly sugar shards that’s downright divine.

What’s also magic? That the same cinnamon sugar mixture that makes the crunchy top, when layered in the batter makes for a flavorful cinnamon swirl in the center of the cake (double bonus). See what I mean by magic? Because it truly is.

Where’s the coffee?

A note about coffee cakes since I always get concerned comments whenever I post one: in the US, a coffee cake refers to a muffin-like breakfast cake that is served with coffee, it does not actually have coffee in it. (Though if you’re looking for a cake that actually tastes like coffee, I shared a recipe for an espresso coffee cake with a double shot of espresso in the topping and glaze, a coffee coffee cake if you will).

To reiterate my point, I know other parts of the world think of coffee cakes as only coffee-flavored cakes, but this is not the case here—there is no actual coffee or coffee flavor in the recipe. It’s no different than a tea cake in that respect (which is meant to be served with tea, but doesn’t include tea or tea flavor in the ingredients), if that helps you wrap your head around the concept!

Could you add coffee to this recipe? You know, make it into a pumpkin spice latte but in cake form? Certainly! To do so I’d recommend adding a teaspoon or two of instant espresso powder to the cake batter, maybe another 1/2 teaspoon into the cinnamon sugar swirl if you want it extra buzzy. You could also add an espresso glaze like the one in this recipe. Mmm… pumpkin spice latte coffee cake. I like the sound of that!

High and dry: why you should drain your pumpkin.

A trick I learned when testing my caramel pumpkin cookies recipe was to drain or dry my pumpkin puree before adding it to baked goods. Pumpkin puree has a lot of excess moisture that can drastically affect the texture of baked goods (cookies in particular, but also cakes like this one).

Since I was trying to add pumpkin to an existing coffee cake recipe, I didn’t want that extra liquid to affect the final texture of the cake.

To drain and dry pumpkin puree, spread it out on a plate lined with two layers of paper towels. Then press another doubled paper towel on top; the towels will draw out excess liquid from the pumpkin. Repeat this with 2 or 3 more changes of paper towels, until the towel doesn’t instantly get fully saturated.

If you’re using homemade pumpkin puree, it’ll likely have even more moisture than canned puree, and I’d recommend draining it overnight (in a sieve lined with a coffee filter), then dry with paper towels. You could also try roasting/cooking the puree to reduce the water and concentrate the flavors, almost turning it into a pumpkin butter of sorts.

The secret step that makes this coffee cake so unique involves the sour cream, and mixing the baking soda into the sour cream before incorporating it into the rest of the batter.

When the baking soda is mixed into the acidic sour cream it begins to react almost immediately, forming an almost foamy, mousse-like texture. You don’t want to do this too far ahead of time (I wait until after the eggs are incorporated, then mix the sour cream just before adding the first addition to the mixing bowl).

Don’t worry, if you accidentally mix the baking soda and baking powder into the dry ingredients (guilty as charged on more than one occasion), your cake will still turn out just fine, though maybe a tiny bit less fluffy without the secret sour cream step.

After the batter is mixed it is then layered in the cake pan, alternating with a generous sprinkle of cinnamon sugar (the same mixture forms both the swirl in the middle of the cake AND the crunchy crust on top!)

Tip: write down the tare weight of your mixing bowl before you start, so you can easily weigh out exactly half of the batter into the pan rather than eyeballing it.

Deep dive: let’s talk cake pan sizes.

This recipe calls for a 9-inch round by 3-inch deep cake pan, though it will also work in an 8-inch round as well (slightly longer baking time to account for the added thickness).

But the 3-inch deep part is important! A standard depth cake pan (usually 2 inches) WILL NOT WORK unless you like cleaning overflowed cake batter off the bottom of your oven. If this is all you have, use a maximum of 2/3 of the batter (the rest you could bake into muffins). The batter does rise quite a bit in the oven, so be sure you give it enough space to do so!

This recipe can easily be made as muffins too! You’ll get about 16 standard-sized muffins from one full recipe, or 8 muffins for a half batch.

I used a high quality aluminum cheesecake pan with a removable bottom; the thick aluminum ensures even baking, and the removable bottom makes it easy to remove the cake from the pan without having to flip it over (resulting in all that lovely crunchy, nutty topping falling off). You can use a regular springform pan, however I find they are usually really thin and don’t conduct heat well, so you may end up with an unevenly baked cake.

If your cake pan does not have a removable bottom, make a sling with two long strips of parchment laid crosswise (in an X shape) under a round piece of parchment in the bottom, with the ends of the strips draping up and over the sides (use an oven-safe clip to keep them in place). Then, when the cake is baked and cooled, you can use these strips to lift your cake out of the pan without having to invert it (and risk losing even one crumb of the lovely crispy top).

If you wanted to use a square pan, that would work too, though unless you have an extra deep square pan, be cautious not to fill the pan too full with batter (remember it will almost double in height as it bakes). About 3/4 of the batter would be perfect in a 9-by-9 square pan, and half the recipe will make a slightly thinner 8-by-8 square cake. (Any leftover batter can be baked as muffins.)

Mix it up, mix it in!

I mixed the chopped pecans into the cake batter base (compared to Grams’ original recipe which has you layer the pecans with the cinnamon sugar; I found this made for two distinct layers that sort of fell away from each other when the cake is sliced).

In place of the pecans you could use another chopped nut (like walnuts or almonds), or even chocolate chips, or leave them out entirely.

If you want to sprinkle a few nuts on top too feel free to do so, though I recommend nuts first, then the cinnamon sugar so the nuts have a chance to stick (do as I say, not as I do).

Ingredient notes & substitutions

Sour cream: using full fat sour cream gives this cake a luscious tender and moist texture and helps it from drying out longer. Using low fat sour cream or yogurt will technically work, but the cake will be noticeably drier, so I really encourage you to go with the full fat stuff. The fat is there for more than just flavor!

Brown sugar: unlike my grandma’s original recipe which uses all white sugar, I used half brown and half white sugar for this recipe for a bit more fall flavor and molasses undertones to compliment the pumpkin. But you could opt to use all white or all brown sugar in this recipe if you like.

Pumpkin puree: This recipe calls for pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling (which has additional ingredients and sugar). I used Libby’s pumpkin puree as I find it has the most concentrated pumpkin flavor and a deeper orange color than other brands. You can also use homemade pumpkin puree, just strain it overnight in a fine sieve to remove excess liquid and then dry it thoroughly with paper towels.

Pecans: A nice textural contrast to the soft cake! Feel free to use other nuts or even chocolate chips instead, or leave the nuts out entirely.

Spices: I like using individual spices for pumpkin spice flavored things, but if you’d prefer you can swap all the spices listed with 1 tablespoon (more or less to taste) of pre-made pumpkin pie spice.