When I tasted this coconut layer cake my first thought was “now I know what’s been missing from my life.” I know that sounds dramatic but IT’S SO GOOD! The coconut cake layers are soft, moist, and perfectly flavored with coconut milk, coconut extract, and shredded coconut. The coconut cream cheese buttercream pairs so beautifully with the coconut cake layers, balancing the overall flavor with the ideal amount of tang while amplifying the coconut. And my favorite part of the whole decorating process is rolling the frosted layer cake in shredded coconut. It’s so much fun and adds to the coconut flavor and texture in the best way!
These coconut cake layers are perfectly soft and moist, packed with just the right amount of coconut flavor, and have an amazing texture from the shredded coconut baked right in. The cake flour and egg whites in the recipe keep it light and fluffy, while the sour cream and canned coconut milk balance it all with the ideal amount of moisture. I was originally going to top it with regular ol’ coconut buttercream, but then I heard about coconut cream cheese buttercream and I couldn’t stop myself from trying it. Spoiler: it turned out insanely good. It felt like a mic drop moment.
While the coconut cream cheese buttercream is supremely tasty, it will be a little on the softer side to work with. I do have a couple stabilizers I recommend to make it much easier for cake decorating: cornstarch and full-fat block-style cream cheese. Cornstarch will add stability to the frosting just like adding more powdered sugar would, only it won’t flavor the buttercream or add any extra sweetness. And full-fat block-style cream cheese is a must. It turns out that cream cheese spread has a lot of added liquid, which will make your frosting super runny.
TIP: If you live in the UK and don’t have access to block-style cream cheese, I hear that Longley Farm cream cheese is the best to use because it doesn’t have additional liquid in it. For other parts of the world without access to full-fat block-style cream cheese, you may need to search your area for cream cheese brands that don’t add extra liquid or for alternative recipes from people in your area.
After filling and frosting this coconut cake with coconut cream cheese buttercream, I added a coating of sweetened shredded coconut over the whole thing (as is pretty much tradition with a coconut cake). You can either roll the cake through the coconut after the frosting is firm to the touch like what I did with this Rafaello cake recipe or you can press the coconut onto the cake by hand while the frosting is still slightly tacky. I pressed it on by hand this time, but only because I wanted to try an alternative to rolling the cake. Either way works like a charm!
To finish the look, I added a swirl border to the top of the cake with Wilton Tip 4B and sprinkled it with a little more sweetened shredded coconut. I wanted a little pop of color and realized I had these cute pastel rainbow candles on hand, so on they went. They’re perfect for dressing this cake up for Spring or Easter festivities!
However you choose to decorate, I think this recipe is what coconut cake dreams are made of and I hope you love it as much as I do!
Coconut Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Coconut Cake
- 2 3/4 Cups (290g) sifted cake flour* DIY recipe in notes
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 Cup (170g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 Cup (60ml) vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 Cups (300g) granulated sugar
- 5 large egg whites, room temperature
- 1/3 Cup (80g) sour cream, room temperature
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp coconut extract
- 1 Cup (240ml) canned full-fat coconut milk, room temperature
- 1 Cup (78g) shredded sweetened coconut
Coconut Cream Cheese Buttercream
- 8 Cups (960g) powdered sugar
- 1/4 Cup (32g) cornstarch (optional)**
- 1 1/2 Cups (339g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 12 Oz (339g) full-fat cream cheese, block-style***, room temperature
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tsp coconut extract
- 2 tsp canned full-fat coconut milk, room temperature
- pinch of salt, or to taste
Garnish
- 1 1/2 Cups sweetened shredded coconut
Instructions
Make the Coconut Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177ºC). Prepare three 6-inch or two 8-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with baking spray and fitting a parchment paper circle to the bottom of each pan.
- Add the sifted cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on high for two minutes until it’s light and creamy. Add the sugar and vegetable oil, then continue to mix on medium-high for another two minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Turn the mixer to low speed and add the egg whites one at a time, mixing until well combined. Add the sour cream, vanilla extract, and coconut extract and mix for one minute on high. Scrape down the bowl and paddle once more.
- With the mixer in the off position, add in the dry ingredients all at once. Turn the mixer to low speed until the mixture is just beginning to combine, then add the coconut milk in a slow, steady stream. Continue to mix speed on low until incorporated. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs by hand to make sure there are no large lumps, then gently fold in the shredded coconut.
- Pour the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake for 32-36 minutes. They’re done when they spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pan for five minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack for an additional few hours of cooling.
Make the Coconut Cream Cheese Buttercream
- Sift together the powdered sugar and cornstarch (if using) and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese on medium-high until light, fluffy, and uniform (no lumps), about 5 minutes.
- Turn the mixer to low speed and add the powdered sugar and cornstarch mixture a few cups at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Add the vanilla extract, coconut extract, coconut milk, and salt and mix on low for another minute, until fully combined and smooth.
Assembly
- Once the coconut cakes are completely cooled, level them to your desired height. Add a swipe of coconut cream cheese buttercream onto a cardboard cake circle and place the first cake layer on top. Fill and stack the cake layers with coconut cream cheese buttercream, then crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of coconut cream cheese buttercream. Place the crumb coated cake in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to let the frosting firm up.
- To create the look pictured, frost a smooth buttercream finish with coconut cream cheese buttercream. Place the cake back into the refrigerator for about 15 minutes, until the frosting is slightly set but still tacky, then gently press the shredded coconut onto the sides and top of the cake.
- Once the sides and top of the cake are covered in coconut, place the remaining coconut cream cheese buttercream into a piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 4B. Pipe a swirl border on top of the cake and finish with pastel rainbow candles if desired.
