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Red Velvet Coconut Cake

Last Updated On: December 06, 2023 | Published: December 06, 2023 by Melissa Diamond | 2 Comments
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This Red Velvet Coconut Cake is so perfectly moist and flavorful! It consists of homemade red velvet cake layers with a hint of cocoa, filled and frosted with coconut cream cheese frosting.

Sliced red velvet coconut cake layers on a cake pedestal.

We've made several red velvet cake recipes over the years, but today's recipe is our first that incorporates coconut-such a flavorful combination! This beautiful cake is sure to make any occasion feel more special.

Why we Love It

  • Most, soft cake with wonderful flavor.
  • The coconut cream cheese frosting is so easy and pairs perfectly with the cake.
  • The red and white make for a beautiful presentation!
  • Decorating is easy when the cake is covered in shredded coconut! ;0)
  • Perfect birthday cake recipe, Christmas cake, or any occasion that calls for something extra special.

How to Make Red Velvet Coconut Cake

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

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour three 8×2 inch round pans. I lined the bottom of my pans with parchment paper also.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder for 30 seconds. Set aside
Dry ingredients in a bowl with a whisk.
  • In another bowl, add the buttermilk, white vinegar, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and red liquid food coloring.  Set aside.
Wet ingredients for Red Velvet Cake.
  • In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Next, gradually add the white sugar. Continue to mix on medium speed for 3-5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
Sugar and Butter Mixture.
  • Add the room temperature eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk is blended.
Adding eggs to cake batter.
  • With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). After the last addition, mix just until blended.
Red Velvet Cake Batter in mixing bowl.
  • Divide batter between the three prepared 8 inch cake pans.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. The layers should spring back when lightly touched in the center. Allow the layers to cool for ten minutes before turning out.
Red Velvet Cake Layers in pans, freshly baked.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

Our red velvet cake layers are filled and frosted with an easy, delicious coconut cream cheese frosting. We love this pairing! This simple frosting recipe is based on our usual cream cheese frosting recipe, but with coconut flavoring.

This combination of softened butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar, a pinch of salt, and coconut extract comes together in minutes. This is a frosting that needs to be refrigerated.

If at any time the frosting becomes too soft as you are working with it, just pop it in the refrigerator for a few minutes to thicken the consistency.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting.

Assembling the Cake

Once the cake layers have cooled and the frosting has been made, it is time to put it all together.

Place the first cake layer on your cake base or pedestal. Spread with a layer of coconut cream cheese frosting.

Spreading coconut cream cheese frosting onto red velvet cake.

We followed this with a light sprinkling of shredded coconut. (The coconut in the filling is optional but we like just a small amount for an added boost of coconut flavor.)

Top with the second cake layer and repeat the steps. Then, top with the third red velvet layer. Fill in any gaps between the cake layers with frosting. Then, frost the top and around the sides.

Finally, cover the cake in sweetened shredded coconut. (We use Baker's Sweetened Angel Flake Coconut.) Sweetened coconut is softer than unsweetened.

Red velvet coconut cake on a cake pedestal (before slicing). Cake is covered in shredded coconut.
Sliced Red Velvet Coconut Cake on a glass cake pedestal.

Recipe FAQs

Yes, because of the cream cheese frosting, this cake needs to be refrigerated. However, for the best flavor and texture, it is best to remove the cake from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving. This allows time for the cake to warm and soften.

Yes, just as with most of our cake recipes (from our carrot cake recipe to lemon cake, orange cake, and more), these layers freeze beautifully.

After baking, cool the cake layers until slightly warm or room temperature. Then, wrap the cake layers in plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil. The layers will stay fresh in the freezer for up to three months.

Both buttermilk and vinegar add a boost of acidity to the cake batter that softens the strands of gluten. The result is a very tender, soft cake.

Historically, the earliest versions of red velvet cake included a splash of vinegar, which when combined with non-dutch processed cocoa, resulted in a reddish hue. Buttermilk later gained popularity in red velvet cakes not only for their acidic qualities, but also for the slight tanginess that they add.

