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You guy, you guys! I made a coffee cake!
My very first ever, and I have to say I’m kind of proud of it! 🙂
I mean, I know it’s technically just another cake, but I feel like there’s something kind of fancy about a cake baked in a bundt pan. Is that just me? Probably, but whatever! I’m excited because this is a semi new-to-me cake!!
I’ve made this cake multiple times now…you know, for testing purposes and all. But it’s cool, because this cake is honestly SO good! I wasn’t expecting to like a coffee cake this much, but thanks to these four words – cream cheese, streusel, brown sugar, and brown butter, well, those pretty much sums this cake up!
You know what’s weird though? I’ve only ever had coffee cake once in my life (or at least that I know of), and it was way back during my middle school days. I was at a friend’s house for a sleepover, a super rare event as I was such a homebody. Sleepovers were my worst nightmare and any time a friend asked me to sleepover I practically begged my mom to say NO. I was just a weird kid…
Anyway, I can’t remember why I chose to actually attend this particular sleepover, but what I do remember is the chocolate chip coffee cake my friend’s mom served in the morning! It was SO good, and I remember thinking it kind of tasted like a mix between a cookie, cookie dough and some kind of crumbly pastry. It was both moist and crumbly at the same time and I pretty much thought it was perfection.
I think I even asked my mom to buy one at the store next time, but pretty sure she never did, and that was my last experience with coffee cake. Or well until this cake, which I can tell you is a million times better than the store-bought one I had as a kid.
Like a million.
And you know what? There’s not even any chocolate!
Wait, what? I made a cake without chocolate and loved it?
Craziness, but true!
Okok, so let’s talk details here.
I made this three times in ONE day. Typically when I test out baking recipes I like to try to make all versions in one day so I can compare and then finalize the recipe in one big swoop! At first I wanted this to only be a brown sugar coffee cake with NO pumpkin. And my first test worked great, but I decide that I needed a larger cake, so I made it again. But it still felt like something was missing, and that’s when I added the pumpkin in.
I hesitated to use pumpkin because I have a ton of new pumpkin recipes coming up in the next few weeks (umm, hello! Thanksgiving!), but the flavors happening here just screamed “add pumpkin!”. So I added just a little to bump up the moistness and color of this cake.
Perfecto!
Let’s be real, we all want pumpkin right now anyway…hoping your motto for fall is “never enough pumpkin!”.?
Cream Cheese Swirled Brown Sugar Pumpkin Coffee Cake… yeah, the title is a bit long, but… I can’t leave anything out! The cake itself is a brown sugar, pumpkin, buttery kind of cake, swirled with a layer of cream cheese and a layer of streusel. I mean, that right there is pretty awesome, but since it’s cake, and all cake needs some kind of frosting, I decided to drizzle it with a brown butter and maple glaze.
FOR REAL.
This cake is so fallish, I just can’t help but love it to pieces… and even without the chocolate… it’s still so addicting! That pairing of pumpkin and cream cheese, it’s kind of unbeatable.
Just sayin’.
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Fall Tuesday cake baking session? Yes, lets!
My glaze broke – any idea what I did wrong? It was delicious, but not pretty!
Hey Brooke,
Happy Monday!! I appreciate you giving this recipe a try and sharing your review, so glad to hear it turned out well! xT
Delicious! Made it per the recipe and it’s perfect. Just the right amount of sweetness. Excited to share with my family in the morning.
Hey Emily,
Wonderful!! Thanks so much for making this recipe, I love to hear that it was enjoyed!! Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃
The glaze hardened and could not pour
Hi Janet,
Thanks for giving this recipe a try, so sorry you had issues with the glaze. Did you remove the butter from the heat before adding the remaining ingredients? Did you try thinning with water? Let me know how I can help! xT
Had half a cup of pumpkin to use up, so I tried this recipe. Am I glad I did! It is amazing! After reading some of the comments, I increased the brown sugar a little and added a tablespoon of granulated sugar to the cream cheese. It turned out PERFECTLY! This one is a keeper!
