It’s been somewhat of a stressful week in our house, or at least it started out that way. John is nearly a year old now and has never been a good sleeper. Part of that is because of him, part of it is because of me. I’ve indulged in his bad nighttime behavior for far too long. But last weekend I had had enough.
I finally got around to reading the book 
And that’s why it’s been a long week. For 3 nights we tried to sleep while he was in the next room screaming. It was horrible. Those of you who have gone through this know what I’m talking about.
Then on the fourth night something magical happened. He slept through the night for the first time in his life, and I got a full night’s sleep for the first time in a year. I’ve never woken up in a better mood.
And so I baked a cake to celebrate.
This coconut cake recipe has been on my site for a few years now and I thought it needed an update. It turns out I didn’t really like the frosting of the original, this coconut cream cheese buttercream is much, much better.
And underneath the coconut buttercream is a tender and airy white cake scented with coconut milk and coconut flavoring, with a light filling of the buttercream mixed with whipped cream in between each layer of cake. All together it’s a coconut lover’s dream come true.
I had a piece of cake this afternoon, and I even gave John a few bites. If tonight goes as well, we’ll share another piece for breakfast tomorrow.
Why Use Cake Flour?
Cake flour is high in starch and low in protein. It’s the proteins in all-purpose flour that cause a cake to be tough if the batter is overworked, and cake flour helps to make sure that doesn’t happen. Use cake flour in a recipe when it calls for it and you’ll get tender cakes every time.
If you don’t have cake flour on hand, substitute 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour for 1 cup of cake flour.
A light and tender layer cake with the flavor of coconut through and through.
Ingredients
- 5 large egg whites
- 1/2 cup (118 ml, 4 fl oz) milk
- 1 tablespoon coconut flavoring
- 3 cups (340 grams) cake flour
- 2 1/3 (470 grams) cups sugar
- 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (237 ml, 8 fl oz) unsweetened coconut milk
- 8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 4 cups (455 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
- 1-3 tablespoons unsweetened coconut milk or regular milk
- 1 teaspoon coconut flavoring
- 1 cup (85 grams) unsweetened coconut
- 1 cup of the Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting (above)
- 1 cup (237 ml, 8 fl oz) heavy whipping cream
For the cake:
For the Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting:
For the Whipped Cream Cheese Filling:
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 8-inch (or 9-inch) cake pans and line with parchment paper.
- Put the egg whites in a bowl and whisk slightly. Add the 1/2 cup milk and coconut flavoring and mix thoroughly. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and coconut milk and combine on low speed until moistened. Increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the egg white mixture in 3 additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl and mixing just long enough to incorporate between additions.
- Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in their pans for 10 minutes, then turn them out onto cooling racks to cool completely.
- Beat together the butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar on medium high speed until light and creamy. Add the coconut flavoring and enough coconut milk (or regular milk) to reach a spreadable consistency. Mix until smooth.
- Spread the coconut on a sheet pan. Toast in a 350 degree oven until golden, checking every 2 minutes. Watch it carefully, the coconut will burn fast. Let it cool completely.
- With a whisk attachment, beat the heavy cream until it starts to thicken. Add 1 cup of the cream cheese buttercream a spoonful at a time while mixing on medium-high speed. Whip to soft peaks.
- If desired, slice the 2 cake layers in half to create 4 layers. Place one cake layer on a cake stand or plate. Cover with the whipped cream cheese filling. Repeat with the rest of the layers. Frost the entire cake with the remaining cream cheese buttercream and cover in the toasted coconut.
- Chill for one hour before serving. Store in the fridge, cake will keep for several days.
To make the cake:
To make the buttercream:
To make the Whipped Cream Cheese Filling.
To frost the cake:
Recipe adapted from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes
Original recipe posted November 2010 and updated March 2013.
From www.completelydelicious.com
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52 Responses to Southern Coconut Cake
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Hi, I'm Annalise and I love to bake. Welcome to my blog! Follow along as I try new recipes, share baking tips and tricks, and overindulge my sweet tooth.Current Favorites
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Oh My, Oh My – I LOVE coconut! This looks unbelievable! I really need to get that cookbook…. One question – Under the title (of the recipe), it says makes One 8-inch cake, so did you double this to make a layer cake? Or did it mean 1 "whole" cake, including the layers? This is on my must make list now!
