Delicious Gluten-Free Honey Coconut Cake Recipe + Snowman Cake with Coconut Tutorial (with Video!)

THIS RECIPE IS SPONSORED BY Judee's From Scratch.

This delicious Gluten Free Honey Coconut Cake recipe is perfect for coconut lovers! It has coconut flour, coconut milk, and shredded coconut and it's gluten-free! Plus I'm sharing a full tutorial on how to decorate it to look like a super-cute snowman cake!

While I do not live a gluten-free lifestyle, I do know quality products when I see them and I've been using Judee's products for a little more than a year. 

I first tried Judee's during 2020, when groceries and ingredients were hard to come by in the grocery store. I ordered some Whole Milk Powder to have for 'emergency use' if I couldn't get milk at the store, and wow, I was impressed!

When writing my post about buttermilk, I mentioned Judee's Buttermilk Powder as an option to keep on hand if you don't often use buttermilk in baking. Again, I was in love. 

Judee's From Scratch

Judee's From Scratch products are made in the USA and their goal is to bring fresh, gluten-free, allergy-safe mixes and ingredients to those who want to make and bake from scratch. I love this about Judee's!

So when Judee's reached out to me about doing a recipe and cake, I was thrilled! I recently started making this chocolate cake for clients last year and there was such a great response, I knew having this gluten-free honey coconut cake on my dessert menu would also be a win for my clients!

Gluten Free Honey Coconut Cake

To feature as many Judee's products as I could, I decided to do this Gluten-Free Coconut Cake.

Here are the ingredients you'll need for the cake recipe, the frosting recipe, and the decorations:

• Judee's Products used in this recipe:
  • Sorghum Flour
  • Potato Starch
  • Coconut Flour
  • Honey Sweetener Granules
  • Xanthan Gum
• Baking soda
• Baking Powder
• Fine sea salt
• Vegetable oil
• Eggs
• Coconut milk
• Vanilla extract
• Vanilla bean paste
• Butter
• Shortening
• Pure coconut extract
• Pure vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar
• Coconut milk, as needed
• Flaked Sweetened Coconut
• Satin Ice Gluten-free fondant (I used brown, orange, blue and white)

Here's a video for you to see the recipe being made:

Gluten-Free Coconut Cake Recipe:

If video is not your thing, here are the written instructions:

First, preheat the oven to 350ºF. For a traditional round layer cake, prep two 8-inch cake pans. I grease the pans with non-stick vegetable oil spray, then dust with coconut flour.

Alternatively, you could line the pans with parchment paper if you prefer that method.

To make the snowman, I used a 7-inch cake pan and a 9-inch cake pan. You might also use 6-inch and 8-inch round cake pans (although you may end up with a little extra batter).

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients (flours, starch, sugar cane granules. baking soda, baking powder, and salt). 

Next, pour in the wet ingredients: eggs, oil, coconut milk, and vanilla. Use an electric mixer and beat until smooth. The batter will be thick and sticky and have a less than smooth texture.

Divide the cake batter into each prepared pan and spread it as smooth and evenly as possible.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until firm and springy. A cake tester inserted into the center should come out clean. Cool on a wired rack.

While it's cooling, make the frosting. Cream together the butter, shortening and extracts until it's smooth and light. Add the powdered sugar and a couple of tablespoons of coconut milk and mix. Continue adding milk until you reach the desired consistency (smooth, creamy and easy to spread!).

Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, and Vegan Coconut Cake

If you're looking for the cake to also be dairy-free, you can use plant-based butter in place of the real butter.

For a vegan cake, you can use a vegan egg substitute in place of the real eggs, along with the butter substitute above and you'd be all set.

