Coconut Hummingbird Cake

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This delicious Coconut Hummingbird Cake is a delicious twist on classic recipe!

Hummingbird Cake is a delicious southern cake with amazing flavor from bananas, crushed pineapple, pecans and cinnamon.

Today, we have incorporated coconut into this delicious recipe. It goes perfectly with the crushed pineapple and pecans (much like our carrot cake recipe that we love so much)!

Why we Love It

  • This flavor combination is divine- we love it year round! (Italian Cream Cake is another delicious cake that combines coconut and pecans!)
  • Three nice sized 8 inch cake layers for an impressive cake and two layers of cream cheese filling!
  • Makes the perfect birthday cake recipe, holiday cake recipe, and more!
  • One bowl recipe, no mixer required!

How to Make Coconut Hummingbird Cake

This delicious Coconut Hummingbird Cake is very easy to make. No electric mixer is required- just a large bowl and a spoon for stirring ;0)

You can find the full, printable cake recipe further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!

  • Preheat: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, Grease and flour three 8 inch pans. (We like to line the bottom with circles of parchment paper also.)
  • Combine the first 5 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk to combine.
  • Next, add the room temperature eggs and vegetable oil, gently stirring with a spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened.
  • Mash the Bananas
Mashing Bananas
  • Add the vanilla extract, pineapple, coconut, pecans, bananas and fold in the ingredients until combined.
  • Spoon batter into three 8 inch greased and floured cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
Coconut Hummingbird Cake Batter in Pans
  • Cool the cake layers in pans 10 minutes on cooling rack before turning out. Make sure to cool the layers completely before frosting.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

Hummingbird Cakes are usually frosted with cream cheese frosting. For today's coconut version, we frosted our cake with our usual cream cheese frosting, plus a bit of coconut extract. Delicious!

The cake would still taste amazing without the coconut flavor in the frosting, but we loved the added boost of coconut.

Consistency of Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese frostings are softer than most buttercream frostings. So, if you have any trouble with it becoming too soft, just pop the bowl of frosting or even the cake in the freezer for 5-10 minutes (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm everything up.

Decorating the Coconut Hummingbird Cake

This cake comes together very easily. To assemble, spread the first cake layer with coconut cream cheese frosting. Repeat for the next two cake layers and then frost the cake.

Spreading the first cake layer with coconut frosting

I love any excuse to completely cover a cake in flaked coconut ;0) - Not only is it beautiful, but the cake decorating doesn't get any easier! (You've seen this in our Coconut Cake, Chocolate Coconut Cake, and Lemon Coconut Cake recipes.)

We recommend using sweetened coconut as it is so much softer. Simply press the coconut into the freshly frosted cake on top and around the sides.

*If you would prefer to frost the cake in coconut cream cheese frosting (minus the layer of coconut) that is fine too! It will be just as delicious. ;0)

Does the Cake Need to be Refrigerated?

Yes, because of the cream cheese in the filling and frosting, you will need to refrigerate the cake.

For best flavor and texture, remove the cake from the refrigerator a few hours before serving. It will soften as it approaches room temperature.

Slice of Coconut Hummingbird Cake

More Coconut Cakes!

We really love coconut cakes, and have made many over the years! If you love cakes with coconut, don't miss our roundup of Favorite Coconut Cakes.

Some of our most popular are our Coconut Cream Cake, Coconut Velvet Cake, and the recipes featured below!

Enjoy the Recipe!

Thanks so much for stopping by, we hope that you enjoy this Coconut Hummingbird Cake!

Make sure to check out our collection of hundreds of Cake Recipes, including our favorite cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes!

We'll also show you how to decorate cakes in our Cake Decorating Tutorials section!

Coconut Hummingbird Cake

This delicious Coconut Hummingbird Cake is so moist and has amazing flavor from bananas, crushed pineapple, pecans, and coconut!
Course: Dessert
Servings: 15
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Ingredients

  • 3 cups (363g) all purpose flour
  • 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon (5g) baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
  • 1 teaspoon (3g) ground cinnamon
  • 3 large eggs-room temperature, lightly beaten (You can warm the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes if they are not room temperature.)
  • 1 cup (215g) vegetable oil
  • 1 ½ teaspoons (6g) vanilla extract
  • 8 oz (227g) can crushed pineapple, undrained
  • 1 cup (100g) chopped pecans
  • 1 ¾ cup (392g) mashed ripe bananas (4 large)
  • 1 cup (78g) sweetened coconut (we used Bakers Angel Flake Coconut)

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened (do not microwave)
  • 16 oz cream cheese (452g) (We used two 8 oz packages of full fat cream cheese.)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons (6g) coconut extract (adjust to your liking)
  • 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
  • 6 to 6 ½ cups (747g) powdered sugar
  • pinch salt

Instructions

  • For the Cake
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, Grease and flour three 8 inch pans. (We like to line with parchment paper also.)
  • Combine the first 5 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk to blend.
  • Add eggs and oil, stirring with a spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not beat the mixture. Add the vanilla, pineapple, coconut, pecans, bananas and stir until combined.
  • Spoon batter into three 8 inch greased and floured cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
  • Cool in pans 10 minutes on cooling rack and remove from pans.
  • Makes 6 cups of batter.

For the Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Add the butter to the mixing bowl and mix until smooth.
  • Add the cream cheese that has been cut into small to medium size pieces, beating with the butter until well blended and smooth.
  • Add the coconut and vanilla extracts
  • Slowly add the powdered sugar, beating until smooth. Do not beat above medium speed or for too long. The longer you beat the softer the frosting becomes. If it becomes too soft to pipe, just refrigerate for a short while.
  • Use the frosting while it is still chilled. If it becomes too soft, refrigerate until it firms up a bit or put in the freezer for 5 minutes or so to return it to a good piping consistency.

Notes

  • This cake should be refrigerated because of the cream cheese frosting. Remove from the refrigerator a few hours before serving for best flavor and texture.
  • *You can bake the cake layers in advance, wrap, and freeze them for up to 3 months. We place each cake layer on a foil-wrapped cake board, wrap with plastic wrap, then aluminum foil. We like to wrap and freeze while the layers are still a bit warm. Thaw on the counter, still wrapped for 45 minutes, then unwrap and continue thawing.
4.67 from 3 votes (3 ratings without comment)

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2 Comments

  1. I absolutely love this cake (OMG), but want to convert it to cupcakes. How should I tweak it for cupcakes? Thank you.