Lemon Coconut Pound Cake

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We are excited to share this moist, decadent Lemon Coconut Pound Cake with you!

If you are a fan of pound cakes, you are sure to love this buttery lemon pound cake filled with flaked coconut.

Sliced Lemon Coconut Pound Cake on a pedestal.

Why we Love It

There are so many reasons to love this Lemon Coconut Pound Cake! Here are just a few:

  • Moist and tender
  • Easy to Make
  • Lemon and Coconut are perfect together, just as with our layered version of Lemon Coconut Cake.
  • A great recipe for summer birthdays, picnics, potlucks, and more!

How to Make a Lemon Coconut Pound Cake

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

  • Lower the oven rack to the next to lowest position.
  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10 cup bundt pan or tube pan.
  • In a separate bowl, add the all purpose flour, salt, baking powder, and lemon zest and whisk to blend.  Set aside.
  • Mix the butter until smooth, gradually add the sugar and mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes or until the mixture is lightened in color and fluffy.
Butter and Sugar Mixture in Mixing Bowl
  • Add the room temperature eggs one at a time beating after each until the yellow of the yolk disappears. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl several times.
  • Add the lemon extract to the 1 ¼ cup of heavy cream.
  • With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.  After each addition, mix just until blended.
  • Fold in the sweetened coconut
  • Spoon batter into greased and floured bundt or 10 inch tube pan.  Our cake baked for 1 hour, 30 minutes. Baking times may vary depending on your pan, oven, etc. It's best to peek in at least by the 1 hour, 10 minute mark to be on the safe side.
  • Allow the cake to cool for ten minutes on a cooling rack before turning out.

Lemon Simple Syrup

This lemon simple syrup is an optional step, but is another way to layer on a bit of lemon flavor.

Applying Lemon Simple Syrup to Cake with Pastry Brush

We recently used this on our Lemon Bundt Cake and were happy with the results, so we thought we would apply it to this cake as well!

The "syrup" is a mixture of lemon and sugar which is then heated in the microwave to dissolve the sugar. After baking the cake, simply brush over the outside with a pastry brush while the cake is still warm.

You can even brush the lemon syrup over the top of a freshly baked cake, just out the oven, before turning it out.

For the Coconut Glaze

We decided to go with a simple coconut glaze for this cake, which is a combination of powdered sugar, coconut extract, and a bit of milk (very similar to our vanilla glaze).

Although there is coconut in the cake itself, we wanted to give the coconut flavor a boost.

You could easily substitute the coconut extract for lemon extract if you would rather have even more lemon flavor!

I piped the glaze onto the cake a disposable piping bag (with the tip snipped away). (You could also use a ziplock bag with a corner snipped away).

Applying Coconut Glaze to Pound Cake with Piping Bag

After adding the coconut glaze, we added more shredded sweetened coconut on top of the cake.

Sliced Lemon Coconut Pound Cake on pedestal
Overhead view of Lemon Coconut Pound Cake on pedestal

More Lemon and Coconut Cakes

Lemon and coconut are two of our favorite cake flavors. We've made several of each flavor, and a few that incorporate both!

Some of our most popular are our Lemon Cheesecake Cake, Lemon Cake from scratch, and Coconut Velvet Cake.

Enjoy the Recipe

Thanks so much for stopping by. If you give this Lemon Coconut Pound Cake a try, we would love for you to leave a comment and photo below. we hope that you enjoy it!

Make sure to check out our full collection of favorite cake recipes and free cake decorating tutorials in our Cake Recipes & Tutorials Section.

You'll find cake decorating tutorials for all skill levels as well as favorite cake recipes from scratch and cake mix recipes.

Recipe FAQ

No, just as with our scratch Lemon Pound Cake and Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake recipes, this cake does not need refrigeration. It is fine at room temperature for a couple of days in an airtight container. After that, we recommend refrigerating.

If you do refrigerate this cake, it is best to remove it from the refrigerator a 2-3 hours before serving for best flavor and texture. This gives that cake a chance to warm and soften.

Yes! Just as with most pound cakes, including our Coconut Pound Cake and Lemon Pound Cake, this pound cake freezes beautifully.

If you are baking in advance, simply bake the cake and allow it to cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.

