This vegan coffee cake is made healthier with oat flour, less sugar, and less oil but is still rich and flavorful!

Why We Love This Vegan Coffee Cake

Lower in Sugar: This vegan coffee cake contains about half as much sugar as regular coffee cake, but I promise it’s still tasty! Most coffee cake recipes are way too sweet for me, but this one is just right.
No Eggs or Dairy: You don’t need eggs, milk, or butter for this recipe (or any recipe on my site!). Almond flour, walnut butter, and just a few tablespoons of oil make this coffee cake rich and tender.
Easy & Delicious: While the ingredients list may look unconventional, this better-for-you vegan coffee cake is so delicious, it won’t last long!

Key Ingredients & Substitutions

Below is a brief look into the main ingredients and why they work in this recipe, plus any possible substitutions. See the recipe card at the bottom for the full ingredients list and quantities.

Oat Flour + All Purpose Flour ⟶ Using only oat flour results in a very dense and gummy cake. Using half oat flour and half all purpose flour is a good way to enjoy the benefits of oat flour while still having a fluffy and tender cake.
- Usually I like to bake breakfast cakes with whole wheat flour, but for this recipe I wanted the cake layer to be the classic white/yellow cake color. This contrasts beautifully with the cinnamon sugar layer. Whole wheat flour makes the cake much darker.
Almond Flour ⟶ Makes the cake layer rich, moist, and tender without butter. There is also a little bit in the cinnamon filling to make the layer thicker.
Walnut Butter ⟶ Replaces butter in the streusel. Walnut butter is higher in fat than other nut butters, creating a very rich and almost buttery mouthfeel. It’s my favorite nut butter to bake with!
- It’s not very common in grocery stores, but you can easily make your own walnut butter with some walnuts, an oven, and a food processor. See my homemade walnut butter recipe.
Applesauce ⟶ Provides moisture, structure, and some natural sweetness to the cake which allows us to cut back on the added sugar.
Cinnamon ⟶ It’s not coffee cake without cinnamon!
Brown Sugar + Granulated Sugar ⟶ Brown sugar in the streusel and cinnamon filling for deep flavor and dark color, and granulated sugar in the cake. This creates a beautiful contrast between the layers.

How to Make

Step-by-step photos and additional tips to help you get the best results!

Make streusel: mix oat flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Stir in walnut butter and soy milk until the mixture starts to clump together.
Make cinnamon filling: mix almond flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
Make cake: Whisk all purpose flour, oat flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar, applesauce, soy milk, vinegar, vanilla extract, and oil.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix together just until no dry flour is left. Cover and let the batter rest for 20-30 minutes.
Transfer half the cake batter to a lined 8×8-inch pan.
Sprinkle cinnamon filling on top.
Cover with remaining cake batter.
Crumble the streusel on top and gently press the streusel into the cake batter to help it stick.
Bake at 350°F for 35-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the edges are lightly brown.

Serving Suggestions

Like the name says, this cake is best served with coffee! I like to have it at breakfast along with some high protein yogurt or chia pudding, and maybe a tofu scramble or frittata depending on how hungry I am. If you like things extra sweet, you can drizzle the coffee cake with a simple icing. It would also be delicious with some yogurt and berries for extra protein and fiber.

How to Store Coffee Cake

Coffee cake can be stored at room temperature, in the fridge, or in the freezer depending on how long you plan to keep it:

Room Temperature: Up to 2 days in an airtight container. The streusel will get quite soft at room temperature.
Fridge: Up to 5 days in an airtight container. The streusel won’t stay crisp but will be a little more firm than at room temperature. I prefer to store mine in the fridge.
Freezer: Up to 3 months in freezer-safe bags. You can wrap in plastic wrap or aluminum foil first if you’re afraid of freezer burn. Cut the coffee cake into slices before freezing. Thaw overnight in the fridge, at room temperature for an hour, or in the microwave for 10 seconds or so.

