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This is a coconut cake for coconut lovers as it’s made with coconut flour and decorated with coconut on top of a creamy cream cheese frosting.
I had a large pack of desiccated coconut in the cupboard so my mind went to cake. I decided to make a cake in the pan rather than a batch of muffins as it was a Sunday afternoon and I was in a cake mood. Something that you could slice and eat with a fork.
This low carb and gluten free coconut cake is very moist in texture. The Chief Taster was at first surprised that it was coconut flour due to the moistness of the cake. He is still having a love affair with peanut flour and keeps requesting bakes made with it. I bake one killer batch of muffins and I never hear the end of it. There was also a killer roulade cake that is on the repeat request list too. Sometimes you should feel sorry for the Chief Taster as I don’t bake the same thing again and again. On one hand, he gets a variation of dishes and cakes each week and month. On the downside, once he tastes something he loves, he might not see that again until I am in between recipe creating and just feel like baking. I know, just pulls at your heart strings doesn’t it!
I baked the coconut cake in a square baking tin, as I wanted the cake to be sliced into two pieces and sandwiched together. This was easier than finding two sandwich cake tins the same size. Feel free to use another shape cake tin.
Slathered with a delicious cream cheese frosting then covered with desiccated coconut this is a gorgeous coconut cake that will be hard to stop at one piece. Elegant enough for an afternoon tea, delicious enough to have for breakfast when you open the fridge at 7am and a piece is staring right at you!
WATCH THE VIDEO
Coconut Cake with coconut cream cheese frosting
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1/2 Cup coconut flour
- 2 teaspoons Grated cream coconut from a block (optional if you have it)
- 4 tablespoons coconut milk
- 5 eggs separated
- 1/2 cup Erythritol or sugar subsitute
- 1/2 cup Butter softened at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup desiccated coconut unsweetened
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Frosting:
- 3 tablespoons coconut milk
- 8 oz cream cheese softened at room temperature
- 1/2 cup butter softened at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons erythritol ground, preferable
Decoration:
- 1/2 cup desiccated coconut unsweetened
Instructions
Make the Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F degrees.
- Grease a square baking tin and line with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, beat the butter and erythritol together until combined.
- Add the egg yolks, vanilla extract and coconut milk and coconut cream. Mix thoroughly.
- Add the coconut flour, desiccated coconut, salt and baking powder. Stir well.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff.
- Gently fold the egg whites into the cake batter.
- Pour into the cake tin and bake for 20 minutes until golden and firm.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
To Make the Frosting:
- Beat the cream cheese, butter and erythritol together. Add the coconut milk to lightly thin out.
- Beat until smooth. You may want to use a hand blender to smooth any lumps out.
Assemble the cake:
- Place one half of the cake onto of a serving plate.
- Spoon frosting over the half evenly until covered.
- Place the other half on top.
- Cover the top and edges of the cake with the rest of the frosting.
- Sprinkle and press the desiccated coconut onto the frosting.
- Slice and serve!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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This cake turned out awesome! I've only started baking recently and have never tried a coconut cake - it's never been something i really liked. But the husband requested a coconut cake so tried baking it for him for father’s day. He loved it at first bite, and even more after it had been refrigerated!! Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it too. It is moist yet light and not too sweet (I used 1/3 cup Lakanto monk fruit sweetener). Used canned coconut cream in the cake, and also ended-up using coconut cream in the frosting instead or coconut milk. Took the suggestion of baking in a larger rectangular cake tray (used one thats approx. 7.5X8.5”) then halved and stacked the halves - worked great!
Thank you some much for this yummy recipe - will definitely be making it again.
That's great to hear! Thank you for popping by!
Hi - just making the cake now. Am confused as there is no coconut flour in the ingredients list, yet instructions say 'add coconut flour' and you have an Amazon link for coconut flour. I am guessing to add 1/2 cup. Hope it comes out ok. guests for dinner!
It's the first ingredient on the list. Is the recipe card showing correctly on your browser?
My daughter used to really enjoy the Pepperidge Farm coconut cake so when I saw this recipe, I decided to make it for her. I doubled the recipe, baked 2 8X8 cakes, cut those in half and stacked them to make a 4 layer "loaf" cake. It was impressive to look at & very delicious! We both could barely finish 1/2 of a slice each - very rich & filling.
I love the idea of a 4 layer loaf cake! Thanks for posting!
What is coconut from the block means? Please clarify. Thanks.
It's a solid coconut cream but not available in all countries. Coconut cream can be substituted.
After reading the reviews I'm going to add this to my bookmarks and make it! Yum! Thank you ?
Thanks! Let me know how you got on with it!
Made it once last week and it was SOO GOOD. This is officially my favorite keto dessert. About to make a second batch now.
Notes about the frosting: It tastes really cream cheesy on its own when you've made it. It goes well with the cake though. I put a pretty small layer in between the halves and a regular layer on top and used maybe half the icing. For the second batch, I'm just going to use 2/3 the recipe and increase the layer in the middle.
This was delicious! It's very cold here so the fat in the batter got thick very quickly - beating the egg whites was a bit of a waste of time because of this. All the air was squished out while mixing into the rest of the hardening batter. Made the end result flat, but it tasted great and still had a really nice (although more dense) texture anyway. Will make again for sure - especially to try on a warmer day. Was great even as a one layer flat cake. Also, toasting the topping coconut is definitely worth the bother.
Love the tip of toasting the coconut! Thanks!
Angela what if I don't have the grated cream coconut from a block? What can I use? TIA
Put a can of coconut cream in the fridge overnight and scoop the coconut cream from the top.
