The flavors in this vegan coffee cake with pistachio crumble make me feel warm inside. Cardamom, coffee, jaggery and a crisp pistachio crumble…I’m smiling just thinking about it. It’s also vegan and gluten free friendly!
Jump to Recipe
There are some recipes that feel like they came straight from my heart and those are always the ones I’m most proud of. There’s something special about creating a recipe that feels like your own and watching it turn into a family favorite. I made this one with my parents’ preferences in mind and it paid off! My dad pretty much only likes Indian desserts and despises chocolate (I know, it’s weird), so I incorporated some cardamom, pistachios, and ground coffee. This isn’t an Indian dessert by any means, but it reminds me of masala chai anyways. It’s probably the warm feeling you get from each bite.
This cardamom coffee cake with pistachio crumble is made with almond flour, because I love how fluffy almond flour is. You can sub all-purpose flour if you don’t have almond flour. There’s also a cinnamon-jaggery layer and a pistachio crumble that turns all nice and crisp, perfectly complimenting the soft and fluffy cake.
It may sound like a lot of different components, but it’s so worth it and honestly quite simple to put together. Just take it one step at a time.
How to Make This Vegan Coffee Cake
Make the pistachio crumble.
Mix together the ingredients for this first so you can set it in the fridge to set while you prepare the rest of the cake. Make sure you use scoopable (NOT melted) coconut oil. I used jaggery, an unrefined sugar from sugarcane juice or palm sap that has a brighter, earthier flavor than white sugar. However, you can also use brown sugar for a similar result.
Mix the dry ingredients.
Almond flour yields a fluffy texture, but you can sub in all-purpose flour if you don’t have almond flour. Tapioca starch helps with binding. Sweetened with half white sugar and half brown sugar. More coffee of course, because it is coffee cake.
Wet ingredients are next.
Just some plant-based yogurt, milk, oil (I used olive oil, but any vegetable oil should be fine), vanilla extract, and apple cider vinegar.
Cinnamon filling.
A dry mix of jaggery (or brown sugar), cinnamon, and ground coffee! You can also use instant coffee.
The final dusting.
Totally optional. Use a sift to dust some powdered sugar and instant coffee. Finish with pistachios.
Vegan Coffee Cake with Pistachio Crumble
Ingredients
Pistachio Crumble
- ¼ cup pistachios, chopped
- ¼ cup almond flour
- ¼ cup scoopable coconut oil
- ¼ cup jaggery sub brown sugar
- 6-8 green cardamom pods sub 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 3 cloves optional
Dry Cake Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- ½ cup tapioca starch sub cornstarch or arrowroot starch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ½ cup sugar (¼ cup brown sugar + ¼ cup white sugar)
- 1 tbsp ground coffee beans sub instant coffee
Wet Cake Ingredients
- ⅓ cup plant-based yogurt of choice
- ½ cup nondairy milk
- ¼ cup olive oil sub any vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1.5 tsp apple cider vinegar
Cinnamon Filling
- 2 tbsp jaggery sub brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp ground coffee beans or instant coffee
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 °F.
- Add all the ingredients for the pistachio crumble to a bowl: almond flour, jaggery or brown sugar, coconut oil, and pistachios. Grind cardamom and cloves in a spice grinder or crush with a mortar and pestle. Add to the crumble. Combine it well, making sure the coconut oil is spread throughout the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate it.
- Add all dry ingredients for the cake to a mixing bowl: almond flour, arrowroot starch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, and coffee.
- Create a well in the center of the bowl and add all the wet ingredients to the same bowl. Gently combine everything in the bowl until it forms a thick batter.
- Add all the ingredients for the cinnamon filling to a small bowl.
- Grease an 8×8 baking dish or a 8-inch round cake pan with a little oil. Add ⅔ of the cake batter. Then add a layer of the cinnamon filling, along with some extra chopped pistachios. Add the rest of the cake batter. Take the crumble out of the fridge and top the cake with it.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes at 350 F. A toothpick should come out clean and the crumble should be golden-brown.
If you like this cozy treat, you’d also love…
Masala Chai Granola made with Aquafaba (Oil free!)
Thank you so much! Honestly, I’m not sure I’d recommend making a bundt cake with this since the texture is meant to be on the denser side. I’m not too familiar with making bundt cakes but this cake is pretty small so yeah, I’d probably double it!
What a beautiful recipe! Would this be enough batter to make a bundt cake (with the crumble topping in the bottom of the pan), or would you double the recipe? Thanks!
It’s such a lovely combo. Hope you try it!
This is such an innovative take on classic coffee cake with a crumb topping. The pistachio crumb topping and the ribbon of cinnamon-coffee filling look perfectly delicious! Thanks for this great idea!
that makes me so happy to hear! it’s my favorite too!
so flavorful and moist!! literally the BEST coffee cake recipe