Hi Tammi,
Happy Friday🍁 I appreciate you making this recipe and love to hear that it turned out well for you! xT
Can I omit cream cheese ? I’m out
Yes, you can omit cream cheese 🙂 xTieghan
Do you let the glaze and/or cake cool for a while first? Mine always ends up clear once poured on the cake and absorbing into the cake instead that beautiful glazed look?
Hi there! Yes, I would let it cool for a bit! xTieghan
Can this be made ahead and frozen?
Hey Cynthia,
Sure, that should be just fine for you to do. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
That you for your prompt reply!!! Making for a camping trip this weekend but always so much to prepare so the more I can do ahead the better. I absolutely love your recipes, photos and blog!!!!???
If I don’t have a bundt Pan could I make these as muffins? Does that change the bake time?
PS I love all your recipes! You’re incredible!
Hey Stacie,
Yes muffins would be a great idea! I would bake for 25-30 minutes. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
Hi,
I’m also in the no ’10 inch bundt pan’ boat and had questions on volume, did you fill the tin half way then it doubled? Hoping to translate this to a loaf tin (21x11x6cm) or 8″ circle tin.
HI! I would use a 9×13 inch baking dish and cook for 5-10 minutes less. Start checking for doneness around 30 minutes. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thanks! xTieghan
I love your site and talent so much that I wanted to review this recipe in the hopes of improving it. I found that the bread itself was a little bland and dry (flour scooped correctly, oven correct temp, proper pan, proper placement, 40 min bake time) and that the cream cheese layer makes a bit of an awkward encounter because it’s so thick, firm, and entirely unsweet…. the glaze is delicious but also firm to the point it and the streusel do not saturate the bread at all. The streusel layer inside the cake was not flavorful so it just met the bread and cream cheese as a wet layer against solid cheese. The delicious glaze and streusel on top were unfortunately firm and heavy atop the bread without having a crumbly or moist texture. We all found it worth eating a piece but the different textures and flavors were all just off and so separated enough as to discard the rest of the bread. It had all the bones of being addictive but I am unsure how to tweak it so it’s as good as your other pumpkin recipes!
Hey Rachel! Thank you so much for your feedback. Hmm, I am wondering if maybe the cake just isn’t sweet enough for your taste? You could try adding an additional 1/2 cup brown sugar and then also sweetening the cream cheese with 1/4 cup granulated sugar. I think that could help you!
As for the streusel in the middle of the cake, if you found it a little odd, you could just use all the streusel on top of the cake. That will be delicious!!
For the glaze, try thinning it out with milk. That will solve the issue I believe 🙂
Please let me know if you have any other questions. Hoping this helps! Thank you!! xTieghan
On another note, where did you get that darling cake plate? I need one of those if I’m going to make this! ? great recipe!
Hey Laura,
So sorry this is a vintage cake stand, so I do not have a link for it. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
I just took it out of the oven and it’s a mess… I was already very sceptical given the texture of the batter, but it’s even worse now that it’s cooked ! I followed the recipe, my ingredients were at room temp but it splited anyway, the cake is greasy, the philadelphia at the bottom of the pan aka an epic fail. I don’t really understand why though, your recipes usually turn out great, I love your blog but this time, big No No for me !
Hi Valerie, I am sorry you had trouble. Was there anything you did differently at all? Any ingredients different? Method of baking this? Any info will be helpful to help me problem solve and figure out what might be happening for you. It’s hard to know without knowing any details. Hope I can help you! xTieghan
My motto for life is ‘never enough pumpkin’
Haha love it! I hope you try this Erika! xTieghan
Hello Tieghan! Thank you (yet again!) for an awesome recipe!
I have been looking at this cake for a loooooong while, but only purchased a bundt pan recently and finally made it for our poker game last night. Raving reviews, cousins are still texting me today how much they loved it. Thank you for making me look good 🙂
I hope you are enjoying your weekend, too. Now that I have the bundt pan I have to try all of your bundt recipes. Oh my waist line…
I am so glad this turned out so amazing for you Lena! Thank you so much! xTieghan
What do you suggest cooking this in if you don’t have a bundt cake pan? Thank you!
HI! I would use a 9×13 inch baking dish and cook for 5-10 minutes less. Start checking for doneness around 30 minutes. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thanks! xTieghan