Vegan Pumpkin Crumb Cake

I’ve surprisingly not posted a pumpkin recipe yet this fall season. There’s just pumpkin pie bars from last year! So we need to fix that. Although this isn’t pumpkin pie (I’ll work on that), it is a vegan pumpkin crumb cake. Crunchy streusel topping over a moist pumpkin cake? Can’t go wrong with that. You also have the option of baking it in a muffin tin for a sweet seasonal grab-and-go treat.

It’s a pretty easy recipe to make and the streusel can be made ahead of time to save you a step. The cake is lightly spiced, moist and fluffy, while the streusel is crunchy with some added pumpkin seeds in it. I ate it for breakfast for days without getting sick of it, which is quite the selling point if you ask me.

How to make pumpkin purée

The recipe is quite simple and straightforward to make, especially if you opt to use canned pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling).

If you don’t have access to canned pumpkin purée but can get pumpkins or squashes (like butternut or acorn), it’s very easy to make it yourself. When buying the pumpkin, go for the small baking pumpkins. I actually prefer to use butternut squash (which I didn’t have) because I find it lends a better flavour. If you’re using pumpkins though, just avoid the large carving pumpkins, they’re stringy and have a very vegetal taste.

To bake it, preheat your oven to 190C/350F and line a rimmed baking sheet (very important to catch the juices, or it’ll make a mess) with parchment, aluminum or a silicone baking mat. Cut the stem off then cut the squash or pumpkin in half. You can optionally oil the cut sides. Place the two halves cut-side down on the lined tray and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The bake time will depend on the size of your pumpkin or squash. You’ll know it’s done when you can insert a fork or knife in it without any resistance.

Once it’s cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh and place it in a food processor or blender. When it’s all scooped out, blend until smooth. And voilà! Set it aside to cool before using it in the cake batter. You can freeze any leftover purée in a bag or airtight container for a few months. Or keep it in the fridge for up to a week.

How to make this vegan pumpkin crumb cake

There’s no need for any special equipment to make the cake or streusel, so it can all be done by hand. For the streusel, mix the dry ingredients together, then stir in the oil and milk. Put it in the fridge while you make the cake batter.

The pumpkin cake batter is just the usual wet and dry ingredients combined together. Nothing ground-breaking, but it comes out moist, fluffy and delicious! If I do say so myself. Which I do.

Pour that into your greased and lined cake pan and sprinkle with the crumb topping. You can keep it in larger pieces or break it up to have a finer crumble. You could also make this recipe into muffins, it’ll give you about 8 muffins and you’ll just need to reduce the bake time by 10-20 minutes.

Once it’s baked, let it cool a bit before removing from the pan. If you’re like me and can’t wait for something to cool to dig in, I recommend finding the patience to do it at least for this. Although it’s very good warm, the texture is much better once it’s cooled down and the cake has set. While it’s warm, it’ll seem like the cake is a bit mushy. Delicious. But mushy.

Storing the pumpkin crumb cake

The baked cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the fridge up to 1 week, although I recommend eating it within 2 days. I don’t suggest freezing the cake, but the streusel can be made up to 1 week in advance and kept in the fridge if you want to have one step done and just have the cake to make.

If you make this recipe please let me know in the comments! All feedback is very much appreciated and I would love to hear from you! You can also tag me on instagram @the.quaint.kitchen or use the hashtag #thequaintkitchen to share your creations!

Vegan Pumpkin Crumb Cake

Tatyana

Lightly spiced and moist pumpkin cake topped with a crunchy streusel mixed with pumpkin seeds. A perfect fall treat!

4 from 1 vote

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Course Dessert

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

Streusel

• 75 g brown sugar
• 65 g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ⅛ tsp ginger
• pinch of salt
• 45 g neutral oil or refined coconut oil
• 5 g plant based milk
• 25 g pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin Cake

• 150 g all-purpose flour
• 100 g white granulated sugar
• 15 g cornstarch
• ½ tbsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 150 g pumpkin or squash purée , canned or homemade
• 75 g neutral oil, (grapeseed, canola, vegetable…)
• 15 g plant based milk
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ginger
• ⅛ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or paste

Instructions

 

Streusel

• In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, ginger and salt.
• Then pour in the oil followed by the milk and pumpkin seeds. Stir until a crumbly mixture forms. Place in the fridge while you make the cake batter

Pumpkin Cake

• Grease and line with parchment a 7” cake pan or prepare your muffin tin with muffin cups (you’ll get about 8 muffins) and preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• In a larger bowl, whisk together the pumpkin or squash purée, oil, milk, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, apple cider vinegar and vanilla until smooth.
• Add the dry ingredients and stir just until a smooth batter forms, avoid overmixing.
• Pour the batter into the cake pan or divide it evenly into the muffin cups. Then top with the streusel (you can keep it in larger chunks or crumble it between your fingers for a finer streusel topping).
• Bake the cake for 40-50 minutes or the muffins for 25-30 minutes. Or until a toothpick inserted in the center of either comes out clean.
• Let the cake cool about 20 minutes before removing from the pan and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. For the muffins, take them out of the tin after about 5 minutes to transfer to a wire to cool.

Notes

• *Disclaimer: I have a tiny not-so-great oven, so your bake time may vary from mine.
• I strongly suggest making recipes by weight, if you make them by cups I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the same results.
• You can adjust the spices to your liking in both the cake batter and streusel mixture.