This cinnamon swirl coffee cake isn’t actually much of a “swirl” since half way through I switched gears and decided to add a nice dose of pecans to the center!
I’m so glad I did because this cake is so awesome!
For those who are not big fans of nuts though you can definitely leave that part out and swirl that cinnamon sugar until your heart’s content!
It wasn’t until I started my YouTube channel way back when I was still in my bakery and I was reaching people from all over the world, did I realize that the term “coffee cake” is totally an American thing.
As I was sharing recipes such as my World Famous Crumb Buns, also known as “coffee cake” I would get so many questions asking “where in the recipe is the coffee!?”
While I’d never questioned that myself my whole life; since “coffee cake” here in the USA is just a term for many different types of cake and breakfast pastry that we will eat (typically in the morning) with coffee.
So there’s no coffee IN the recipe but this cake is fabulous WITH coffee!
Or without coffee really, I mean this cake is just fabulous at any time, with or without anything!
Super fluffy and moist cake with cinnamon, pecans and brown sugar and a perfectly simple glaze of icing on top!
Pecans of course are optional, and the best part of this recipe is you only need 1 bowl!
No Mixer Required!
Preheat the oven to 375°F
- For the Cake Batter
- All Purpose Flour 3 cups (375g)
- Granulated Sugar 1¼ cup (250g)
- Salt 1 teaspoon (6g)
- Baking Soda 2 teaspoons (12g)
- Baking Powder ¼ teaspoon (1g)
- Cinnamon ½ teaspoon
- Cardamom 1 teaspoon
- Soy Milk 1½ cup (355ml)
- White or Apple Cider Vinegar 2 Tablespoons (30ml)
- Vegetable or Coconut Oil 6 Tablespoons (90ml)
- Vegan Butter 6 Tablespoons (85g)
- Vanilla Extract 1 Tablespoon (15ml)
- For the Cinnamon Pecan Filling
- Lightly Roasted Pecans Chopped 1 cup (150g)
- Light Brown Sugar ¼ cup (50g)
- Cinnamon 2 teaspoons
- For the Icing Glaze
- Confectioner's Sugar 1 cup (120g)
- Plant Milk 1 Tablespoon (15ml)
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon
- First prepare the pecan filling by combining the lightly roasted (cooled) pecans together with the brown sugar and cinnamon.
- For the cake batter combine all the dry ingredients (including the sugar) together in a large mixing bowl
- Melt the vegan butter then add the oil to it, whisk together, then add the vanilla extract
- Add the vinegar to the soy milk and let stand to thicken
- Add all the liquids to the dry ingredients in the bowl and whisk smooth
- Pour ⅓ of the batter into the prepared bundt pan and then sprinkle all but 2 Tablespoons of the pecan filling over top
- Pour the remaining batter over the pecan filling and bake immediately in a preheated 375°F oven for 20 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350°F and bake for another 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool the cake in the pan for about 30 before turning it upside down onto a cooling rack to finish cooling and it should easily slip out of the pan.
- Cool completely and then prepare the icing glaze by whisking the plant milk with the confectioners sugar and vanilla extract and pour over cake.
- Sprinkle the remaining pecan filling over top and serve!
Gretchen,
Thank you for sharing your vegan buttercream icing..? I had been looking for a while for icing for my grand daughter wedding cake. She is vegan. The icing was wonderful and I was so thrilled with the results. My grand daughter kept telling me these vegan icing recipe were to sweet but when I tried yours I knew she would love it and she did. Thank you for sharing. You was a lifesaver for me since I am the one who made her cake.
awesome!! thank you for the feedback!
This is in the oven now! Whole house smells so good. I love a good coffee cake, especially when I get to use my bundt pan. Thank you for sharing.
How do we convert this recipe to cupcakes, as mentioned in the video?
You can just bake the batter into cupcake liners. Filling batter 3/4 way to the top. First scoop a small amount into the cups, then add a layer of the coffeecake cinnamon filling, then more batter on top, then a sprinkling of more filling on tops/ Bake same temp, probably check them at about 18-20 minutes? Toothpick test
Hi Gretchen do you think I can make these into doughnuts with a doughnut mold and layer it just as your recipe is? I do not own a bundt pan. And if so do I still bake at the above instructions?
Thank you so much for your help
Yes! it will totally work!
Thank you so much. I’m loving your recipes!
This cake is AMAZING!!! At first, when I was mixing it, I thought it might be too heavy on the cardamom, but no way – it’s PERFECTION!!! It’s not too sweet which I love, and has excellent flavor. Definitely toast the pecans before you add them, it does make a difference (really brings out their flavor). The glaze is the perfect sweetness to balance the cake. It’s SO good.
I use Bob’s Red Mill gluten free 1 to 1 flour blend and it came out great – absolutely no issues with converting it to GF. I can’t wait to make this cake again! Thank you!
awesome thank you for the feedback!!
Wanted to add that I just made this cake for my mom who, like me, LOVES cakes and pastries like this, and she LOVES it! Absolutely loves it! Thanks again!
Oops forgot to rate it – please add this to my first comment post! 5 stars for SURE!!
This was good. Great to find a cinnamon swirl cake recipe for a bundt pan. I got a bit confused by the #6 instruction: “3 2 Tablespoons” reserved for the topping so I reserved more than I needed for the topping while the cake itself could’ve used more. I know now to put more into the cake and reserve probably only 2 TBSP. I thought you meant 3 x 2 ?? A little confusing for me because of the “3 2 TBSP” Also, I added a bit more milk and vanilla to the icing so I could drizzle it as it was a bit too stiff. Thanks for the great recipe! 🙂
Hey thanks for pointing that out, I think I probably meant to write 2-3 Tbs of the filling…. but forgot the hyphen… at any rate I updated the post! THANKS!
Hi! Just found your blog and super excited to make this recipe! However, I don’t have a bundt pan. What do you think the cooking time would be for a 9×9 metal pan? or is that too small? Thanks!
Hi Sorry for the late reply I have been away. Yes to layer cake pans. (But I would probably HALF the recipe for just 1-9×9) I would say bake about 25-30 minutes then check it for done-ness
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Hi
I love coffee and would like to add some to this recipe.
How much coffee should I use and how do I go about using g it.
Thank you.
Carol-Ann
You could always add some instant coffee granules to the liquid portion of this recipe to dissolve, I would probably use 1 Tablespoon (but I also love coffee, so that maybe? too much for some? I doubt it thought 🙂