Southern Coconut Cake Recipe
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Birthdays are a big deal in my house. They always have been. From the time I was a little girl, I started planning my birthday before Christmas (my birthday is in January).
Now, I’ve somewhat transferred that to planning my son’s birthday and my husband, bless his heart, falls somewhere in there, too.
And this year, I wasn’t big on planning for my husband’s day. I’m not sure why I wasn’t. I just didn’t do much at all. As a matter of fact, you could say I didn’t do enough at all.
And you’d be right.
You could even say I was a pitiful wife for not doing more for him.
And you’d be right again.
So I decided to pull out all the stops and surprise him with a gorgeous birthday cake. He has three favorite cakes — strawberry, caramel, and coconut.
I decided on coconut for this year. It just sounded like a good surprise cake.
Here’s how I made it.
I started with my favorite Butter Cake recipe and then dolled it up with an over the top delicious Southern Coconut Frosting.
Can you say to die for?
Oh my word!!!
Southern Coconut Cake
Ingredients
Butter Cake
- 3 cups (360 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (6 g) baking soda
- pinch (0.4 g) kosher salt
- 1 cup (226 g) butter, softened
- 2 cups (396 g) sugar
- 4 large (200 g) eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup (227 g) buttermilk, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons (9.4 g) vanilla extract
Southern Coconut Frosting
- 1 cup (226 g) butter, softened
- 8 cups (908 g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 cup (227 g) milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (7.05 g) vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon (14 g) coconut extract , or coconut rum
- 1 (14-ounce) bag (400 g) unsweetened coconut flake
Instructions
Butter Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare 3 9-inch cake pans with shortening and flour.
- Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt with a whisk in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Cream butter until fluffy and then add sugar. Cream together for about 8 more minutes.
- Add eggs, 1 at a time, and cream together after each.
- Add flour mixture and buttermilk, alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Combine each addition of flour and then turn mixer on high to add air into the batter.
- Add vanilla and beat well. Turn mixer on high once vanilla has been incorporated for about 10 seconds to lighten batter.
- Divide among pans and bake for 25-30 minutes until set. You can follow my tips for how to tell when your cake is done.
- Turn out of pans onto cooling racks and allow to cool completely.
Southern Coconut Frosting
- Whip butter until it reaches light and fluffy stage.
- Slowly add sugar, beating well after each addition.
- When all sugar has been incorporated, the butter and sugar will look like crumbles.
- With mixer set on low speed, add in milk.
- Then, beat on high speed for few minutes.
- Add vanilla and coconut flavorings and beat on high speed until the frosting reaches a spreading consistency.
- If it is too dry, add milk a few drops at a time.
- If it is too wet, add powdered sugar a few sprinkles at a time until it reaches the correct consistency.
- Frost cake and then sprinkle with coconut flakes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I’m hoping he didn’t notice all of the other stuff I didn’t do for his birthday.
And… I sure hope he remembers mine!
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
This recipe sounds good. I want to try it for Christmas eve. I just want to make sure there is enough frosting to frost all 3 layers of the cake?
More than enough for a 3 layer cake! Frosting is also extremely delicious!
Thanks, Amelia!
Hi. This sounds great. Could you estimate what the cooking time would be as cupcakes?
For cupcakes..15 minutes, check for doneness. no more than 20 minutes and drop the temp to 325° My cupcakes were delicious!!
Great recipes!
I was looking for a good coconut cake recipe for Thanksgiving and came across this recipe.So I decided to try this one. This is a good recipe ,the cake was delicious and the icing is to die for.Thank you
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Shirley. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
Going to make this cake today and was wondering if it’s like a pound cake texture because I don’t like pound cake textured cakes.
Can you use cake flour instead of all purpose flour and if so, would i have to omit any of the other ingredients? Thank you
Just stumbled across this and am making it for Thanksgiving! What kind of milk do you recommend using for the frosting? Thank you!
Love, love, love your recipes!
Hi, does the buttermilk serve any special purpose. Can I bake the cake without the buttermilk, also I wanted to bake the coconut cake without any frosting how can incorporate the coconut in the cake recipe.
Different recipe maybe
Hi there. I commented on your delicious chocolate cake recipe on Saturday (yet never published) … I made it for my husband’s birthday and it turned out great. So now, I have high hopes to make coconut cake for our 1st wedding anniversary. Our wedding cake was an amazing coconut cake and since we did a destination wedding in the Pacific Northwest – we didn’t save any. We just ate it on our travels. Since that chocolate cake recipe was so amazing, I thought I would start my coconut search with you.
So thanks for both of the recipes!
Shia
This recipe is absolutely delicious. This was my very first cake from scratch for my daughter’s birthday. I will definitely use this recipe again. I do have one question, as I am not an avid baker. Since the frosting is made with milk, should I refrigerate the cake over night or is it okay to leave it out?
Thank you for sharing your gift!
Mrs. Hough, you will not need to refrigerate the cake. You can store it at room temperature under a glass cake dome. Hope this helps.