I LOVE anything coconut, so the idea of coconut on top of coconut… mmmm…
Wendy- good question! I've clarified my post. The original recipe makes a three layer cake, but I only wanted two so my layers were thicker and required a longer baking time.
Sounds great! I'm trying to find a New Orleans wedding cake recipe. Think they use almond as the flavoring. You wouldn't happen to have a recipe like that?
Scott is in love with coconut! I might just have to make this for his birthday! Or maybe before…
Hi, I'm new here, and am excited to try this cake. However, I'm not sure where I can get coconut flavoring. Is it like coconut extract? Can I get it in a normal grocery store? Thanks!
Your cake is gorgeous. There is something special about a white cake-very elegant!
Beautiful! I love coconut and I'm obsessed with Sky High, too
LOVELY LOKKING CAKE..MOUTH WATERING
Coconut cake is one of my most favorites! Yours looks divine.
That looks, well, delicious! And I love the name of your blog.
Your cake looks yummy. I'm not crazy about coconut, but I have a bunch of coconut flakes leftover from a Daring Baker's challenge that I need to use. I will try out this recipe.
What a beautiful cake! How do you get the layers so even? When I try to layer a cake they always seem to lop to one side or another!
jessyburke88@gmail.com
Coconut extract will work fine. All my grocery store had was "coconut flavoring" and while I'm not exactly sure what the difference is, it got the job done.
And Jessy, there are many tricks to getting even layers. You can cut off the domed tops once the layers have cooled, or if you don't want to waste any cake (although those scraps are scrumptious!), turn down the oven to 300 degrees F and increase the baking time until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Also, Wilton sells strips that you soak in water and wrap around the pans that are supposed to produce flat layers, although I haven't used them myself.
Good luck!
if coconutty isn't a word, it should be. coconut rules, and this cake is pure and lovely and undoubtedly delicious. you do good work.
Have made this cake 3 times now…My family and friends love it…moist and tastes great! Thanks for sharing!
DELICIOUS!!! Thank you for sharing! Was easy to make. Used two 9" round because I didn't have 8" rounds and baked for 33 min. Love it and will make again.
Thanks for sharing this recipe…I halved it and made a mini cake using 6 inch round pans. I didn't have time to work with the frosting so I used a basic cream cheese frosting, subbing coconut milk and extract for the regular milk and vanilla extract. It turned out delish!!! Thanks again!
extremely yummy coconut cake! thanks for making my husband's birthday cake such a delicious and happy surprise. Our frosting, though, had a bit of a runny marshmallow-like consistency. Is that the way it's supposed to be or did I do something incorrectly? thanks!
I made this cake for my husband's birthday last weekend and it was a hit. This cake is delicious and beautiful. And thanks for the tip about how to make it all level – I enjoyed eating the cake scraps, and it made the cake look so nice once it was frosted.
I made a whipped cream frosting with a little coconut extract in it, and topped it with toasted, unsweetened coconut flakes. But it was the cake that wowed. Thanks for such an amazing recipe! ~leslie
I made this cake yesterday for my family and oh my God!!! it was a big hit. This is a real coconut cake from beginning to end. The only thing i did differently is I added both coconut and vanilla flavoring to the cake and the frosting and yes..I added a little coconut milk to the frosting as well…This is my go to coconut cake. Thank you…Thank you..thank you for this recipe.
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I am not understanding why you would grease and flour the pans and then line with parchment paper. Do you mean to do one or the other? I also assume I am using the frosting as the filling, too? Thanks. It looks great and I am wanting to make this as a birthday cake for someone who really loves coconut through and through.
It’s my experience that merely greasing the pan is not enough to ensure that a cake will come away from the pan intact, and so I like to use parchment paper as well. And greasing the parchment paper ensures that it too will come away from the cake without taking any of the cake with it. And yes, the icing should be used as the filling. Good luck with the birthday cake, I’m sure the coconut lover will enjoy it!
I just wanted to say that if you grease the pan, then swirl flour to cover the entire pan, this is a guaranteed way for the cake to not stick. Make sure to dump any ‘un-stuck’ flour. My mom used to make and sell cakes, and this was her trick. Hope that helps too
What a fabulous recipe! I used this recipe over the weekend to make my boyfriends Birthday cake. I searched quite a bit for one with ingredients that I felt would make a spectacular cake, and found them in yours! Instead of the frosting that goes with this, I made my own coconut whipped buttercream frosting; not a big fan of the eggwhite frostings.
