Pumpkin Coffee Cake for Pumpkin Haters

For nearly 100% of my lifetime I have abhorred things made from pumpkin.

Abhorred.

As in hated it. As in I will barf at your table if you try to make me eat that. And ruin your whole entire holiday meal. Try me. I dare you. (This is a direct quote from 8 year old me and I’ve considered it my life mantra.)

I based this abhorrence entirely and completely on my experience with pumpkin pie (sorry, Mom, it’s not YOU, it’s ME!).

Probably it’s the consistency and the room temperature it’s often served at (I feel similarly about sweet potato pie, but am all good with straight-from-the-fridge cheesecake).

It was the case that, until quite recently, I refused all edible pumpkin encounters.

And then someone sprung a pumpkin latte upon me. And, in my desperation for a caffeinated beverage, I accepted.

Holy sweet liquid goodness Batman!

Where has this pumpkin flavored deliciousness been all my life?

Probably hiding it’s beautiful face in a hideously created pie of some sort.

I’ve recently discovered that there are countless other, more palatable ways to enjoy pumpkin.

As someone who enjoys the hobby of carb loading, embarking upon a find-a-delicious-pumpkin-dessert-creation-I-can-stomach mission was a no brainer.

I started slow, with something containing multiple items I know I love (icing, coffee, and cake, although, big surprise for me, coffee cake doesn’t actually have coffee in it) and just a flavoring of pumpkin.

It is as delicious as it is pretty.

Iced Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Ingredients

Topping

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cold butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup pure pumpkin puree (you can get it in a can but it’s not the apple pie filling)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup syrup (I used Log Cabin, you can use whatever you want)

1/4 cup milk

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup Southern Butter Pecan Coffee Creamer (you can use Vanilla or Pumpkin flavored if you prefer, but mine is tastier)

Directions

1. Butter up a round pie pan. You can also use cooking spray like I normally would’ve done, but I dropped the can and broke the top off and was done with squeezing it out of that teeny hole.

2. Preheat oven to 350.

3. Add all dry topping ingredients to a small bowl. Slice butter and drop in. Use a pastry blender (or a standard fork if you’re nasty) to cut in the butter. The topping should look crumbly. Set it aside.

4. Go to work on the cake. Mix up the dry stuff.

5. In a separate bowl, mix up the wet stuff.

6. Pour the wet stuff into the dry stuff and mix until combined.

7. Pour batter into your buttery pan.

8. Sprinkle the topping on top. You can mush it down into the batter a bit if you want to get some buttery brown sugar flavor crystals working through there.

9. Bake for 30 minutes then check for doneness (use a toothpick, if it comes out wet, ew, bake more).

10. Remove from oven when done and let cool about 10 minutes while you mix up the glaze.

11. For glaze, measure powdered sugar into a measuring cup and add your creamer slowly, stirring as you go. Some people like a thicker glaze than others so take your time adding the liquid.

12. Drizzle over still warm cake.

13. Don’t mess about, have a piece now while it’s warm and fresh from the oven. Because it’s best then, naturally.

14. Go ahead and take a pic of it for all of your Instagram homies. They will like it.

15. Admit to yourself that pumpkin may not be the devil, and commit to making these Oreo pumpkin cheesecake minis you saw on Pinterest tomorrow!