This sweet southern scratch-made Coconut Cake with coconut buttercream frosting is moist, tender, melt-in-your-mouth perfection.
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Last summer, I caught an unexpected bug: the Cake Baking Bug! Specifically, a yen to bake up rich, decadent, double- and triple-layer Southern-style cakes. Traditional, old-fashioned, fancy-pants cakes with layers and frosting and everything. No boxes, no preservatives, no shortcuts. Just Cakes. From Scratch.
I have no idea where this cake-baking urge came from. To begin with, I'm not particularly a cake person: sure, I'll take a piece if it's offered, but cake is way down on my list of preferred indulgences. Also, I'm about as Southern as Santa Claus. But mostly, I've always considered myself to be more of a Cook than a Baker.
From my perspective, bakers are, of necessity, meticulous, methodical recipe-followers who measure everything with the slice of a knife. Bakers are good at following rules. Me: not so much. I tend to measure with my hands and throw in extra ingredients and leave out others, and bend a recipe until it comes out the other side as something altogether different than it was when it started. I mean, I can follow recipe if I really want to, but I rarely want to.
Then Mr B and I traveled to Tennessee this August (for the second time in a year) and I returned to Oregon all full of cake dreams and determined to make triple-layer strawberry cake from scratch before fall arrived.
Which I did.
And it was Fabulous.
After working through the recipe for that first cake, I was hooked. Because while I'm may not be big on measuring and rule-following, I relish a good challenge - and developing a cake recipe that truly sings (and can be successfully replicated by others) is an honest challenge. Now I have a whole list of cakes to learn, tinker with, and roll out on the blog over the next few years!
Happy Birthday, Elvis!
After successfully perfecting my strawberry cake, I decided that a coconut cake needed to be next on the docket. Why? Because coconut is one of my all-time favorite flavors. Plus, it's white and fluffy like snow, and eating a cake in winter that looks like snow is kind of like seasonal eating, right? And also, coconut cake was Elvis' favorite, and Elvis' birthday is today [January 8th], and I can't think of a better reason than that to make it a January tradition.
(If you're not an Elvis fan, feel free to celebrate David Bowie's birthday today instead.)
[ATTENTION : LIVING MUSIC LEGENDS - If you are currently a living Legend of Rock & Roll and/or a standing member of the Grand Ole Opry and would like to have a delicious scratch cake dedicated to you on this blog, please Tweet me up! Seriously. {Tom Scholz, I'll be waiting... Also, Peter Frampton: not. even. kidding.} ? ]
I took what I learned about the cake batter science from my Strawberry Cake and ended up with this Amazing Coconut Cake. As in, delicate, tender, melt-in-your-mouth Amazing. As in, loaded with coconut flavor and light as a cloud Amazing. If you are a coconut lover, you are going to Love it!
Cake Batter Science
I think the real key to this coconut cake is how and when you introduce the meringue to the rest of the cake batter.
Most recipes similar to this one have you make the meringue, take it to medium or stiff peaks, and set it aside while you make the rest of the cake batter. However, I've learned that you get a discernibly lighter cake if you mix up the batter before you whip up the meringue.
Meringue is basically a mixture of proteins and water. Air whisked into the egg white becomes trapped and surrounded by a network of proteins, and adding sugar stabilizes this protein network.
Making the meringue after the batter allows you to gently fold it in immediately after whipping it up. This way, the meringue's protein network doesn't have time to start breaking down or setting up, and more teeny tiny meringue bubbles make their way into your cake, ultimately making it lighter.
Coconut Cake with Coconut Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
Coconut Cake [3 Layers]
- 3 cups cake flour measure AFTER sifting
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 6 large egg whites room temperature
- 1 ½ cups white sugar divided
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 teaspoons coconut extract
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 ½ cups full-fat, unsweetened coconut milk (NOT coconut cream!)
Coconut Buttercream Frosting
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter softened
- 2-3 teaspoons coconut extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 5-6 tablespoons coconut milk
- 2 cups flaked, sweetened coconut
Instructions
Cake Layers
- Position oven rack in the center (or just below center) of the oven. Preheat oven to 350°F [175°C]. Grease and flour three round cake pans. Line pans with parchment paper for easy release and clean-up. NOTE: 8" or 9" cake pans will work for this cake. (They must, however, all be the same size!)
