Easy gluten-free Pumpkin Coffee Cake made with almond flour, coconut flour, and lightly sweetened with unrefined sweeteners. Grain-free, refined sugar-free, dairy-free, ultra moist, and packed with warm spices!
Moist and fluffy cake that is infused with big pumpkin flavor and a generous thread of crunchy cinnamon swirl pecans throughout is what brings us together today!
This Pumpkin Coffee Cake recipe is everything we could ask for in a sweet treat. It has amazing texture, big bold fall flavors, and is lower in sugar yet high in satiety for a feel-good satisfying snack. Plus, it is healthy enough to call breakfast!
Naturally gluten free, this wholesome coffee cake recipe is made with almond flour and coconut flour for a fiber rich filling breakfast or snack.
One slice will keep you satisfied for hours!
The way I see it, this pumpkin streusel cake is perfect for those with gluten allergies or intolerances, or for those who simply love a mindful treat. It calls for all wholesome ingredients, which leave your body feeling energized rather than launching you into a steep sugar spike followed by an imminent crash.
Let’s discuss the simple ingredients for this gluten-free pumpkin coffee cake recipe.
Ingredients for Pumpkin Coffee Cake:
Coffee Cake Ingredients:
Almond Flour: Providing a light and fluffy texture, almond flour is an amazing grain-free flour to use in gluten-free baking recipes. It brings protein, healthy fats, and fiber too!
Coconut Flour: A naturally dense flour, coconut flour is the backbone of this delicious coffee cake recipe. It absorbs four times more liquid than any other flour and its density requires the use of more eggs too.
For this reason, coconut flour recipes typically contain many more eggs and liquid than recipes that call for all-purpose flour.
Canned Pumpkin Puree: The main ingredient here! We need some canned pumpkin pumpkin purée to add moisture, volume, and subtle pumpkin flavor to this coffee cake! For the best results, be sure you’re using pumpkin only, not pumpkin pie filling.
Eggs: We need a whopping four eggs to help fluff up the super dense coconut flour. Don’t substitute any egg replacers here, as the recipe will turn out overly dense with a raw-like consistency without regular eggs.
Pure Maple Syrup: The sweetener! We only need a touch of pure maple syrup to sweeten the cake to perfection.
Avocado Oil: Here for richness and moist texture, avocado oil generates a moist crumb. Use melted butter or melted coconut oil instead if you’d like.
Pumpkin Pie Spice: The real star of the show! Pumpkin pie spice is a blend of cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, and allspice or cloves. Warm spices are what give a pumpkin recipe its amazing flavor!
Fresh Ginger: I love the subtle spice that fresh ginger brings to everything it touches. Add it if you’re obsessed with ginger like me! Otherwise, you can skip it.
Pure Vanilla Extract: Adds more warm undertones that make your tastebuds swoon!
Baking Soda: The leavening agent that helps the cake batter rise.
Sea Salt: Salt makes the cake taste sweeter without the need for excess sugar, and levels up the pumpkin spice flavor.
Cinnamon Streusel Ingredients:
Raw pecans, coconut sugar, avocado oil, and ground cinnamon are the ingredients we need for the crunchy cinnamon swirl. The end result is a nutty delightful crunch with plenty of warm and inviting flavor.
Recipe Customizations:
- Swap out the pecans for raw walnuts in the nutty topping.
- Use pure maple syrup instead of coconut sugar in the streusel topping.
- If you prefer very sweet treats, consider adding 1 to 4 tablespoons of brown sugar to the cake, and 2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup to the cinnamon sugar topping.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s make this pumpkin spice coffee cake recipe!
How to Make Pumpkin Coffee Cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. Or, spray liberally with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix together the wet ingredients (eggs, pure maple syrup, pumpkin puree, and avocado oil) until well combined.
In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (almond flour, coconut flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and sea salt). Mix the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients until a thick dough forms.
In a small bowl, stir together the ingredients for the cinnamon pecan streusel topping.