Notes
- The coconut cake layers can be baked, cooled, wrapped in plastic wrap, and left out at room temperature up to 2 days ahead of decorating. Unfrosted cake layers can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored in the freezer for up to 2 months before thawing and frosting.
- The coconut cream cheese buttercream can be made ahead and stored it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip with your stand mixer to bring it back to piping/frosting consistency.
- The decorated cake must be stored in the refrigerator because of the cream cheese frosting, and can be stored for up to 4 days ahead of serving (although it’s freshest closer to the assembly date). Take the cake out of the refrigerator 1-2 hours before serving so it can come back to room temperature for the best soft/fluffy texture.
I made this cake for our grandson’s birthday. Everyone loved it. I will definitely make this cake regularly. The frosting is amazing. I just used some of the leftover frosting on vanilla GF cupcakes. They were delicious! Thank you so much for the recipe.
Yay, Beth! I’m so happy to hear this recipe was a hit!
I made this for Easter. The cake and frosting separately were delicious, but together it was too sweet for me and my family. The cake recipe is such a winner though. I think I’m going to try a different filling and maybe a different buttercream to bring out the freshness. I only had on 9” pan and a 5” pan so I filled those out and baked ~12 mins longer and cut them in half to fill them.
Kudos for writing such easy to follow directions with times for everything. I’ll definitely check out all your other recipes.
I would like to try this recipe with duck eggs that a friend gave me. Do you think that would work and would you use one less egg white? Thank you.
Hi Brigette! I’ve never baked with duck eggs before, how fun! After a little research I think one less egg white will be perfect. Enjoy!
I ended up making it with regular eggs. It don’t like coconut but a friend asked for a coconut cake, so I needed to make one. The batter and frosting are absolutely delicious! (I tasted it before adding the shredded coconut, which is what I don’t like.) I will make both again (without coconut) and also check out other recipes on your site. I made it in the 6″ pans and needed to cook longer than the 40 minutes, but they came out perfectly and my friend loved the cake. The 3 layers with the 6″ pans makes a really elegant cake.
HelloI made it ,and it was delicious but a little too sweet for me , I was wondering is there any way to lower the sweetness on the buttercream by putting less powdered sugar and still have it be manageable for piping?
Do you think that if I would of added maybe 3 cups of cornstarch and just 5 sugar ,it would of tasted a lot like cornstarch?
Thank you
Hi Yoselyn! I’m so happy you liked this recipe! To decrease the sweetness of the buttercream you can try either reducing the powdered sugar by 1/2 Cup and adding a little more salt to balance the sweetness, or try making a swiss meringue buttercream instead and use coconut extract to sweeten it. Swiss meringue tends to be less sweet than American buttercream, and I have a recipe for it here (sub half of the vanilla for coconut extract to make it coconut flavored): https://sugarandsparrow.com/swiss-meringue-buttercream/
Hi! I was wondering how I would have to alter the recipe to make it fit three 4″ layers? Thank you!
Hi Neha! For three 4″ layers, you’ll want to scale the recipe to 1/3. In other words, divide every ingredient by 3 to have the perfect amount of batter. I’ll add this flavor to my list of small batch recipe ideas! Hope that helps in the meantime 🙂
I’m so excited to try this cake! I’m new at baking and was wondering if I need this cake for an early event on Saturday when is the soonest I can frost the cake?
Thank you so much!
Hi Meg! I’m excited for you to make this cake too. Frosting the cake the day before would be ideal. Here’s a blog post I wrote about making cakes ahead that might be helpful for planning your cake out: https://sugarandsparrow.com/making-cakes-ahead/
Im assuming since there is cream cheese in the recipe, it is not stable to sit out and needs to be stored in the fridge after assembled and decorated?
Thanks!
Hi Ashley! Yes, this one needs to be stored in the refrigerator but I like to take mine out of the fridge 1.5 to 2 hours before serving so it can come to room temperature again.
Hi there I was wondering if I make pineapple filling between the layer, do you think the cake will hold up without sinking?
Yes, this cake will be sturdy enough for a pineapple filling. That sounds delicious! I would definitely use a buttercream dam to keep the pineapple filling from spreading too much in between the layers. You can find instructions for that in the “soft fillings” portion of this tutorial: https://sugarandsparrow.com/fill-and-stack-cake-layers/
Will this cake be good in a 10 by 14 sheet pan
Hi Fannie! How tall are the sides of the cake pan? It bakes great in a 9×13 dish (with 3 inch sides).
The cake and frosting wasn’t as white as in the pictures, more yellow. Any suggestions ? Use clear vanilla flavor instead of extract?
Hi there! If you want a whiter frosting, you can either use clear vanilla extract or add a little icing whitener like this: https://amzn.to/4edv2gT
The cake came out dry even though I baked it at exactly 35 mins and used each ingredient to a T. Any recommendations? The frosting was delicious.
Hi Daniella! I’m sorry this cake turned out dry! I’ve never had that issue with this recipe, but it sounds like the cakes ended up overbaked. I wonder if your oven runs hotter than expected. Is it a conventional oven or convection (fan assisted) oven? The reason I ask is because fan-assisted ovens run hotter and cook cakes quicker than conventional ovens and there are troubleshooting steps you’d need to do for a better bake. Also what kind of pans are you using? Dark colored or light colored?
Hi! I just did the DIY cake flour and I ended up with slightly more than three cups (About 3 1/2) is this normal or did I do something wrong?! Please respond!!
Hi! If you end up with more than enough DIY cake flour, just re-measure the correct amount to use in the recipe.