Almond Coconut Cake
This moist, scratch Almond Coconut Cake is so fluffy and flavorful with coconut and sliced almonds baked into the batter!
Ingredients
For the Almond Coconut Cake
- 1 ½ sticks 170g unsalted butter, softened ( holds it shape but dents when pressed)
- 2 cups 400g white sugar
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 3 cups 342g cake flour (spooned into measuring cup and leveled off) If you do not have cake flour see substitution in Notes below.
- 2 teaspoons 8g baking powder
- ½ teaspoon 3g baking soda
- ½ teaspoon 3g salt
- 1 ¼ cups 296g buttermilk — if you do not have buttermilk, see substitution below
- ¼ cup 54g vegetable oil
- 1 Tablespoon 12g almond extract
- 1 cup 85g sliced almonds, finely chopped
- 1 cup 78g sweetened coconut (we used Bakers Angel Flake Coconut)
For the Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 sticks 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened - do not microwave
- 2 8oz. packages cream cheese (452g. is the total gram weight) use full fat cream cheese, slightly softened. Using reduced fat will cause the frosting to be too soft
- 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
For decorating the cake
- We used additional coconut for the outside of the cake. For the coconut in the batter plus coconut for decoration, we used a 14 oz bag of Baker's Angel Flake Coconut
- Sliced almonds for sprinkling over top of cake.
Instructions
- For the Almond Coconut Cake
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk, oil and almond extract. 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 disappears.
- Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). Do not mix above medium speed or over mix the cake batter.
- Fold in the almonds and coconut.
- Divide batter between the three cake pans and bake at 325 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. Let cool 10 minutes and turn out.
- 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
Substitute for Buttermilk: No Buttermilk? Here is a substitution: To a measuring cup, add 1 Tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice. Add milk to the 1 ¼ mark, stir. Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use.
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
Recipe makes approximately 8 cups of batter