Pumpkin Coffee Cake

I think I was pondering pumpkin recipes back in August.  That’s when the pumpkin bug hit me.  I have lots of recipes using pumpkin that are all delicious and old stand bys that will definitely be made during the fall and winter.  It’s always exciting for me to find a new recipe to blog about, well new to me, and share it with you.  I found this recipe on Food.com.  It was first posted in 2002.  I can’t believe I didn’t know about this till now. 

This pumpkin cake has 3 layers, the cake batter, the pumpkin pie batter and the topping. Its a little more time consuming than an average coffee cake but well worth the effort to make.  

This coffee cake is an explosion of textures and warm spices that your mouth will thoroughly enjoy.  In your first bite you get the moist cake that envelopes a smooth creamy pumpkin pie filling with all those warm spices we love, then the crunchy pecan topping comes in and your mouth starts to chew and savor all those wonderful flavors all at once. 

Lets talk about the layers.

The Cake Batter:
The cake batter is pretty much a basic homemade yellow cake.  The recipe said to combine the first 8 ingredients to make the cake batter.  Which gives me a vision of someone dumping all the ingredients into a bowl and mixing.  I didn’t do that.  I treated this like I would any other homemade cake and combined the dry ingredients and sifted them together.  Then I creamed the butter and sugar, added the eggs , then the vanilla.  I started adding the flour and sour cream alternatly in batches.  Flour first, mixing till just incorporated then adding half the sour cream, mixing just till incorporated, then another batch of flour,  the last half of the sour cream which was followed by the last batch of flour.  Always mixing till just incorporated .  3 batches of flour, 2 batches of sour cream.  This gave me a gorgeous cake batter.

The Pumpkin Pie Layer:
The recipe said to mix the last 8 ingredients together, which literally amounts to a pumpkin pie batter with only half a cup of evaporated milk.  Think about what you could do with this batter…..It could be a layer in cupcakes, keeping in mind it needs to be baked and not piped in to cupcakes, it could be a layer in a quick bread, you could use this in another cake as a layer.  OHHHHH the possibilities!

The Topping:
The topping was pretty basic and once again could be used on another coffee cake , muffins, or quick bread as an alternative to crumb topping.

Putting the layers together.
Once again , my kitchen lighting isn’t all that great so I picked the best of the pictures I took to show you the layers as you put them together.  

Take half your cake batter and spread it into the bottom of a greased 13×9 inch pan.  Your gonna have to eyeball this.  I didn’t get exactly half the batter down first, my filling wasn’t centered perfectly in the middle of the cake, but that was ok with me.  It was in there, good enough for me.

Spread your pumpkin layer ontop of the cake batter, pretty easy so far.

Using a frosting spatula or a large spoon, scoop up some of the remaining cake batter and  as you let the batter fall , move your hand across the cake so the the batter doesn’t fall in one big blob.  It’s not going to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Take your spatula or spoon and start smoothing the batter out to cover the cake.  Yes some of the pumpkin will be on the top, but it’s all good. 

The topping is going to be pretty much a mixed mass of butter, sugar and pecans.  Take portions of the topping in your hands and let your fingers push pieces of it onto the cake, filling in any empty spaces.  Bake at 325 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.  If your using a dark colored pan, you may want to check on the cake 45 minutes into baking to check for doneness.  Try to let the cake cool completely before devouring, all the flavors are at they’re best when the cake is completely cooled.

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we did, it’s a new family favorite.  God Bless you and yours.

Print recipe here.



Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Food.com

Cake Batter:

Pumpkin Layer:
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 eggs
1/2 cup evaporated milk

Topping
1/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup pecans (or walnuts)

Directions:

 1 Grease or spray the bottom of a 9×13 pan.