Hope your next attempt works. My oven has a mind of it's own and cooks at whatever temperature it feels like. It's a gas oven so you might have a different result with electric which is more controllable.
Can’t wait to try... mine is still cooling. One thing I noticed when making the batter, it never said to add the 1/4 cup desiccated coconut. I never realized that until after mine went in the oven. I’m sure it’ll still be great, I just ended up throwing it in the icing.
I made this cake this morning at 5am for my daughter's 40th birthday and everyone loved it- totally yummy! I followed the recipe exactly and wouldn't alter a thing.
thanks
Thank you for your kind review!
This is just what I’ve been looking for! I am really excited, but do you think I could substitute more coconut milk for some of the eggs in this? I just bought several kinds of coconut ingredients, because my kids and I love coconut everything! LOL I think I would make it often,if I didn’t have to use so many eggs each time. 🙂
You can try and it should still work as coconut flour needs moisture!
Just made this today and it's great! I haven't even made the frosting (that may have to wait until next time--and there will definitely be a next time!) For the sweetener I used the Lakanto monk fruit/erythritol blend product. I honestly think I could pass this off as a regular sugar and flour cake. So moist!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This looks and sounds delicious! Can I use coconut oil instead of butter?
Yes you could!
I made this a few months back, just getting around to telling y'all about it. It was in fact amazing and moist. We didn't have a crumb left after family Supper night...( and I'm the only one doing low carb in the family).lol I will make this again and again! By far my favorite low carb cake ever:)
Thanks Shirley! This is one of my favourites too!
What is grated cream coconut from a block?
It's solid cream coconut.
In the directions it says to "add the coconut flour, salt and baking powder" I do not see salt in the list of ingredients. How much salt? I tried a 1/4 tsp and my cake deflated from out 3" tall to about 1" tall when cooled.
I usually use about 1/4 teaspoon
ty maybe you could update the recipe for those that follow after this.
Hello! I’ve been glued to your blog ever since I stumbled upon it. Your recipes look amazingly delicious. What incredible work as well as effort in all of these delectable recipes! I’m going to make your coconut cake tomorrow and was wondering which coconut milk you’re referring to. The Silk Coconut Milk that comes refrigerated in the carton or the caned coconut milk? Also, I live in Colorado - high altitude and dry as can be, no moisture- This will unfortunately play a factor in my baking... what are your thoughts? Should I lower the baking time? Add anything extra to the ingredients so that my cake comes out moist? I know it’s hard to advise if you’ve never lived and tried baking here. I will say that most of my low carb baking (using coconut & almond flour have been quite dry and super crumbly).
Thank you in advance for reading this long email and for your advise?
Hi, I used coconut milk from the cab. I would add more liquid to your cake mixture for the high altitude and lower the baking temperature. Check half way through baking and increase the temperature if that does not work. Hope it works out for you!
Thank you, this does help and hopefully it will work for me. Fingers crossed!
So you used the canned coconut milk?
Yes I do.
Made this today. Have been KETO for about two months now but haven’t been able to be without some sweets and bread substitutes! This looked amazing! I can’t wait to try it! It looks beautiful! I did use the 8x8 baking dish, glass and cut it in half for a double layered cake! So excited!
This cake was awesome! Reminds me of the Alton a brown cake I love so much! I used 1 heaping cup of freshly grated coconut on the top and sides of the cake. I did not put any inside the cake. I also used some homemade coconut extract in the cake and 1/4 t. of the strong coconut flavor from King Arthur Flour. It was so delicious! It was a bit on the thin side. I may try making it with two 8 in. rounds next time and doubling the cake recipe. I think cutting it into 20 pieces would keep it around the same amount of carbs and calories, but I will have to wait till the next time I make it. Thanks for this wonderful recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it Jen! You've made me want to bake this again!
Hello, can I use liquid coconut cream from the can? Also, when you say square tin, do you mean an 8x8 pan or a loaf pan? I would love to make it, but I want to put it in the correct size pan so it works.
Hi, I used an 8x8 inch pan (my trusty brownie pan) and liquid cream from the can should be fine. Hope you enjoy the recipe as much as we did!
Thank you! Looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it!
You are welcome!
Just made this cake it came out super moist An delish, I did add some coconut flavoring an toasted the coconut flakes a bit for the top and added an extra tbs of swerve to the filling, thanks for this recipe.
Thanks! It's one of our favourites! love the toasted coconut flakes touch
Do you think this would work the same if I didn’t use desiccated coconut or the grated coconut cream? I don’t have either.
It would be a bit less of a coconut cake. You could use coconut milk instead of the cream.
how much stevia in powder would be good to use since in the Netherlands is not easy to find the other one?
I would estimate a couple of teaspoons but would add them one at a time and taste the mixture.
Hi, if I want to make a bigger cake, can I just double the ingredients? Thanks!
Of course! Just allow a little more cooking time though.
We made this for Easter - it was FABULOUS! Thank you so much for this recipe! I was so worried the cake would be dry due to the coconut flour, but it was delicious. Everyone raved about this cake. They had no idea it was gluten and sugar free. Thanks again!
You've made my day with your comments! I love it when no one can tell that it's gluten free too!
Really enjoyed this cake, fantastic moist crumb texture! Despite the quantity of eggs, it didn't taste 'eggy' as some low carb cakes do. Wasn't sure how much salt to use in step 5 as I couldn't see it in the ingredients list but I guessed 1/2 tsp which worked fine. The second day I spread it with some low carb raspberry chia seed jam and it was amazing!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Could I use coconut butter for the grated cream coconut?
Can't see why not!
Wow, this looks delicious. I might have to give this a try. Olga
Hope you enjoy it!