- Measure sifted cake flour, baking powder, and salt; sift together three times. Set aside.
- Combine sour cream and coconut milk in a small bowl and set aside.
- Using an electric mixer with a large mixing bowl, cream butter and 1 cup of sugar together until light and fluffy. Add coconut extract and mix to combine. Add flour mixture alternately with coconut milk and sour cream mixture, beating after each addition. Remove bowl from mixer and set aside.
- [DO NOT begin this step until you have completed the previous step.] In a medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add ½ cup sugar gradually, beating until meringue will hold soft peaks.
- [Do this step by hand. Do not use a mixer.] Carefully fold beaten egg whites into batter.
- Pour batter evenly into the three prepared cake pans. Bake layers in preheated oven: 22-25 for 9" cake pans / 25-30 minutes for 8" cake pans - or until a toothpick or skewer comes out clean. (If your oven cooks unevenly, carefully rotate pans on rack at the 15-minute mark.)
- Allow cakes to cool in their pans over wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully tap out onto wire rack to cool completely. Wrap and chill layers in refrigerator for at least an hour (or up to a week if you need to).
Coconut Frosting
- Using an electric mixer, beat butter on medium-high until light and fluffy. Add coconut and vanilla extracts and salt and mix to thoroughly combine.
- Slowly add powdered sugar, mixing well after each addition.
- Add coconut milk, one tablespoon at a time time, beating on medium-high until fully incorporated.
Cake Assembly
- Once the cake is completely chilled, trim the layers.
- Spread the top of the bottom layer of cake with frosting. Add the middle layer and frost top. Add the top layer.
- Apply a crumb coat to the entire cake. (A crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting that covers the top and sides of a cake.) Return the cake to the refrigerator for another 15 minutes.
- Frost the entire cake with a generous layer of frosting. Sprinkle flaked coconut over top and sides of cake before the frosting sets.
Notes
Nutrition
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.
Bake your life easier: Line your cake pans with parchment paper!
Ingredient Notes
FLOUR - It is vital that you use cake flour for this coconut cake!
Cake flour is a finely milled, delicate flour that results in a fine crumb and a good rise.
The primary difference between cake flour and all-purpose flour [AP] is that cake flour has slightly less protein, which translates to less gluten in your cake, which means you will have a more tender cake.
My personal cake flour preference is Bob’s Red Mill Super Fine Cake Flour. And I cannot stress this enough: when it comes to flour in baking, sift THEN measure.
Easy Cake Flour Substitute
If you really don't want to buy cake flour just for this cake, try this easy Cake Flour Substitute: For each cup of cake flour, measure out 1 cup of flour, then remove 2 tablespoons from the cup. Add 2 tablespoons cornstarch, and sift together.
(Note that I have never made this particular cake using this cake flour substitute, so substitute it in at your own risk.)
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Dallas Victoria Williams says
So I am making this cake for the 1st time and I just took them out of the oven, the 3 layers look kind of thin, but light & fluffy? I am not sure if that makes sense, just wondering if this is normal. Thanks
Renée says
If you baked them in 9-inch pans, then yes, they will be pretty thin. 8-inch pans will held thicker layers.
Jane says
I made this cake for a homesick South Carolina friend. It was perfectly delicious and not at all difficult: just read the instructions through before you start.
I do have a question about 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided. Step 4 calls for creaming the butter and sugar but not how much of the sugar. Then step 6 says to add 1/2 cup sugar. I added all the 1 1/2 cups of sugar in step 4 so I needed more sugar for the eggwhites. It turned out fine (did I mention delicious!) but I was a little confused.
Renée says
Good catch, Jane! Yes, Step 4 under Cake Layers should read, "Using an electric mixer with a large mixing bowl, cream butter and 1 cup of sugar together until light and fluffy." Thank you - the recipe has been updated.
Genevieve says
Coconut cake? This looks amazing and super creamy. Super decadent too!
Michelle Jolene says
I'm currently not eating gluten, so I'm just here to live vicaiously though these scrumptious pics and read all the yummy ingredients. Oh, and I love coconut! Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm
Renée ♥ says
I wonder how this would turn out with Bob's GF flour mix?