Just wanted to say thank you for sharing and to let you know I credited your site on my blog for your fabulously sweet recipe.
Thanks
FabulouslySweet.com
I don’t know what I did wrong, but the icing would just not firm up. The cakes look great, but the icing is runny and liquefied. I guess I will just go with a regular cream cheese frosting.
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I made it and the taste is remarkable my nieces and nephews even loved it, and asking me to make it again for them, and I’m definitely be doing this again for them!! Thanks, I will include this on my recipe list. Other likable recipes at http://www.everything-cake.com and http://www.everything-bread.com .
I made this cake and is tasted wonderful, however, it was VERY small. It didn’t seem to rise very much. The cake was tiny, 8″ 2 layer cake but only made it to about 3″ in height. I did the recipe step by step. What could have gone wrong?
Oh my, this cake looks delicious! I’ve tried out many coconut cake recipes so far but none of them really conquered me, so I can’t wait to try yours out because I have a feeling it will be the one I was looking for!
xo, Elisa
This may have to be my first post Passover baking project.
By the way, my daughter will be 28 on 4/6, but I still remember using Dr. Ferber’s book to get her to sleep through the night after 18 months of endless fussy nightly marathons. I swear she cried every time I put her down for the first year, and rarely napped!
I’m so glad you finally got a good night’s sleep! I hear how hard it is all the time to just hear lie there as your baby is crying but I guess it’s something you gotta train them to do. I’m sure when it comes time for me to have children, this’ll be something I learn to do!
This cake is absolutely stunning and has all the flavors I love!
We will begin by first saying BEAUTIFUL photos!!! We would love to have a piece of this coconut cake right about now.
So glad you finally got some good sleep!! And this cake…. she is a real beauty
Holy deliciousness girlfriend. This looks divine!! And a big congrats on your first full night of sleep. It’s grand, isn’t it?
This is so pretty! Love the look of this!
I just made this cake and I did a lot of researching of recipes before I come upon this one. I chose it for the ingredients and how good the picture was. This cake was amazing! It is so soft and pillow like! I definitely recommend trying this cake if your still wondering. But I must say I was terrified of the frosting. So I only had 1/2 cup of heavy cream so that’s all I used and I whipped it all the way and then folded it in the cream cheese frosting. It didn’t make it to runny..but it didn’t seem to add much to it but make it a little thinner and fluffier. Which is delicious but when your trying to ice the sides it tends to run off like its melting. So be quick and stick it in the fridge I’m sure that will do the trick! That’s what stage mine is at now. Also, I put mine in two 9″ cake pans and the rest in about 6 cupcake. I was afraid it wouldn’t fit in my cake box. All in all this is a good cake! Try it! And thanks for the recipe!
Southern Coconut Cake | Completely Delicious
I want this cake up in my face. No will power. And I hear you on the sleep training. Our first born (now 6) had to finally cry it out. He was ijust more and more infuriated when we went in to soothe him then leave. Finally tried cry it out and PRAISE BE! He slept. Totally new ballgame with the second though
This is incredble, Annalise. You amaze me.
That is most definitely a reason to celebrate…. And this is such a wonderful way to do so!! I hope the sleeping is still going well
beautiful coconut cake!
Your cake looks absolutely beautiful, sounds delicious too!
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Hi Love your blog – but think there’s an error re cake flour tip – you say ‘If you don’t have cake flour on hand, substitute 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour for 1 cup of cake flour’ don’t you have to take out two tbsps and replace with two tbsps of something else – baking soda? Can’t remember off the top of my head but I know I have to do this when making US recipes as we aren’t able to purchase bleached flour here in the UK or Europe as bleached flour is against health regulations.
Thanks for your comment, Lesley. I had to do some research on this one. It looks like the advice out there is split. Some of the resources I checked said the same thing I did- just remove 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour for every cup to equal 1 cup cake flour. And some other sources said to replace those 2 tablespoons of removed all purpose flour with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and sift well. Looks like I’m going to have to try it both ways to see which one I like best! Have you tried either?