Brown Sugar Swirl Pumpkin Breakfast Cake
Published 10/7/2023
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Cake for breakfast it is! Pumpkin breakfast cake is a delightful breakfast cake to snack on all season long. It’s made with a delicious brown sugar pumpkin swirl and chocolate chips.
This recipe was inspired by our new pumpkin muffin recipe and our pumpkin pancake recipe. We wanted to come up with a breakfast bread, er cake, that satisfied our sweet tooth, yet that was naturally sweetened.
Our pumpkin breakfast cake is light and fluffy thanks to all-purpose flour and is extremely moist thanks to pumpkin puree, mashed banana, and coconut oil. The pumpkin brown sugar topping is the bee’s knees and adds a hint of sweet to every bite. Bake it at 350ºF for 40 minutes.
What is in pumpkin breakfast cake?
This recipe calls for pantry staples such as all-purpose flour, pumpkin pie spice, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, vanilla extract, eggs, and coconut oil.
Recipe Variations
- Turn it into muffins: instead of baking this as bread, feel free to fill a muffin tin instead. Bake at 350ºF for 20-23 minutes.
- Use white whole wheat flour: we tested this recipe with white whole wheat flour. While it does come out a bit dense, it’s still delicious.
- Add-ins: if you’re not a chocolate chip for breakfast kind of person, feel free to swap it for a chopped nut.
- Don’t love bananas?: you can use applesauce instead for a less intense flavor.
FAQ
While we haven’t tested this, feel free to swap the eggs for flax eggs, instead.
To make this recipe gluten-free, swap the all-purpose flour for an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend.
This cake will fit in a loaf pan. Adjust the bake time and let cook for 50-60 minutes. If the top starts to brown, tent it with a piece of tin foil.
Storage
Store leftover cake in the fridge for up to 3-5 days.
Freezer Directions
Cook the cake as directed and then let it cool for 1 hour. Remove it from the pan and then wrap it tightly in a piece of tin foil. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Serving Suggestions
Since this is a breakfast cake, we suggest serving this with a hot cup of pour over or French press. I personally topped mine with a scoop of peanut butter (because I’m obsessed) and a drizzle of maple syrup.
Pumpkin Breakfast Cake
Ingredients
Dry
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Wet
- 1 medium banana mashed, ~½ cup
- 1/2 cup unsweetened pumpkin puree
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 cup plain, unsweetened almond milk*
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
Pumpkin Topping
- 3 tablespoons pumpkin puree
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a 9×9-inch pan with parchment paper.
- Add all of the dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk together. Set aside.
- Next, add the banana, pumpkin, and eggs into a large mixing bowl and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla, almond milk, and maple syrup and mix again.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix.
- Finally, add the coconut oil and mix. The batter should be thicker. A runny batter will result n a mushy center. Transfer the batter to the lined pan.
- In a small bowl, mix the pumpkin and brown sugar. Add dollops of the brown sugar mixture to the top of the batter. Use a knife or toothpick and swirl the pumpkin over the top of the cake. Top with more chocolate chips.
- Bake for 20 minutes, turn the pan 180º, and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven when a toothpick comes out mostly clean. It will continue to bake for a few minutes.
- Gently lift the parchment paper and place the cake on a cooling rack. Allow the cake to cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.
Tips & Notes
- This recipe was rewritten on October 5, 2023.
- You may need to thin out the batter with 2-4 tablespoons more almond milk if it is not pourable.
- The bake time may vary based on what oven is used and if you are baking at elevation.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Recipie needs times for both large and small muffins.
Instead of chocolate chips i only had butterscotch chips. Probably should have measured but it was only half a small bag, still muffins took extra time to filly cook. Still couldn’t peel paper liners off cooked muffins. Tasty though
Love the presentation as well as the ingredients. Has anyone tried using a glass pie plate or pan?
could you use gluten free flour instead?
Hey Lindsey! We haven’t tried this, but I don’t see why not. Start with a 1:1 ratio. the batter should be like a muffin batter in thickness!
I substituted raisins for the chocolate chips and olive oil for the coconut oil (I’m newly, severely allergic to coconut and palm now ?). It turned out amazing. I’m going to adjust some more, too account for the extra moisture, but man oh man! I could not resist eating about 3 slices!
Can we use soy milk instead of almond milk?
Absolutely! Any kind of milk will work 🙂
Breakfast cake? Ok, I’ll definitely have to give this a try…! 🙂
Thanks for sharing this Katie!
xx
Anja
No baking soda or powder?
WAH! Good catch. There should be 1 teaspoon baking powder in that recipe! Thank you!
Awesome! Thank you for responding! I tried it without but the texture was a bit strange but flavor was great! Can’t wait to try again!
I love the cake make by chocolate much.
Cross your fingers I remember to look at my Pinterest this week so I can pick up the ingredients to make this next weekend! =)