Spread half of the coffee cake batter mixture into the prepared cake pan in an even layer. Sprinkle the top of the batter with half of the pecan mixture. Repeat this for the remaining batter and pecan streusel topping, ensuring everything is spread into one even layer.
Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Insert a digital thermometer into the center of the pan. It is ready if the internal temperature is 190 degrees F or higher.
Let the cake cool for 30 minutes on a wire rack before slicing and serving.
I love enjoying a piece warm with some melted butter on top, alongside my morning cup of coffee or a homemade pumpkin spice latte.
Storage Tips:
- Room Temperature: Cover the cake pan with plastic wrap and keep on the counter for up to 2 days.
- Refrigerator: Transfer the cake to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: Freeze leftover pumpkin coffee cake in a freezer bag for up to 3 months.
The next time you’re craving a warm and inviting coffee cake for breakfast, whip up this healthier version!
Coffee cake recipes are some of my favorite baking recipes to make due to their warm and cozy flavor and the fact that they aren’t overly sweet.
If you love baking homemade coffee cake recipes, also try out some of my other gluten-free versions.
More Gluten-Free Coffee Cake Recipes:
- Paleo Apple Coffee Cake
- Almond Flour Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake
- Greek Yogurt Coffee Cake
- Carrot Cake Coffee Cake
- Paleo Blueberry Coffee Cake
- Almond Flour Lemon Coffee Cake
Pumpkin coffee cake for breakfast!
Pumpkin Coffee Cake Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Pumpkin Coffee Cake:
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup avocado oil or melted coconut oil or butter
- 1 Tbsp fresh ginger peeled and grated, optional
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup coconut flour
- 1 cup finely ground almond flour
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Pecan Streusel Topping:
- 1 cup raw pecans chopped
- 4 Tbsp avocado oil or melted coconut oil or butter
- 2 Tbsp coconut sugar
- 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line an 8″ x 8″ cake pan with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together the wet ingredients (eggs, pure maple syrup, pumpkin puree, avocado oil, fresh ginger, and vanilla extract) until well combined. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (almond flour, coconut flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and sea salt). Mix the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients until a thick dough forms.
- Stir together the ingredients for the pecan streusel topping in a small bowl.
- Spread half of the cake batter mixture into the prepared cake pan in an even layer. Sprinkle with half of the pecan streusel topping mixture. Repeat this for the remaining cake batter and pecan streusel topping, ensuring everything is spread into one even layer.
- Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until edges are golden brown. Insert a thermometer into the center of the coffee cake to check its internal temperature. It is ready if it is 190 degrees or higher in the middle. Allow the coffee cake to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving. This allows the cake to set up so that the streusel isn't overly crumbly when slicing.
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions:
I don’t see coffee on the ingredient list. What’s up with that?
There is no coffee in coffee cake. This is a common misunderstanding. Coffee cake is so named because it was created to be a breakfast pastry to enjoy alongside coffee. It doesn’t contain coffee at all, and instead is known for its generous amount of cinnamon flavor and hearty texture.
Can I use a different flour?
I don’t recommend going off script with the flours in this recipe, because it is designed specifically for the combination of coconut flour and almond flour. These two flours absorb different amounts of liquid from other flours, which makes it impossible to replace either one of them using a different flour in a 1:1 replacement.
For this reason, I recommend googling a recipe for pumpkin coffee cake that already uses the kind of flour you prefer.
If you would like to make an all almond flour pumpkin coffee cake, follow my Almond Flour Pumpkin Cake recipe, and add in the nutty streusel topping from this recipe.
Can I make this coffee cake low-carb?
Yes! The easiest way to make low-carb pumpkin coffee cake is to replace the pure maple syrup with sugar-free maple syrup and use sugar-free brown sugar instead of coconut sugar.
That said, if you only have sugar-free granulated sweeteners on hand, you use ½ cup in the cake and add ⅓ cup of some kind of milk, such as almond milk, oat milk, regular milk, etc.
The end result will be a sugar-free pumpkin coffee cake, but note that it will not be keto due to the carbs in almond flour and pecans.
