Pumpkin Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

I love  incorporating pumpkins in most of my fall baking - it’s such a comforting, sit by the fireplace (or heater) taste for me. It’s an extremely versatile ingredient - you can use it as a substitute for butter or oil in most recipes, and it will elevate the recipe with a delightful pumpkin flavor.      

Earlier this week my kids and I carved out our Halloween pumpkins and made some jack-o-lanterns. They wanted to save all of the pumpkin seeds, pulp, and skin so I could continue making all sorts of yummy pumpkin desserts.

They proudly gave me an enormous bowl filled with the slimy, gooey pumpkin innards, and I sadly tossed it into the compost bin - maybe next year I’ll have the energy to transform the actual pumpkin into pumpkin puree that I use in baking. Sigh.

Which brings us to this amazing cake that I’ve baked (using store bought, canned pumpkin puree) - a pumpkin cream cheese coffee cake. Each part of this cake, separately, would make a delicious cake -

Pumpkin cake? Yum.

Cream cheese cake? Who could ever deny a cheesecake?

Coffee cake? Yes, right here please.

But put them all together? It’s a masterpiece of flavors!

This is topped with a crumbly, “crunchy” as my kids call it, topping. And I always add a dollop of whipped cream* to go on top of the topping. A tiptop topping, if you will.

Ingredients:

Cake

¼ cup pumpkin puree

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

½ cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Crumb top

¼ cup butter, cold

¼ cup flour

½ cup brown sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

Kid Friendly Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
   

2. Let your little one use a hand mixer to cream together the pumpkin puree, softened cream cheese, sugar, and eggs. Use a big mixing bowl for this step so the ingredients don’t splash out!  
   

3. Measure out the milk and vanilla, and let your little one pour this into the big mixing bowl - continue to whisk this into the cream cheese mixture.

4. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. Pour the dry ingredients into the cream cheese mixture, and stir well. Let your little one switch to mixing with a rubber spatula - you may want to help them with this step to make sure all the dry ingredients are well-incorporated into the wet ingredients.  

5. Pour mixture into a greased 10-inch spring-form cake pan.

6. For the crumb topping - mix together the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut the cold butter into pieces, and work it into the mixture with your hands until small clumps form. Let your little one sprinkle this topping over the cake batter - they will be surprisingly meticulous with this task!

7. Bake at 350°F for 42-45 minutes.

*Easy at-home whipped cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon maple syrup

Mix these two ingredients with a hand mixer until it forms stiff peaks when you lift up the whisk. Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

This cake can be enjoyed for breakfast, as a tasty after school snack for the kids, or if you’re anything like me, as a late-night treat with a nice cup of tea!

Love this recipe? Let us know and share your own pictures! Tag us on Instagram or facebook @luvabubaby

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