I love this delicious homemade Coconut Cake recipe year round, but I especially love it at Christmastime!
I have so many great memories of amazing desserts and cakes at our family Christmas get-togethers. There was always a good chance of finding a couple of homemade southern favorites like Red Velvet, Italian Cream Cake, Pound Cake, and of course, Coconut Cake!
There’s just nothing better than flavorful coconut filling sandwiched between moist yellow cake layers and a generous coat of coconut cream cheese frosting. The finished cake, dressed in flaked coconut looks as heavenly as it tastes!
We make our scratch Coconut Cake using this delicious scratch Yellow Cake Recipe, but you can substitute with the yellow or white cake of your choice. The cake in our photo is decorated with fondant holly leaves and red Sixlets candies.
*Special thanks to my Aunt Kay for sharing her mother’s recipe with us that we have all fallen in love with over the years!
Enjoy!
Coconut Cake
Ingredients
- Make your preferred yellow or white cake (plus one teaspoon of coconut extract). We like our Yellow Cake {Scratch Recipe}. We baked two layers of cake and torted them, so that we could have 4 layers (and more filling!).
Filling for Coconut Cake (Can be made in advance)
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (8g) flour
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) butter
- 1 cup ( 242g) whole milk
- 1 teaspoon (8g) vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon (8g) coconut extract
- 1 1/2 cups (105g) sweetened flaked coconut
For the Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 cup (2 sticks) (226g) unsalted butter, softened
- 8 oz. (226g) cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon (4g) coconut extract
- 4 to 4 1/2 cups (420 - 470g) powdered sugar, additional powdered sugar if needed
- (2 cups Flaked Sweetened Coconut -optional. For pressing into the frosted cake. We used 2 cups for an 8" cake.)
Directions
For the Filling...
- Add sugar and flour to a saucepan and whisk to blend. Stir in the whole milk, add butter and cook over medium heat until just before boiling. Reduce heat and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. When you remove from the heat stir in the vanilla and coconut extracts and the flaked coconut. Allow to cool completely before spreading over cake layers.
For the Frosting...
- (2 cups Flaked Sweetened Coconut -optional. For pressing into the frosted cake. We used 2 cups for an 8" cake.)
- In the bowl of your mixer beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and coconut extract. With the mixer on low speed gradually add the powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Beat until smooth.
- Makes 4 cups and will cover a 2 layer 8 inch round cake. Frosting should be refrigerated.
To assemble the cake:
- Place 1 cake layer on a cake plate or cake board. Spread with filling, place second cake layer on top of this and fill, and so on. Once all the cake layers are filled, frost the cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting. Pat approximately 2 cups flaked sweetened coconut over the top and sides of the cake. Press the coconut gently into the frosting so that it will stick. Cover the cake and refrigerate until ready to serve. For best flavor, remove the cake from the refrigerator 2 hours before serving.
Looking for even more coconut goodness? Check out our Piña Colada Cake Recipe! Coconut Cake Layers with crushed pineapple and a hint of rum!
Thanks for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this delicious Coconut Cake recipe!
Hi
I tried this Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting at my home, its really awesome i never tasted such good cake till know. Thank you for sharing such good recipe.
Regards
Priyanka
link to coolcake.in
Priyanka, we are so happy you like it, thank you for leaving a comment!
I’m so glad that I found your blog. I am looking for this kind of recipe for my mom because she loves coconut. I am going to bake this on her birthday tomorrow. Thank you for posting this awesome article!
That’s great, Lexie! Hope that you all love it! ;0)
Pinned for (not so distant) future reference. I LOVE anything that involves coconut, and this looks/sounds beautiful! I’m thinking I might try alternating coconut and lemon filling layers. Yummmmm!
Hi Chris, lemon filling does sound delicious!
Amazing! Coconut cake is something unique that i never tasted before.. But definitely I will add this yummy coconut cake to my site Bestbake.in
Thanks for sharing…
Hi Sree, Thanks for your post!!
@BeBe Can i have your personal website or any other blog where I can find different recipes of cakes. So that I can add them to my newly designed site Cakes in hyderabad
Thank you for your quick response..
only 2 TBSP of Flour ?????
hi beautiful licious cake.. sorry 2 ask.. only 2 Tbsp of flour???
Hi Rosa, Yes, 2 Tablespoons flour for this coconut filling. The flour thickens the mixture. This is a good filling for your favorite white or yellow cake recipe when making a coconut cake.
Lovely
Will be making this cocnut cake for my Grayson this weekend for his birthday. Will let you know how it went
This cake has brought back some old childhood memories. I lived in south of India in my younger days and we had a couple of coconut trees around our house.My mum use to make so many sweet treats with coconut. I think she will love this coconut cake. Will be surely trying this out soon. Thanks for the recipe and bringing back memories of the good old days!
It’s toooo Awesome!!! thanks for sharing this wonderful article… Important tips are given in this article for making this awesome cake