Vegan Coffee Cake
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The best Vegan Coffee Cake ever, and it’s SO easy to make! Perfect for holiday celebrations or weekend breakfasts.
Along with my 1 Hour Vegan Cinnamon Rolls and Vegan French Toast Casserole, this Vegan Coffee Cake should be at the top of your list to make for holiday mornings!
It’s such an easy recipe with no fuss at all! It’s moist, fluffy and full of cinnamon streusel goodness.
How to make vegan coffee cake
The full recipe is at the bottom of the post, but let me show you how easy it is.
- Make the coffee cake batter, and pour half into a lightly greased cake pan. It doesn’t have to be exactly half, just estimate half.
- Make the streusel (it’s just combining cinnamon and brown sugar). Sprinkle half of it on the batter, then pour the rest of the cake batter on top. It won’t cover the streusel completely, and that’s okay.
- Sprinkle the rest of the streusel on top.
- Drizzle 2 tablespoons of melted vegan butter on top of the streusel, then bake for 40-45 minutes.
That’s it! The vegan butter may still look wet, but it will get crunchy with the brown sugar/cinnamon in just a couple of minutes of cooling. Serve warm with a cup of coffee!
Special Tips & Substitutions
- This recipe makes a lot (about 16 servings) so if you don’t want that much, cut the ingredients in half and make it in an 8 x 8 inch pan.
- Oil free option: Replace the oil with applesauce in the cake, and leave out the vegan butter drizzle.
- Whole grain: Use white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour instead of white flour.
- Gluten free: Use a quality gluten free all purpose flour blend.
Want more vegan holiday breakfast ideas?
- 1 Hour Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
- Vegan Caramel Monkey Bread
- Vegan Blueberry Scones
- Easy Vegan Quiche
- Vegan French Toast Casserole
- Cinnamon Sugar Vegan Donuts
- Best Ever Vegan Waffles
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Vegan Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Coffee Cake
- 1 1/4 cups unsweetened soy milk
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup canola oil, OR melted coconut or avocado oil
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Cinnamon Streusel
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
For drizzling on top
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch cake pan.
- Combine the non-dairy milk and apple cider vinegar. Stir a little, then set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar with a large spoon until well combined.
- To the bowl with the dry ingredients, pour in the milk/vinegar mixture, oil, applesauce and vanilla. Stir until combined. Pour half of the batter into the prepared cake pan.
- Make the Cinnamon Streusel: In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together.
- Sprinkle half of the cinnamon streusel over the batter in the pan, then pour the rest of the cake batter on top. Sprinkle with the rest of the streusel.
- Drizzle with melted vegan butter.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. The vegan butter may still look wet in places, but it will harden as it cools and add a nice crunch to the cake.
- Serve with a cup of coffee, if desired and enjoy!
Notes
- May substitute a different milk such as coconut, almond, cashew or oat milk.
- This recipe makes enough for a crowd, so feel free to cut the ingredients in half and make it in a 8 x 8 inch pan if you'd like.
- Oil free: I don't think it tastes great with no oil at all, but if you must you could use all applesauce in place of the oil, and leave out the vegan butter drizzle on top.
- Gluten free: I haven't tried it, but I think a quality gluten free all purpose flour should work quite well. Simply subbing almond or coconut flour will not work.
Nutrition
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319 Comments on “Vegan Coffee Cake”
I’ve tried this and love it!!! But, I find myself with all the ingredients but applesauce most of the time. Is there anything I can substitute for the applesauce?
You can always omit the applesauce and add an extra 1/4 cup of oil if it seems dry. I hope this helps!
I know that I have posted so many times on your site but I had to share that this is the best coffee cake recipe ever! I made it for my family for Easter and they have requested that I make it again for Mother’s Day 🙂 my father doesn’t like sweet foods but he loves this recipe! I love all of your recipes (I make them all of the time) but this one really stands out and is perfect for sharing with anyone and everyone! Thank you! We love it!
P.s. I accidentally cooked it for an hour and it still came out delicious!
I feel so honored by your feedback, Melody! Thank you! I agree this coffee cake is so good! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
I made this with 1/2 banana instead of applesauce, because I didn’t have any. Well, I start pouring the batter into the pan, and thought it was odd that it be so thick. I figured just trust the process, right? Wrong. Turns out I forgot to put the 1/2 cup of oil. By the time I realized, everything was assembled and ready to throw in the oven. I baked it for 30 mins instead of 45. And you know what? It wasn’t a total flop. It actually works really well, even without substituting the wet ingredient. So, if you want to omit the oil all together, it’s totally doable, it’s just not as rich as you’d want a good dessert.
Cheers!
Hi Laura. Thank you for sharing all about your experience! I appreciate your feedback! I’m also really happy to hear the coffee cake turned out well!
Hi, did you try to put coffee instead of the plant based milk? Just wondering if it will work. Tks 😉
I haven’t tried it, but it probably would work and make the cake taste like coffee. 🙂
I made this cake again and this time with whole wheat flour–the smell in the house was divine, and frankly, I can’t stop eating this fabulous cake!!!!!! I have made many lovely deserts by Nora and they all have turned out fab!!!!!! YUM
So happy you loved the cake, Jessica! Thanks so much for your wonderful review!
I accidentally bought bread flour, so I used that. Otherwise I followed the directions exactly. Turned out amazing! I definitely plan to make this again! I can’t believe how good it was for how simple it was to make. Nora rocks!
So glad it still turned out well! Thanks so much for your wonderful feedback and review!
This is supposed to be the coffee cake as it says but there is neither coffee in ingredients nor in recipe. That’s really strange.
It is strange, but coffee cake is almost never made with coffee. It’s called coffee cake because it pairs so well with a cup of coffee.
Can this be made into muffins?
Yes they can! Divide the batter, streusel, and butter into muffins pans and bake for 15-25 minutes. Enjoy!
This cake was soooo delicious! Thank you for such an excellent recipe! Next time I plan to add apples to the batter and maybe pecans with the streusel on top. Is it possible to leave the prepared batter in a covered pan in the refrigerator overnight and bake it the next morning?
Overnight should be fine. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I love your idea about apples and pecans.
I made this today so I would have something easy to just grab on my way out the door for work. It turned out great, I will be making this often for my weekday breakfast. I added some chopped pecans to mine for a little crunch.