The one dessert I’m always in the mood for, even if I’m completely stuffed?
CAKE.
You too, right?
And I feel like every month I’m craving a different cake, and this month it’s been this perfect coconut cream cake. It’s incredibly soft and fluffy, delicious and coconuty. But it’s not that kind of coconuty that’s overpowering and probably a bit fake. It’s sweet, but not cloyingly so. It’s everything I want in a coconut cake and I know this because it took more than 1 try to finally get here. Three. 3 tries.
And there are three parts to this cake: the cake batter itself, the buttercream frosting, and the coconut pastry cream that goes between the cake layers. It might seem like a lot, but each part is simple to make, it just takes some patience and a bit of your time.
Check out the recipe video above! In it, you’ll find my trick to frosting cakes!
So I think I’ll keep it short and definitely sweet this week, and leave you with the recipe. 🙂
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The Perfect Coconut Cake
Ingredients
For the Coconut Cake:
- 6 Egg Whites room temperature
- 1 cup Whole Milk room temperature
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 1/4 cups Cake Flour OR if you don’t have cake flour for every cup of all-purpose flour, just replace 2 tablespoons of it with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. So add 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour to a large bowl and replace 4 1/2 tablespoons of it with cornstarch. This is what I do and it’s so easy!)
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 4 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder Rumford brand or Whole Foods brand sell this
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter softened
- 3 ounces unsweetened coconut flakes
For the Coconut Pastry Cream:
- ¾ cup Coconut Milk
- ¾ cup Whole Milk
- Seeds from ½ a Vanilla Bean
- 4 Egg Yolks
- ⅓ cup Sugar
- 3 tablespoons Cornstarch
- ¾ cup Heavy Cream
For the Frosting:
- 1 cup 2 sticks Butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
- 3 ½ cups Powdered Sugar
- 7 tablespoons Whole Milk
- ¼ teaspoon Sea Salt
- 3 ounces unsweetened flaked coconut
Instructions
For the Coconut Cake:
- Heat oven to 350º F (176º C).
- Prepare two 8-inch (or 9-inch) cake pans by greasing them with butter (or vegetable oil), fitting parchment paper to the bottom of the pans, greasing the parchment paper, and lightly flouring the pans, getting rid of the excess flour.
- To medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites with the whole milk, and vanilla. Set aside.
- To a large mixing bowl, add 2 ¼ cups of the cake flour (or the homemade cake flour).
- Add the sugar, baking powder, and sea salt. Whisk together to combine.
- Cut the butter into pieces and add it into the mixture. Use a spatula to incorporate the butter before using a mixer to completely combine.
- Add half of the wet ingredients right into the dry ingredients and use an electric mixer to combine. Add the remaining wet ingredients and beat for another minute to incorporate.
- Use a spatula to fold in the coconut flakes.
- Pour batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake for 27-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
- Rest cakes for 10 minutes before removing them onto a cooling rack to completely cool.
For the Coconut Pastry Cream:
- Add the coconut milk, the whole milk, and the vanilla seeds to a saucepan. and heat on the stove over low heat.
- Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch in a mixing bowl to form a paste.
- Use an electric mixer and little by little, whisk in the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture.
- Pour the mixture back into the saucepan over medium heat, and whisk constantly, until thickened and boiling.
- Place plastic wrap up against the custard to keep a skin from forming and refrigerate until cool. Use an electric mixer and mix the custard and heavy cream in a bowl until smooth and airy.
For the Frosting:
- Toast the coconut flakes by heating them in a pan over the stove on medium heat. Use a spatula to toss the coconut flakes so they don’t burn. Once they start getting golden, turn off heat and continue tossing for a minute. Put the flakes in a bowl and set aside until cake is ready to be topped with them.
- Use an electric mixer to combine all the frosting ingredients together. Once incorporated, mix for 2 more minutes to make it soft and whipped.
- Cut the cakes in half using a serrated knife to create four cake layers. Place one layer down, spread 1/3 of the pastry cream over the top, leaving about 1 inch of room from the edge so that the pastry cream doesn’t spill out when you add the remaining layers. Add the next layer and repeat the process until you add the last layer.
- Frost the cake with the vanilla frosting. Garnish with lightly toasted flaked coconut. Enjoy!
Looks so delicious! I love coconut! Yum! Beautiful pctures!
Thank you, Becky! Miss you! <3
The cake looks soooo good! I’ll definitely try it sometime this week! And you look so cute hahahahaha~
Thank you, Sixia! :-* <3
Just made this cake, all family loved it, amazing recipe!
<3
Yayyyy! So happy to hear it, Lina! Thanks for commenting! 🙂 <3
The cake looks absolutely incredible – am just in the process of making it but my pastry cream is so runny! Maybe I didn’t leave it to cool for long enough. Starting the cream again but it will hopefully all be worth it in the end 🙂
Hi Christine! You made sure to add the cornstarch, right? I’d just add a little more over the stove and whisk, whisk, whisk! 🙂
Good Luck! Let me know how it goes. 🙂 x
With the coconut milk, is it the canned one or carton? 😀
Either 🙂
As long as it’s coconut milk, you’re good to go.
Hey Bita! Please help me with the heavy cream for the cream pastry. Is it the one that grows with the beaten, that has to be really cold, or the other one. I’m new in this ? thanks in advance!
Hi Saa! Don’t worry! So you just want to get any heavy/whipping cream from the grocery store. Just make sure it’s not milk or half-and-half so that it will get nice and fluffy when you whip it. Don’t think too hard about it, it’s easier than you think 🙂 Good luck and let me know how it goes!
the best coconut cake I have ever made, tasted or dreamed of. great recipe, thank you!
You are SO very welcome, Kerry!! So thankful you tried it and reported back!
best coconut cake ever. great recipe, thank you.
<3 <3
How far in advance can you make the cake? One day?
Because of the custard and and cream, probably a day. But if you put it in the fridge, then a week later it’s still yummy!
Spent a week researching coconut cakes recipes stumbling on your YouTube clip.
I made your coconut cake recipe last weekend but omitted the frosting cause I wanted a cream cheese lemon topping.
My guests loved your cake finding it moist and not overly sweet . Having made coconut cake a few times finding the cake being too dense your version was delicious . My guests all had second slices which is a strong barometer on how good your recipe is .
Thank you for sharing your recipes .
I am now a fan
This coconut cake turned out delicious. It was the perfect amount of sweetness. The cake was great and one recipe made 2, 8 inch round pans which was plenty to share. I think next time I might try to add some sour cream or vanilla pudding or something to the cake mix before baking to make it fluffier since I the cake seemed a little dense with all the dried shredded coconut in it. But all together the cake tasted great and I still loved this recipe as is. Definitely would recommend this recipe and I will definitely make this again.