This is a cake of your dreams! If you dream of coconut and white chocolate, of course. Soft, moist layered coconut cake made with coconut milk and coconut flakes. It’s filled with fluffy white chocolate frosting and topped with white chocolate ganache and more coconut flakes.
Coconut Cake
Sometimes a girl just needs some cake!
Or apparently, my subconscious thought that I needed some cake. I was laying on the couch last week, half asleep, after my loving son dragged me out of bed at 6:30 am. I was definitely not awake yet and was going in and out of sleep, but I was still thinking about what I needed to do that day. I was planning all the recipes that I wanted to get done and debating if I wanted to bake something sweet.
All of a sudden, this “naked” coconut cake jumps out at me. I knew that second that I will not calm down until I make this coconut cake. Since most of my family adores coconut and white chocolate, this cake was meant to be loaded with those flavors. I was completely awake with excitement at that moment and jumped right up to start making it.
I had everything planned as I started on the cake, except for the frosting. It took me a while to decide if I wanted to make white chocolate buttercream, or white chocolate cream cheese frosting. Half way through making of the cake, I realized that I really didn’t want to make that decision, so I made it both…AND, I threw in some marshmallow fluff for good measure.
Seriously, the BEST frosting I have ever tried!
White Chocolate Coconut Cake
Ingredients
- Cake:
- ¾ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 3 eggs room temperature
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup coconut milk can
- 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
- Frosting:
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
- 8 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 7 oz jar marshmallow fluff
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 4 oz baking white chocolate bar
- White Chocolate Ganache:
- 4 oz baking white chocolate bar
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
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- 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes for topping
Instructions
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Cake:
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Preheat oven to 350. Grease and lightly flour 3, 8-inch round baking pans. (To flour the pans: grease with cooking spray then add some flour. Pat baking pan so that it's lightly covered in flour all over the inside, then turn the pan upside down and lightly pat to discard loose flour. **I do recommend using 3 of the same cake pans at a time because it will be much easier to divide all the batter equally among the pans.)
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Have all your ingredients ready.
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Beat butter in the electric mixer on high, for about a minute. Add sugar and beat for another minute or two, until light and fluffy.
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Add eggs, one at a time, beating on medium-high speed after each addition. Add vanilla extract.
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Sift flour, baking powder and salt together.
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Lower the speed to low and add a third the flour mixture, mix until just combined.
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Add coconut milk, mix just until incorporated.
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Add another third of the flour mixture, mix just until incorporated.
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Add half the whole milk, mix just until incorporated.
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Add remaining flour and after it's just incorporated, add remaining milk.
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Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl and mix until all ingredients are just combined.
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Stir in coconut flakes.
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Separate the batter between the 3 baking pans, evenly. Pat filled baking pans gently on the counter to get rid of any formed air pockets. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Take out and let the cakes rest of the counter for 10 minutes.
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Carefully run a butter knife between sides of the cake pan and the cake. Let the cakes cool for about 10 minutes and then take them out of the pans. Let them cool completely on a rack before adding frosting or it will melt.
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Frosting:
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In a bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter for a couple of minutes on medium-high speed. Add cream cheese and continue to beat it for 2-3 more minutes.
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Meanwhile, melt baking chocolate in a microwave (30-45 at a time, on half the power). Stir and let cool just a little bit.
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Lower the speed and add powder sugar, mix until incorporated and raise the speed again.
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Add melted white chocolate and marshmallow fluff to the mixing bowl, and mix. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl. Beat for a couple extra minutes. (You may want to place the frosting into the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.)
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Once the cake layers are cooled completely...
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Spread a third of the frosting on the bottom layer of the cake. Top off with another cake layer.
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Spread another third of frosting on the bottom of the second cake layer. Top off with the third cake layer.
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Spread remaining frosting on top of the third cake layer.
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Ganache:
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Chop white baking chocolate and place it into a small bowl.
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Bring heavy cream to simmer, be careful not to let it actually boil or it will raise.
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Pour ¼ cup of boiling cream over the chopped white chocolate and stir with a whisk until melted and smooth. (If you notice your chocolate is not melting as well, pop it into the microwave for 15 seconds on half the power. Whisk until smooth.)
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Pour white chocolate ganache over the cake and let it drip down the sides.
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Sprinkle coconut flakes over the top of the cake.
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I recommend putting the cake in the fridge for about 2 hours to settle. (To secure the layers, you can stick a long wooden skewer in the center of the cake.
Recipe Notes
Recipe from Lyuba @ willcookforsmiles.com All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to share this recipe, please simply link back to this post for the recipe. Thank you.
Check out these great recipes from other bloggers:
Key Lime Pie Layered Cake from Live Love and Sugar
Samoa Bundt Cake from Spicy Southern Kitchen
Fluffy Brown Sugar Icing from I Wash…You Dry
Best Carrot Cake from Mom on Timeout
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Some More Recipes From Me:
Linda Wedgeworth
Hi Lyuba,
This cake sounds amazing and I have already planned to use it for my sister-in-laws next birthday. My question is about step #21 on the recipe. The number is there however, there are no instructions?
I love your blog, keep up the good work and good luck with your little one.
lyuba
Hi Linda! Thank you so much.
I actually put the line there to try and separate the steps. Is it confusing? If it’s confusing, I will take it out and try another way. Sorry about that.
I hope that everyone will like the cake 🙂
Marisa Franca @ All Our Way
I really love coconut.I didn’t get a chance to appreciate it until I was much older because my mamma didn’t care for coconut so we never had it. I certainly made up for my coconut love once I had a family of my own. YUM!! This cake looks so moist and the icing looks amazing. Do you have any left ?????? Have a great day.
lyuba
Oh gosh, we polished this bad boy so fast, it didn’t even last two days 🙂
I certainly eat enough coconut for more than one person. I love it.
Thank you so much, Marisa!
Sue
I made this today and I have to say the cake was a little dense but the flavor was good. I didn’t have 3 8″ cake pans so I made it with 2-9″ pans. The frosting was out of this world amazing though.
lyuba
Oh no 🙁 I’m sorry it was a little dense for you! I wish I could tell you may be a better time to keep it in the oven but I haven’t made it in 2 9-inch pans before. The only thing I could think of is either underdone and a bit deflated or overdone.
I’m really glad you liked the flavors and the frosting!
Thank you, Sue 🙂
kristine
is there a video for this cake?thank you!
Lyuba
Kristine, sorry for the late response. I do not have a video, yet. I’ll be working on it very soon.