Vegan Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake
Vegan Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake
This recipe is not for the weak. It’s tender and rich like a frangipane. Made with pumpkin flour instead of the traditional almond flour. In a pinch and if there aren’t any nut allergies, sub the pumpkin flour for almond flour.
Here’s why you want to make this cake:
It boasts a soft crumb and is just the right amount of sweetness.
Pumpkin butter is layered throughout.
It’s pumpkin spice with -again- the most amazing cake.
If you don’t have nut allergies, almond flour can easily be replaced for the pumpkin flour 1:1 in this recipe.
Fresh Roasted Vegan Pumpkin Butter layered between cake.
What to expect?
The base of this coffee cake is most definitely a cross between a coffee cake and a frangipane. It's tender and moist, but not quite custard like.
For those not familiar with frangipane. Frangipane is an almond custard/paste. It's uses in baking are as a pastry creme or a lightly-sweetened filling. Not to be confused with Marzipan, which sounds similar and is also made from almonds-and is dense.
Frangipane is what makes most brilliant french pastries amazing. Think your favorite pear tarts, the best almond cakes, etc.
I created a vegan, nut-free frangipane using pumpkin flour, aquafaba, plant based milk and coconut oil.
The end result: a perfectly balanced pastry. The nuttiness from the pumpkin flour is reminiscent to an almond/yellow cake made vegan and allergy friendly.
Final Thoughts and Notes:
All plant based milks are NOT created equal. The challenge with coconut milk is-it's really too dense for gluten cakes.
Even with the combination of vinegar, full fat coconut milk yields a heavy cake. If there’s one milk that I don’t recommend for this cake it would be coconut.
Oat milk is great in this recipe. It pairs nicely with pumpkin, but soy is best and most mild. If you’re able to use soy, it has a natural emulsifier that is ideal for vegan baking. Oat milk, was my milk of choice and works fabulously. Pumpkin and oat milk works well in this recipe.
This cake is definitely not the easiest of recipes, but my family will attest that it’s well worth the effort.
Vegan Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake
Let’s get started!
Vegan Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Grease and cut parchment paper on a 9x13 sheet pan (2 inches deep) set aside.
- In a bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add frozen cubed vegan butter.
- Cut butter with a fork into the dry ingredients. Alternatively use a food processor until crumbs appear and the sugar is no longer loose. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- In a bowl sift flour, pumpkin flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside
- Make buttermilk by mixing oat milk and vinegar. Set aside for 5-10 minutes or until curdled.
- In a large bowl combine aquafaba, sugar, and vanilla extract. To it add the curdled buttermilk and whisk to combine.
- Incorporate dry mix into the wet ingredients in three parts. Fold in flour mixture with a spatula, being careful not to over-mix.
- Using the prepared pan, pour in HALF the batter. Use a spatula to spread batter evenly across.
- Filling: Use cookie scooper (roughly 2 tbsps) to scoop 12 dollops of pumpkin butter across the pan (3 rows of 4 )for equal distribution across the cake batter.
- With offset spatula spread pumpkin butter to cover the base of the cake. Drizzle pumpkin caramel across pumpkin butter.
- Pour remaining batter across filling. Gently smooth out batter without disturbing the filling.
- Sprinkle streusel topping over the batter. Bake for 45-55 minutes or a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Drizzle more caramel and top with a little powdered sugar.
- Serve slightly warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!
Notes:
**Sub almond flour for pumpkin flour 1:1 easily.
**Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to five days.
**Alternatively cut into individual serving sizes and freeze until ready to eat.
**Will freeze for up to 6 months
