This festive pumpkin gingerbread coffee cake is made with pumpkin pure, pumpkin pie spice and molasses and topped with a layer of cinnamon streusel topping. It’s easy to make an your family will love it!

Pumpkin Gingerbread Coffee Cake with a slice cut, ready to eat

Coffee cake for breakfast during the holidays is a must! There is nothing like waking up on Thursday morning, pouring a cup of coffee, grabbing a piece of coffee cake and watching the parade with family.

Traditions are such an important part of holidays and mine wouldn’t be the same without some form of coffee cake! We love our coffee cake for Thanksgiving and Christmas in our household.

And I’m SO excited to share this recipe with my family this year. Last year I made these coffee cake muffins and they were a huge hit, but I wanted to do something more fall-themed this year. Enter pumpkin AND gingerbread.

Pumpkin Gingerbread Coffee Cake topped with a cinnamon struesel

I think molasses is such an underrated baking ingredient in my opinion! It adds so much flavor to baked goods, like these giant ginger cookies. Did you know brown sugar is just regular granulated sugar mixed with molasses? The darker the brown sugar, the more molasses in it.

In this recipe there’s a ton of flavor going on! From the molasses, the pumpkin, the pumpkin pie spice and a little bit of an unusual ingredient: cornmeal.

You’ve likely already have the cornmeal in your pantry to make cornbread muffins for Thanksgiving, so use a little extra in this pumpkin gingerbread coffee cake recipe! The reason we’re using cornmeal in this recipe is for extra flavor and texture.

We’re only using a small amount of cornmeal in comparison to the flour to keep it light and fluffy, but just enough to add some depth.

In addition to all the flavor, there are a few reasons I love this coffee cake:

  1. You don’t have to make an extra batch of crumble for the streusel topping. Instead of making more, you just remove a portion of the dry ingredients before mixing in the wet ingredients to sprinkle on top. Instant streusel topping.
  2. It’s going to make your house smell amazing! Save that pumpkin candle for another day because half way through baking your entire house will smell like pumpkin and gingerbread.
  3. This recipe feeds a crowd! Perfect for all those relatives you may have staying at your place.

The last, but definitely not least, favorite part of those recipe is how easy it is to make in advance. Coffee cake is one of those recipes that freeze really well, so you can make it up to 3 months ahead of time and have instant delicious breakfast.

How to freeze coffee cake:

To freeze coffee cake, place each piece, or the entire cake in an air tight container. Leave in the freezer for up to 3 months. To bake, let it thaw overnight and heat at 300°F for 20 minutes or until warm.

I highly recommend serving your coffee cake with a hot beverage! If you aren’t a coffee fan, hot tea or hot chocolate also pair really well with a big piece of pumpkin gingerbread coffee cake.

I hope you all love this recipe and have an amazing holiday season with your family and friends!