The Best Toasted Coconut Cake

The Best Toasted Coconut Cake| This cake is quick, easy, and super tasty! It is guaranteed to be a hit for your family get-together or church potluck. This would be perfect for the upcoming holidays!

Originally posted April 2019, updated August 2024.

Jump to:

• Toasted Coconut Cake
• More Layer Cakes You'll Love
• Tools
• Ingredients
• How to Make a Toasted Coconut Cake
• Servings Suggestions
• ​More Coconut Recipes
• Recipe

Toasted Coconut Cake

I have been wanting to create a new cake for a while. This coconut cake is a little different though. It has toasted coconut! I think toasting the flakes not only makes it aesthetically more pleasing, but it also adds more of a unique flavor! This cake is quick, easy, and super tasty! It is guaranteed to be a hit. This would be perfect for the upcoming Easter holiday! 

The base for this cake is my basic white cake recipe (vanilla cake). I made a few changes and turned it into coconut-y goodness!

Of course, I switched the extract to coconut and substituted coconut milk instead of regular milk. You could keep the vanilla extract and do both if you want - vanilla always makes everything better. I think this was just enough to make this cake so amazing. It may be the best coconut cake I've ever made from scratch!

Then I topped it with a Creamy Coconut Frosting for an Ultimate Coconut Cake.

More Layer Cakes You'll Love

• Lemon Chiffon Layer Cake Recipe
• The Best Blueberry Birthday Cake Recipe
• Easy Chocolate Chip Cake
• Chocolate Oreo Cake Recipe

Tools

• Large mixing bowl and an electric hand mixer OR
• Stand Mixer with paddle attachment
• Whisk
• Wire rack 
• Cake pans (three 6-inch pans or two 8-inch cake pans)

Ingredients

There is no secret ingredient here - just common ingredients made into fluffy coconut cake layers.

For the Cake

• All-Purpose Flour
• Baking Powder
• Salt
• Butter, at room temperature
• Sugar
• Egg Whites - you can remove the egg yolks using a tool like this, or crack the egg into your hand over a bowl and let the white drip through your fingers while holding the yolk.
• Coconut Extract
• Coconut Milk
• Cake Goop or Cake Release Spray - click below for the homemade cake goop recipe.

For the Buttercream

• Butter
• Powdered Sugar
• Heavy Cream
• Coconut Extract

Toasted Shredded Coconut

• Sweetened Coconut
• Cookie Sheet

Cake Goop

Click in the box below or click here for the Cake Goop recipe.

Homemade Cake Pan Release (ie., Cake Goop or Baker's Joy)

Find the complete recipe with ingredients measurements in the recipe card below.​

How to Make a Toasted Coconut Cake

This Coconut Cake recipe is really easy to make and will be a coconut lover's dream.

Coconut Cake Layers:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Prepare your cake pans with cake goop or cake release. Cover the bottom and sides of the pan. You could also line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper if you like, but it's not necessary if you coat your pans thoroughly with Baker's Joy.
3. To make the cake batter, start by adding all of your dry ingredients to a medium mixing bowl. Give it a quick whisk to combine. Of course, you can also use the bowl of a stand mixer. 
4. Combine all wet ingredients except the milk in a separate bowl.
5. While mixing on medium-high speed, alternate adding the flour mixture and the coconut milk to the wet ingredients mixture. Mix until you get a well-combined, smooth texture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
6. Distribute the batter evenly between three 6-inch prepared pans. 
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack. Once they are cool, level each layer with a cake leveler or large serrated knife. This step is to remove any dome from the top of the cake so you can stack the layers evenly.

Coconut Buttercream

1. Cream together the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Cream for 4-5 minutes on low speed or until light and fluffy. 
2. Add in confectioners sugar one cup at a time while the mixer is on slow speed. 
3. Add in the extract and heavy cream next. Mix on high speed for 4-5 minutes. This will give you more of a "whipped" frosting. 

Toasted Coconut

1. Add 1-½ cups if sweetened coconut flakes into a large baking pan. Heat the pan on medium heat and turn every few minutes to make sure the coconut does not burn on one side. Once the coconut is nice and golden brown you can remove from the pan. For more details, I have an entire post dedicated to Toasted Coconut here. 

To Assemble the Cake Layers

1. Place level cake onto a board or a cake stand. Top with about 1 cup of coconut buttercream and level so that you have an even layer.
2. Add the next cake layer and continue. Add a thin layer of buttercream on the outside of the cake and allow it to chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes, or until the buttercream is set. This is the crumb coat and will keep all of the crumbs contained so they will not show through on your final buttercream layer. On this cake, the sides of the cake aren't so important because we are going to be covering it in coconut anyway! 
3. Apply another thicker layer of buttercream over the entire cake and smooth. Add toasted coconut flakes to the sides while the buttercream is fresh so that it sticks easily.
4. Serve and enjoy! 

Storage Directions

Wrap any extra Toasted Coconut Cream Cake in plastic wrap or store in an airtight container for 3-5 days After this, the cake will start to dry out.

Servings Suggestions

This is a wonderful cake for the holidays, for a party, for a family get-together or potluck. Anywhere you take this cake, everyone is going to love it!

​More Coconut Recipes

• How to Toast Coconut
• The Best One Bowl Coconut Bundt Cake
• Easy Coconut Poke Cake with Sour Cream
• Easy Old-Fashioned Coconut Cake (3 Day Coconut Cake with Cake Mix)
• Delicious Gluten-Free Honey Coconut Cake Recipe
• Coconut Macaroon Cookies

Happy Baking!

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