Substitutions and Tips for this Gluten Free Honey Coconut Cake

• Be sure you use potato starch and not potato flour in this recipe. While potato flour is much higher in nutrition than starch, it is not the product you need for this recipe. To learn more about potato starch vs. potato flour, I recommend reading this post.
• Because I really wanted Judee's products to shine in this cake, I used Judee's Honey Sweetener Granules as the "sugar" in this recipe. However, you could use plain cane sugar (although you'd be removing the honey from the recipe).
• Vegetable oil was my choice for this recipe, but you could easily use corn oil or canola oil if you like, or even olive oil (although olive oil has a stronger flavor).
• For the frosting, I use real butter and shortening. However, as mentioned above, you could use plant-based butter if you like as a substitute for the butter OR the butter and shortening. You could also use palm shortening in place of regular shortening if you like.
• I used Satin Ice fondant to decorate this cake and it is a gluten-free product. Homemade marshmallow fondant would also be a great gluten-free option.

Now, after you have the cakes baked, it's time for the fun stuff - turning your cakes into a Snowman!

How to Decorate a Snowman Cake with Coconut

Here are the instructions for turning your Gluten Free Honey Coconut Cake into an adorable snowman with coconut.

First, lace your cool cakes on a large platter or tray or cardboard cake board, with the smaller 7-inch cake at the top and the larger 9-inch cake at the bottom.

Again, you could also use 6-inch and 8-inch cakes if you like. I know those cake pan sizes are more common. Either way, this is the head and body of your snowman.

Note: Usually I avoid domes on my cakes, but for this snowman cake, I place the cakes flat-side down to use the natural dome of the cake as part of the snowman shape.

Then you'll cover both cakes with vanilla coconut frosting. There's no need to get a super-smooth finish with the white frosting because we're going to finish the cake by covering it with flaked coconut.

Using Fondant for Cake Decorations

For my design, here's the fondant you'll need (change the colors if you like!):

• 6 ounces of blue fondant
• 5 ounces of brown fondant
• 1 ounce of orange fondant
• 3 ounces of white fondant

I prefer homemade marshmallow fondant for most of my cake adventures. But for this cake, I used pre-made fondant which is easily found in grocery stores, big-box stores, and craft stores. Or of course, on Amazon. Whether you make it yourself or use pre-made, fondant is gluten-free so it's the perfect medium for decorating this gluten-free cake!

Note: before you use each color of fondant, you'll want to coat your hands in shortening, then knead the fondant until it's soft and pliable. Also, coat the surface you'll be working on with a thin layer of shortening.

Using a small rolling pin, roll out the blue fondant, cut one straight edge, and place it at an angle on the top of the snowman head. Use a small paring knife to trim the edges.

Break the brown fondant into small sections and roll them into smooth balls for the eyes and buttons.

Sprinkle the flaked coconut all over the snowman and press it into the buttercream. 

Roll the orange fondant into a cone shape and place it on the head for the nose.

Re-knead the leftover blue fondant into a ball, roll it out into a long-thin piece, and then cut it for your scarf. I frayed the ends to give it more texture.

Next, you'll want to make a ball of white fondant for the pom-pom on top of the hat on the snowman's head. Then roll out a thin strip for the trim on the hat. I used my small paring knife to add texture to the trim 🙂

Lastly, roll out two small ropes of brown fondant for the 'stick' arms. I split the ends to give him hands.

And voila - you're done!

If you want to make it a little fancier, you could dust the board with confectioners' sugar or add royal icing snowflakes.

Substitutions for Decorating a Snowman Cake

I used fondant for all of my decorations but you could easily get creative with your decorations! Here are some ideas:

• A real carrot for the nose.
• Gluten-free candies or cookies for your buttons, eyes, etc.
• An orange gumdrop would be a perfect nose and large black gumdrops for the buttons.
• Another fun idea would be to add gluten-free powdered donuts for earmuffs and a fruit snack roll for the scarf or headband. 

More Coconut Recipes:

• Coconut Macaroon Cookies
• Easy Coconut Cake
• German Chocolate Cake Balls
• The Best One-Bowl Coconut Bundt Cake Recipe
• How to Toast Coconut
• Easy Coconut Poke Cake with Sour Cream

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