Gluten-Free Pumpkin Crumb Cake

Name: Gluten-Free Pumpkin Crumb Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 1 square
Ingredients: 1/2 cup (106 g) brown sugar, for the crumb topping; 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar, for the crumb topping; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, for the crumb topping; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, for the crumb topping; 1/2 cup (113 g) butter, melted, for the crumb topping; 1 1/4 cups (209 g) Pamela's Gluten-Free 1:1 All-Purpose Flour, for the crumb topping; 1 1/3 cups (223 g) Pamela's Gluten-Free 1:1 All-Purpose Flour, for the cake; 1/2 cup (106 g) brown sugar; 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1/4 teaspoon baking powder; 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt; 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg; 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves; 2 large eggs; 1 cup (226 g) pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling; 1/3 cup (80 ml) milk of choice; 1/2 cup (120 ml) neutral oil; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar, for the glaze; 1 tablespoon milk of choice, for the glaze; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, for the glaze; Pinch of kosher salt, for the glaze

on Oct 21 2026

Table of Contents

A crumb cake is mostly an excuse for the crumbs. The cake underneath has to be good, but the reason anyone makes one is that top layer of soft, buttery brown sugar pieces that you pick at with your fingers before cutting a slice.

This one is lightly spiced pumpkin underneath, piled high with crumb, and finished with a vanilla glaze once it has cooled. It bakes in a 9x9 pan and there is no mixer involved, just two bowls and a fork.

Made with Pamela's 1:1 All-Purpose Flour, which is bound with guar gum, so there is no xanthan gum to add. Recipe by Erin Collins at Meaningful Eats, adapted to our flour.

So good, no one will guess it is gluten-free, the way Pamela's has done it since 1988.

How to Make Crumb Topping That Stays Crumbly

This is the part that separates a crumb cake from a cake with sugar on it, and the method is specific.

Use melted butter, not cold. Most streusel recipes have you cut cold butter into flour, and that works for a sandy topping. Melted butter is what gives you the large, soft, bakery-style crumbs this recipe is after.

Mix the sugars, cinnamon, and salt with the melted butter first. The flour goes in last, and only then.

Use a fork, not a spoon. A fork lifts and separates as you mix, which is how large crumbs form. A spoon presses and smears, and the mixture goes pasty.

Stop as soon as large crumbs appear. Every extra stir after that point makes the topping denser and more uniform, which is the opposite of what you want.

Then pile all of it on. It will look like far too much. That is the point of a crumb cake.

Pumpkin Puree, Not Pumpkin Pie Filling

The recipe calls for one cup of pumpkin puree, and the label matters.

Pumpkin puree is pure cooked pumpkin and nothing else. Pumpkin pie filling is puree with sugar and spices already added, and using it here throws off both the sweetness and the liquid balance of the batter.

They sit next to each other on the shelf in nearly identical cans. Check the front.

A standard can is 15 ounces, which is a little under two cups, so one cup leaves you with most of a cup left over. Our gluten-free pumpkin scones use almost exactly that much, which is a convenient way to finish the can.

One cup is also deliberate. More pumpkin makes a wetter cake that cannot hold a thick layer of crumb without sinking under it.

No Xanthan Gum to Add

Most gluten-free cake recipes specify a flour blend that contains xanthan gum, because without a binder a gluten-free batter has nothing holding it together.

Pamela's 1:1 All-Purpose Flour is bound with guar gum, already in the blend. There is nothing to add and nothing to measure.

The flour this is built on Pamela's Gluten-Free 1:1 All-Purpose Flour Rice-based, finely milled, nut-free, and bound with guar gum rather than xanthan. Substitutes one for one for wheat flour. GFCO-certified.

Do not add xanthan on top of it. Two binders in one batter gives you a gummy crumb and a topping that clumps rather than scatters.

One thing worth knowing if you bake from other recipes: our flour weighs about 167 g per cup, which is heavier than most gluten-free blends. More on that below the recipe.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Yield 16

Serving Size 1 square

Ingredients

1/2 cup (106 g) brown sugar, for the crumb topping
1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar, for the crumb topping
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, for the crumb topping
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, for the crumb topping
1/2 cup (113 g) butter, melted, for the crumb topping
1 1/4 cups (209 g) Pamela's Gluten-Free 1:1 All-Purpose Flour, for the crumb topping
1 1/3 cups (223 g) Pamela's Gluten-Free 1:1 All-Purpose Flour, for the cake
1/2 cup (106 g) brown sugar
1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 cup (226 g) pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling
1/3 cup (80 ml) milk of choice
1/2 cup (120 ml) neutral oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar, for the glaze
1 tablespoon milk of choice, for the glaze
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, for the glaze
Pinch of kosher salt, for the glaze

Shop Gluten-Free 1:1 All-Purpose Flour, 4 lb.