We've used buttermilk in many of our favorite cake recipes, from our vanilla buttermilk cake to pineapple cake, white velvet cake, and more.

Yes! Although our recipe calls for red liquid coloring, you can use coloring gel if you would rather.

If you are using a highly concentrated coloring gel (like Americolor brand for instance), you will likely not need as much as we used. Just add it bit by bit as you mix the ingredients until you reach the desired color.

We've added several Red Velvet Cake recipes to the site over the years! We have a scratch Red Velvet Cake (which calls for sour cream rather than buttermilk), Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake, Red Velvet Pound Cake, and a doctored Red Velvet Cake Mix recipe!

More Cakes with Coconut

Thanks so much for stopping by! We have so many more cakes with coconut for you to try.

Some of our favorites are classic cakes like Italian Cream Cake, German Chocolate Cake, Pineapple Coconut Cake, and our Carrot Cake Recipe.

Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!

Sliced red velvet coconut cake layers on a cake pedestal.

Red Velvet Coconut Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe
This beautiful Red Velvet Coconut Cake consists of moist red velvet cake layers with a hint of cocoa, coconut cream cheese frosting, and shredded coconut. It is such a beautiful and delicious dessert!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Course: Dessert
Servings: 15
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Equipment

Ingredients

For the Red Velvet Cake Layers

  • 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened (It should be soft enough to dent when pressed, but still hold its shape.)
  • 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
  • ½ cup (108g) vegetable oil
  • 3 eggs, room temperature (If you are in a hurry, place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
  • 3 cups (342g) cake flour
  • 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
  • 1 ½ cups (340g) buttermilk
  • 1 Tablespoon (14g) white vinegar
  • 4 Tablespoons (19g) unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 Tablespoon (12g) vanilla extract
  • 3 Tablespoons Red Liquid Food Coloring (Gel coloring is fine also, adjust amount as needed.)

For the Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened
  • 16 oz cream cheese, softened (We use two 8 oz packages cream cheese, full fat)
  • 1 teaspoons (4g) vanilla extract
  • 1½ teaspoons (6g) coconut extract (Adjust amount to your liking!)
  • ½ teaspoon (2g) salt
  • 6 to 6 ½ cups (690g to 747g) confectioners sugar

Decoration

  • 14 oz package of sweetened flaked coconut (386g) To be sprinkled in the filling as well as pressed into the frosting on the outside of the cake.

Instructions

For the Red Velvet Cake Layers

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour three 8×2 inch round pans. I lined the bottom of my pans with parchment paper also.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder for 30 seconds. Set aside
  • In another bowl, add the buttermilk, white vinegar, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and red food coloring.  Set aside..
  • In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk is blended.
  • With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). After the last addition, mix just until blended.
  • Divide batter between the three prepared 8 inch cake pans.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. The layers should spring back when lightly touched in the center. Let cool 10 minutes and turn out.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Mix on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
  • Cut the softened cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated.
  • Add the vanilla and coconut extract. Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing on low speed until blended.
  • Slightly increase the speed and mix until fluffy and incorporated. Don't over mix or it will become too soft. If it becomes too soft, just refrigerate a short while to firm it up a bit.
  • This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.

Assembling the Cake

  • Place the first cooled or chilled red velvet cake layer on the cake plate or pedestal. Spread with a layer of coconut cream cheese frosting. Add a sprinkling of sweetened shredded coconut.
  • Repeat steps for the next cake layer and top with the third cake layer layer.
  • Fill in any gaps between the layers with frosting. Frost the top and around the sides of the cake. Then, press coconut into the frosting, covering the cake in shredded coconut.
  • This cake should be refrigerated in an airtight container or under a cake dome. However for best flavor and texture, remove from the refrigerator 2-3 hours before serving to allow the cake time to warm and soften.

Notes

Substitution for Cake Flour: Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend

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2 Comments

  1. Hi, I have made several of your cakes over the years. They are cery deluvious and moist. I was wondering if you could post a red velvet cake recipe using beets instead of food coloring?

    Reply