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
Does this need to be refrigerated?
Marie, you will not need to refrigerate the cake. You can store it at room temperature under a glass cake dome. Hope this helps.
I made this cake and took it to the office Friday for cake day. It was devoured, I was receiving compliments all day. My only variation was I toasted a handful of the coconut and put it on top for a little contrast.
The icing recipe will be my new go to, its so creamy and delicious. The icing is easy to work with and just make the whole bake a pleasure.
I love this cake!
Sorry I can’t include a picture, It saved in my favorite photos on my phone though.
That’s great. So glad everyone loved the cake. I love how easy and delicious this frosting recipe is, too.
Yummy! First time trying and everyone loved it. The recipe makes more frosting than necessary. Also, I wasn’t sure if the recipe was instructing me to mix some flakes with the frosting or not. So, I only added flakes to the frosting when covering the sides, and then I covered the whole cake with organic flakes, including the sides.
Making another tomorrow.
I’m happy you loved the cake, Lisa. I don’t add coconut to the frosting; I just sprinkle on the top and press into sides of cake.
Can I use cake flour instead of all purpose flour?
Tonya, you can use cake flour if you prefer. I hope you enjoy the cake!
I’m about to add the coconut to the frosted cake. Is there an easy way to do this without having coconut all over?
Diane, you can sprinkle the coconut on the tops of the layers and then hold the coconut in your hand and press against the sides of the cake gently.
Does it really require 8 CUPS of powdered sugar?? Just checking before I commit… sounds a little nuts, so pls weigh in!
I do use 8 cups of powdered sugar in this frosting, Suz. It makes enough frosting to generously frost this 3 layer cake. Hope you enjoy!
This was definitely a hit oh, I use unsweetened coconut milk and use two teaspoons of coconut extract. Do you mind if I share this with my customers? I am a baker. Only if I can post a picture of the results. 😁
Have you tried making this cake with unsweetened coconut milk instead of buttermilk?
I haven’t made this coconut cake with unsweetened coconut milk but for this recipe, you will need to make an unsweetened coconut buttermilk. Just follow my Homemade Buttermilk Substitute Recipe. You will just use the same amount of unsweetened coconut milk as the whole milk in the recipe.
Can you use any flavoring for this cake recipe.
Hi Latoier,
I know you can use vanilla and coconut extracts for this cake with great flavor. Those are the only ones I have used.
Can I use sweetened cocoanut? That’s what I bought.