Then, turn it out onto a foil wrapped cake cardboard. We allow the cake to cool a bit more and then wrap it with plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil while it is still warm. Into the freezer it goes!

Wrapping while still warm is optional but we do this whenever possible as we feel it makes cakes even more moist (as the moisture becomes trapped inside).

Frozen cakes will remain fresh for up to three months in the freezer.

When it is time to defrost, we like to move the wrapped cake to the refrigerator the night before we need it.

The next day, remove the wrapped pound cake from the refrigerator and allow to thaw on the counter for a few more hours as needed.

Just as with our Carrot Cake and Almond Coconut Cake, we prefer to use sweetened coconut rather than unsweetened coconut in cakes because the sweetened shredded coconut is much softer. Unsweetened has a drier, more chewy texture.

Sliced Lemon Coconut Pound Cake on pedestal

Lemon Coconut Pound Cake

This moist Lemon Coconut Pound Cake is so decadent and flavorful!
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 15 servings
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Ingredients

  • 3 sticks (339g) unsalted butter, softened (Should be soft enough that it dents when pressed.)
  • 3 cups (600g) sugar
  • 5 large eggs, room temperature (You can place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes if you are in a hurry.)
  • 3 cups (375g) all purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
  • 1 teaspoon (4g) baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons (8g) lemon extract
  • zest of 2 lemons
  • 1 ¼ cup (290g) whipping cream or heavy cream
  • 2 cups (156g) sweetened coconut (We use Bakers Angel Flake)

Lemon Simple Syrup (optional)

  • cup (75g) Lemon Juice from two large lemons
  • cup (67g) sugar

Coconut Glaze

  • 2 cups confectioners sugar measure then sift
  • 2-3 Tablespoons milk start with 2, increase as needed
  • 1 teaspoon coconut extract

Instructions

  • Lower the oven rack to the next to lowest position.
  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10 cup bundt pan or tube pan. 
  • In a separate bowl, add the flour, salt, baking powder, and lemon zest whisk to blend.  Set aside.
  • Mix the butter until smooth, gradually add the sugar and mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes  or until the mixture is lightened in color and fluffy.
  • Add the eggs one at a time beating after each until the yellow of the yolk disappears. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl several times.
  • Add the lemon extract to the 1 ¼ cup heavy cream.
  • With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.  After each addition, mix just until blended. Be careful not to overmix or mix at a high speed.
  • Fold in the coconut -- the cake batter will be quite thick
  • Spoon batter into greased and floured bundt or 10 inch tube pan.  The oven temperature is 325 degrees F. Our cake baked for 1 hour, 30 minutes. Baking times may vary depending on your pan, oven, etc. It's best to peek in at least by the 1 hour, 10 minute mark to be on the safe side. Cover loosely with aluminum foil if the top becomes too brown.
  • The cake is done when a wooden skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.  Let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove from  pan. 
  • If refrigerating or freezing this cake, it must be completely at room temperature when serving for best texture and flavor.

Lemon Simple Syrup

  • Stir together the lemon juice and sugar.
  • Microwave for one minute. The mixture should be hot enough to dissolve the sugar. If you see sugar crystals on the spoon after stirring the heated mixture, microwave for a few more seconds. (You can heat and dissolve the mixture on the stovetop if you would rather).
  • This syrup will be brushed on the top, bottom, and sides of the cake for an added boost of lemon flavor.
  • When the cake is fresh out of the oven and still in the pan, brush the syrup over the top (which will eventually become the bottom) of the cake.
  • After cake has been turned out, brush additional lemon simple syrup on the top and sides while the cake is still hot. Once that sinks in, you can brush more syrup over the cake.

Coconut Glaze

  • Combine the sugar, coconut extract, and part of the milk (2-3 tablespoons). Start with 2 tablespoons of milk and add more, bit by bit, as needed.
  • Load into a piping bag with the tip snipped away and drizzle onto your cake (or you can drizzle by the spoonful).
  • Optional: Sprinkle coconut over the top for added decoration (I used sweetened, flaked coconut for the top).

Notes

This pound cake bakes up with little to no dome.
It can be frozen for up to 3 months as long as it is tightly wrapped with plastic wrap and foil. To defrost, move to the refrigerator, still wrapped, the night before. Continue to thaw the next day at room temperature as needed. Make sure the cake is completely thawed for best flavor and texture

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