Directions

Make the crumb topping first. In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the melted butter and stir to combine.
Add the flour and use a fork to mix until large crumbs form. Do not use a spoon and do not overmix, or the mixture turns pasty. Cover and set aside.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x9 baking pan with parchment and spray with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree, milk, oil, and vanilla.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined and no dry streaks remain.
Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Scatter all of the crumb topping evenly over it, keeping some of the crumbs in larger pieces. It will look like a lot.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Depending on your pan and oven it can take up to 10 minutes longer, so go by the toothpick rather than the clock.
Cool completely before glazing. A warm cake melts the glaze straight into the crumb topping.
Make the glaze. Whisk the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt until smooth, adding more powdered sugar if it is thin or more milk if it is thick.
Drizzle over the cooled cake and cut into squares.

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Gluten-Free 1:1 All-Purpose Flour, 4 lb.

Bake like you always have

Measure it 1:1 in place of wheat flour for cookies, cakes, muffins, pancakes, and pie crusts. Most recipes need no changes at all; if a batter thickens as it sits, thin it with a splash of liquid and keep going. The subtle flavor works in savory cooking too: thickening gravy, coating chicken, breading fish.

Yes, even yeast breads

Use 1 teaspoon of dry yeast per cup of flour and add water until the dough is a sticky batter, like banana bread. For a taller loaf, line the pan with a parchment collar 3 to 5 inches above the rim.

Never scoop the bottom of the bag

The 4 lb. bag keeps serious bakers stocked, and Subscribe & Save delivers a fresh bag on your schedule with 10% off every order. Pause or cancel anytime.

Brown Rice Flour, Tapioca Starch, White Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Sorghum Flour, Arrowroot Starch, Guar Gum, Sweet Rice Flour, Rice Bran.

Pamela's Products are manufactured in a Gluten-Free Certified Facility and peanut-free facility. Our products are produced on equipment that processes Tree Nuts, Coconut, Eggs, Soy, and Milk.

Recipe Tips & Notes

Measuring Our Flour

Pamela's 1:1 All-Purpose Flour weighs about 167 g per cup. Most gluten-free blends run closer to 140 to 150.

That matters if you are adapting a recipe written for another flour, because measuring cup for cup will give you noticeably more flour than the original intended. In a crumb cake that shows up as a drier, denser cake and a sandier topping.

The weights in this ingredient list are for our flour at 1 1/4 and 1 1/3 cups. If you prefer to match a lighter blend, use 187 g for the topping and 200 g for the cake, which works out to about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons and 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons.

If you do not have a scale, spoon the flour into the cup and level it with a knife rather than scooping the cup through the bag.

Storing and Freezing

Room temperature: up to 3 days in an airtight container. The crumb topping is at its best on the first and second day, after which it softens.

Freezer: up to 3 months, unglazed. Wrap the cooled cake tightly in plastic and foil, or use an airtight container. Thaw at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, then glaze.

Do not mix the batter ahead. This cake uses both baking soda and baking powder, and both start working as soon as the wet ingredients go in. A rested batter bakes flat.

The crumb topping can be made a day ahead and refrigerated, covered. Let it come back to room temperature so it scatters rather than clumping.

Ways to Change It Up

Dairy-free. Use a plant-based butter in the topping and an unsweetened plant milk in the batter and glaze. There is no buttermilk or cream here, so it converts cleanly.

Pumpkin pie spice instead of the separate cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Use 2 1/4 teaspoons in the cake in place of all three.

More crumb. Some people want a 50-50 cake-to-topping ratio. Increase the topping by half and add 5 minutes to the bake.

Add a half cup of chopped pecans or walnuts to the topping. Note that this makes the recipe no longer nut-free.

Skip the glaze and dust with powdered sugar once cool.

For a different pumpkin cake, our pumpkin coffee cake layers a spiced nut filling through the middle instead of putting the crumb on top.

What This Contains

This recipe contains milk and egg.

The butter in the topping and the milk in the batter and glaze are dairy, and both convert cleanly to plant-based versions if you need dairy-free.

The two eggs are structural. We have not tested this with an egg replacer, so we cannot say how it would behave.

Pamela's 1:1 All-Purpose Flour is rice-based with no dairy, no eggs, and no nuts, so the allergens here come entirely from what you add.

Everything from Pamela's is certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization and made in a certified gluten-free, peanut-free facility.

Recipe FAQs

Mix the sugars, cinnamon, and salt with melted butter first, then add the flour and work it in with a fork until large crumbs form. Melted butter rather than cold is what gives you big, soft, bakery-style crumbs. Stop as soon as the crumbs form, since overmixing turns the topping pasty.

A crumb cake carries its topping on top, usually a thick layer of buttery brown sugar crumbs. A coffee cake more often has a cinnamon filling layered or swirled through the middle. Both are breakfast cakes and the names overlap, but the topping is what makes a crumb cake.

No. Pumpkin pie filling already contains sugar and spices, which throws off both the sweetness and the liquid balance. The recipe needs plain pumpkin puree. The two cans sit next to each other and look nearly identical, so check the front of the label.

A 9x9 gives the best cake-to-crumb ratio and is what this recipe is written for. An 8x8 makes a deeper cake that needs about 5 minutes longer. A 9x13 works if you increase the recipe by half, and it bakes a little faster since the layer is shallower.

No. Pamela's 1:1 All-Purpose Flour is bound with guar gum, already in the blend. Adding xanthan on top would give you a gummy crumb and a topping that clumps. If a recipe tells you to use a blend containing xanthan, our flour covers that requirement with guar instead.