Moist and tender pumpkin cake loaded with warm pumpkin spices and topped with a sweet cinnamon & brown sugar streusel. Mix up a simple vanilla glaze to drizzle over the top. This streusel pumpkin cake is the best Fall pumpkin dessert recipe!
PUMPKIN CAKE RECIPE
I am pretty sure everyone NEEDS this cinnamon streusel pumpkin cake. Like really, really needs it. Whenever I post lots of pictures you always know I am slightly obsessed with it. Fair warning: there are more pictures than normal 🙂 Enjoy the deliciousness or scroll to the bottom for the recipe.
I am pretty sure it’s no secret by now that I love me some pumpkin recipes. The warm spices, the moistness (I hate that word, haha!), and the distinct flavor it brings to baked goods. Like this banana pumpkin chocolate chip bread, or pumpkin chocolate chip bars and glazed pumpkin donut muffins. They’re all just amazing and would be a wonderful treat for Fall.
The pumpkin cake is adapted from a Paula Deen recipe. Can I just say how much I love her?! I know I talk about this all the time here on the blog, but we went to one of her restaurants in South Carolina and I still dream about that food. Oh my! It was so stinkin’ good. I knew when I found her pumpkin cake recipe that I just had to make it.
I’ve always been a sucker for coffee cake. You know the kind I’m talking about with the mile high streusel on top? I knew I wanted to combine the pumpkin cake with that streusel topping and of course a glaze too.
I was not quite sure what to call this. Is it pumpkin bars? Pumpkin cake? Coffee cake? I decided to go with a pumpkin cake because it’s cake and everyone loves cake 🙂
If you drizzle the glaze while it’s semi-warm it will sort of melt into the cake. Or, wait a bit longer until it’s cooler and then it will stay on there like the pictures above. Either way is yummy!
I normally send all the blog desserts with my husband to work, but I am seriously trying to find any reason possible to keep this one at home. But if I keep it, it will literally be screaming at me all day to eat a piece, haha! And we all know I have zero self control around pumpkin goodies.
With Thanksgiving coming up this would make for a great non-pumpkin dessert. Or make it just because it’s Fall and the weather is finally cooling down. That deserves a celebration in my world.
I really hope you’ll make this one. It uses an entire can of pumpkin so there will be no wondering what to make with the extras. I know a lot of people that won’t even make a pumpkin recipe if it does not use the entire can of pumpkin. So here you go!
Cinnamon Streusel Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients
Cinnamon Streusel
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
Pumpkin Cake
- 4 large eggs
- 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon salt
Glaze
- 1 tablespoon butter, softened
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2-4 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
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Heat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.
Cinnamon Streusel
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Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and using your fingers, or a pastry cutter, mix together until it resembles coarse wet sand. Set aside.
Pumpkin Cake
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In a large bowl add eggs, sugar, canola oil, and pumpkin. Use a handheld blender, or a stand mixer, to beat until combined.
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In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Stir with a wire whisk to break up clumps.
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Add half of the dry ingredients into the wet and beat together. Add the other half and mix until combined.
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Pour into the prepared baking dish and sprinkled the cinnamon streusel over top.
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Cook for 30-38 minutes or until center is no longer "jiggly" and looks set. The edges will be golden brown. Let cool on a cooling rack.
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Once cooled make the glaze: beat the butter and vanilla extract until soft and creamy. Add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, and 1 tablespoon heavy cream. Keep adding heavy cream, in 1 tablespoon increments, until desired consistency is reached.
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Drizzle over the cake and serve.
Recipe Notes
If you use 1% or 2% milk you will need less milk as it's thinner than heavy cream. Just start with 1 tablespoon of milk at a time and then add from there until it's the desired consistency. The glaze is much better with heavy cream!
Mine was perfect at 35 minutes. You want to make sure the center looks cooked and not jiggly. You could also use a toothpick and make sure it comes out with no wet batter on it.
If wanted, sprinkle some pecans over the glaze for a salty bite.
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Recipe originally published October 2017.
Republished and updated September 2018.
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