Preheat your oven to 350F and line an 8*8 inch baking pan with parchment paper. You can also lightly grease the sides of the pan with coconut oil or vegan butter.

Next, make the cinnamon sugar swirl layer. Add the brown sugar, white sugar, chopped pecans, pastry flour, and cinnamon to a bowl. Whisk together and set aside.

In a separate bowl, make the maple pecan streusel. Add the brown sugar, pastry flour, and cinnamon to the bowl and whisk together. Then, pour in the melted vegan butter, maple extract, and pecans. Mix together until you have a thick but crumbly mixture. Set aside.

In a third mixing bowl, make the maple cake batter. Start by adding the plant-based milk and apple cider vinegar to the bowl. Whisk together and let sit about 2 minutes until the milk curdles to create a vegan buttermilk.

Then, add in the remaining wet ingredients including the melted vegan butter, unsweetened applesauce, white sugar, maple syrup, and maple extract. Whisk together until smooth.

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl starting with the pastry flour and pouring the baking powder, baking soda, and salt on top. Gently whisk into the wet ingredients until you have a thick batter. Make sure not to overmix and just mix until all streaks of flour are gone. A lumpy batter is totally okay!

Add ⅔ of the maple cake batter to the parchment-lined pan & use a spatula to spread it out evenly. Then, top with the cinnamon sugar swirl.

Add the remaining ⅓ of the batter on top of the cinnamon sugar swirl and gently spread it out using a spatula. Finally, sprinkle the maple pecan streusel on top.

Add the coffee cake to the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes until cooked through. Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Once cooled, top the maple pecan coffee cake with optional icing or enjoy as is!