This delicious sour cream pumpkin cake is pumpkin coffee cake meets pumpkin pie! Enjoy the ribbon of pumpkin running through a luscious, moist sour cream coffee cake.
If you are expecting a house full for the holidays, wouldn’t it be great to have a lovely, season sweet treat on the counter for everyone to enjoy? This delicious Sour Cream Pumpkin Coffee Cake fits the bill perfectly!
Perfect for a snack, a bite with morning or afternoon coffee, for the brunch table or even for dessert, this pumpkin cake will be sure to be popular. If Pumpkin Pie and Coffee Cake had a love child, it would be this Sour Cream Pumpkin Coffee Cake! This cake bakes up in a 9×13 pan and so is perfect for feeding a crowd.
Ingredients and substitutions
Pumpkin – be sure to use canned pure pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling.
Sour Cream – full fat sour cream will always produce the best results in baking, so it is recommended.
Walnuts – You can substitute walnuts for the pecans or leave out the nuts altogether, if you like.
Recipe tips!
This coffee cake is quite moist, so it’s probably at its best in the first 24 hours after baking. You can store at room temperature or in the fridge (I love cold pumpkin pie, so I enjoyed this one right from the fridge).
Top Tip!
This cake comes together quickly if you make the streusel and pumpkin filling before starting the cake batter. Make them while your butter is softening for the batter, then the just mix the batter, layer in the pan and bake!
Storing and freezing
You can store this cake in the refrigerator or at room temperature. It will keep longer if refrigerated.
Freezing is not recommended as the texture of the cake may be changed by the freeze/thaw process.
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Ingredients
Streusel:
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/3 cup butter, cold and cut into 6 pieces
- 1 cup pecans, chopped
Pumpkin Mixture:
- 1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree, not pie filling
- 1/3 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, slightly beaten
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- Pinch salt
Cake Batter:
- 1/2 cup salted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sour cream, full-fat sour cream recommended
Glaze:
- 1/2 cup icing/confectioners’ sugar
- 1-2 Tablespoon milk
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F (regular bake setting/not fan assisted) and grease a 9×13 baking pan. Set aside.
For the streusel:
- In a medium bowl, stir together the 1 cup brown sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon. Cut in the butter with two knives or a pastry cutter. Stir in the chopped pecans. Place in the fridge until needed.
For the pumpkin filling:
- In a medium bowl, stir together the pumpkin puree, 1/3 cup white sugar, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt until well combined. Set aside.
For the cake batter:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter with the white sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients, alternately with the sour cream and mix until combined.
- Spoon 1/2 of the cake batter into your prepared pan. Sprinkle with 1/2 of the streusel mixture. Spread all of the pumpkin filling over-top. Add the rest of the cake batter and spread on top of the pumpkin filling. Sprinkle the remaining streusel on top.
- Bake in preheated oven for 45-55 minutes or until set and golden. Remove to a cooling rack and cool in pan until completely cooled.
For the glaze:
- Stir together the icing sugar, milk and vanilla until you have an icing thin enough to fall from a spoon, adding more milk as necessary. When cake is cooled, drizzle over-top. Place cake pan in fridge to set glaze.
Notes
More pumpkin recipes to love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
I’ve been making this Pumpkin Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe I found in women’s Magazines for the past 35 years. It is always a big hit for Thanksgiving, or any other gathering. I also have experimented with replacing half of the stick of butter in the cake batter with 1/2 cup of apple sauce. It cut back on the fat, and nobody could tell the difference. It still stayed very moist and tasty.
Good to know, Rita :) Thanks for sharing!
Has anyone tried it with fresh pumpkin? Assume it would just be a higher water content? You noted that this is already a little moist, so wondering if I should make adjustments.
I made this coffee cake many years ago for several thanksgiving days and decided to try others different desserts and this recipe was long forgotten along with recipe book that I found it in(found in a dollar recipe book?). Today my husband was asking how come I stopped making it and that it would be nice to have it again, I remembered the ingredients but not the amounts and what went with what. So I googled it and there was your recipe exactly how I remembered…thank you!!!
Will be making one hubby very happy this turkey day! Blessings and have a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Hi Yolanda and yes, this is an old recipe that probably made the rounds many years ago. I still enjoy it, too :) So glad you found it! Thanks :)
HI
I just made this one today.
I adjusting myself for half of amount instead 13×9 pan to 8×8.
Result was so good and moist cake !!
One thing that I wanted to more adding Pumpkin taste or Spice.
So I do more adding for those next time what I ‘m gonna making again.
Thank you !
Such a dream fall coffee cake! :)
Thanks Laura :)
Bring on the pumpkin Jennifer! I’ve got a girl’s brunch next weekend! Can’t wait to try this!
Would be great for a brunch, Mary Ann! Thanks :)
I’m a huge sucker for sour cream coffee cake and then add pumpkin streusel… Oh my! I can’t wait to try this!
Thanks Chris! It didn’t last long here ;)
We are thinking alike these days Jennifer. Pumpkin cake for breakfast is a must during fall! Love your beautiful rich sour cream cake and all that glorious pumpkin! Pecan toppings are the best with pumpkin cake – especially with that glaze! Pinning :)
Thanks so much, Tricia :)
I first made this amazing coffee cake around 1990. My recipe came from a Best of the Best from Virginia cookbook. It’s exactly the same except didn’t call for a glaze. Actually this cake is so moist I can’t imagine adding a glaze. My family loves it, and around October, one of ’em will start hinting “Isn’t it time for the pumpkin coffee cake?”