Vegan Coffee Cake FAQ

This coffee cake is much lower in sugar (about half the amount of most) and saturated fat. Instead of butter, this cake gets its richness from almond flour, walnut butter, and a little bit of oil. I also replaced half the all purpose flour with oat flour for some extra fiber and nutrients. This creates a coffee cake that’s still delicious but doesn’t leave you feeling sluggish.

If you’re not familiar with American coffee cake, you are probably looking at the ingredients list and wondering where the coffee is. As it turns out, there is no coffee in coffee cake! It’s called coffee cake because it’s meant to be eaten with coffee.

I haven’t tested a gluten-free version, but you can try replacing the all purpose flour with a gluten-free all purpose flour blend (I like the one from Bob’s Red Mill*).

You have a few options:
-If you have walnuts, you can make your own walnut butter with my recipe.
-You can swap for almond butter or pecan butter. Other nut or seed butters can work but will alter the flavor more. Walnut butter has a higher fat content as well, so if using another nut or seed butter, I recommend using oil instead of soy milk in the streusel.
-You can swap the walnut butter and soy milk in the streusel for vegan butter. Start with 2 tbsp and add more if needed to reach a clumpy, wet sand-like consistency.

More Healthier Breakfast Cakes

If you try out this recipe, don’t forget to leave a comment/rating down below and tag me in your photos on instagram @ellielikes.cooking. I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!

Prep Time:15

Servings: 16

Ingredients

Streusel

45 grams (6 tbsp) oat flour*
30 grams (2½ tbsp) brown sugar
1½ tsp cinnamon
30 grams (2 tbsp) walnut butter
2 tsp soy milk or water, oil, or melted vegan butter

Cinnamon Filling

14 grams (2 tbsp) almond flour*
24 grams (2 tbsp) brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Cake

120 grams (1 cup) all purpose flour
120 grams (1 cup) oat flour*
56 grams (½ cup) almond flour*
2½ tsp baking powder
⅛ tsp salt
80 grams (7 tbsp) granulated sugar
160 grams (⅔ cup) applesauce
220 ml soy milk
1½ tsp apple cider vinegar
1½ tsp vanilla extract
34 grams light olive oil* or other neutral-flavored oil

Instructions

Make the streusel: In a small bowl, combine oat flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Break up any clumps of brown sugar. Add walnut butter and soy milk and stir until the mixture starts to clump together. Set aside.
45 grams (6 tbsp) oat flour*, 30 grams (2½ tbsp) brown sugar, 1½ tsp cinnamon, 30 grams (2 tbsp) walnut butter, 2 tsp soy milk
Make cinnamon filling: In a separate bowl, whisk together almond flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
14 grams (2 tbsp) almond flour*, 24 grams (2 tbsp) brown sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon
Make cake: In a large bowl, whisk together all purpose flour, oat flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt.
120 grams (1 cup) all purpose flour, 120 grams (1 cup) oat flour*, 56 grams (½ cup) almond flour*, 2½ tsp baking powder, ⅛ tsp salt
In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar, applesauce, soy milk, vinegar, vanilla extract, and oil.
80 grams (7 tbsp) granulated sugar, 160 grams (⅔ cup) applesauce, 220 ml soy milk, 1½ tsp apple cider vinegar, 1½ tsp vanilla extract, 34 grams light olive oil*
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix together just until no dry flour is left. Cover and let the batter rest for 20-30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8-inch pan with parchment paper.
Transfer half the cake batter to the lined pan. Sprinkle cinnamon filling on top. Cover with remaining cake batter. Crumble the streusel on top and gently press the streusel into the cake batter to help it stick.
Bake for 35-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
Place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes, then use the ends of the parchment paper to carefully remove the coffee cake from the pan. Place directly on the wire rack to finish cooling.
Note: The streusel will be very crumbly at first but will stick more as the cake cools.

Nutrition Facts

**Nutrition information is a rough estimate and intended for informational purposes only. I am not a registered dietitian or certified nutritionist, and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration.

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