I’m over the moon about this vegan coconut cake! It came out like a dream.
It has heaps of coconut flavor as well as texture from two cups of dessicated coconut in the cake batter. And then the frosting has a bit of naughty coconut flavor via a quarter cup of coconut rum!
It’s gorgeous and it’s super easy to make too!
I had a minor snafu at first because when I was first trying to formulate the recipe I knew I wanted to put actual coconut in the batter, but I kept on thinking of it as a wet ingredient, which I know (now!) was silly!
So I was trying to replace some of the wet ingredients thinking that the coconut, being dessicated, would surely (or at least, possibly) break down in some way during the baking process and then leave me with a cake that was too wet.
Of course that didn’t happen and I had a cake a that was way too dry! So then I realized what I’m sure all you clever people already knew – of course it’s a dry ingredient because it’s like nuts, it’s a dry ingredient until such time as you process it into something like coconut butter, and then it becomes a wet ingredient, but if you don’t process it, it’s a dry ingredient, like putting nuts into a cake.
So then I stopped trying to compensate for it and used enough coconut oil and coconut milk to create enough moisture for my cake not to come out like a dry brick and then the beauty happened!
I will say though that, as you can see above, the batter is still quite dry, and this is because there are two cups of dessicated coconut that go into the batter, so it thickens the batter up a lot.
As you can see above, the cakes come out quite firm on the tops, I would even say a little ‘crispy’ I was comparing them to cookies. But don’t be put off, it works.
The dessicated coconut bakes into the cake but in the same way that if you added crushed walnuts to a carrot cake they would add delicious crunch to the cake, this adds a crunchy coconut texture and flavor to each bite.
Probably as a result of the added coconut, it’s not a super light and fluffy cake, not like you get with our vegan vanilla cake, or our vegan lemon cake, but what you lose in light and fluffy you gain in delicious coconutty texture and flavor.
And while it may not be super light and fluffy it’s definitely not overly dense either, I think you can see that from the photos. But it has more density than the other cakes mentioned above because of all the added coconut. So it’s sort of dense and fluffy, if that can possibly make sense!
And then it’s topped with the most delicious velvety coconut frosting that gets its coconut flavor from coconut rum and just a dash of coconut milk. And of course loads more dessicated coconut sprinkled everywhere because why wouldn’t you?
So I hope you will love this vegan coconut cake! It is:
- Super coconutty
- Two Layers
- Rich and Decadent
- Topped with Coconut Rum Frosting
- So Easy
Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay deliciously fresh for a few days or covered in the fridge where it will stay fresh for up to a week.
So let us know what you think of this vegan coconut cake in the comments and please rate the recipe too! Thanks!
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Vegan Coconut Cake
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Prep Time: 15 mins - Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 45 minutes
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Yield: 10-12 -
Category: Dessert, Cakes, Baking -
Cuisine: Vegan
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Fabulously coconutty two layered vegan coconut cake topped with a decadent coconut rum frosting. Super easy, moist, fluffy and dense at the same time (I know!) this delicious vegan cake is a total delight to the tastebuds!
Ingredients
For the Coconut Cake:
- 2 and 1/2 cups (312g) + 2 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
- 1 and 1/2 cups (300g) White Sugar
- 2 tsp Baking Soda
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 2 cups (160g) Dessicated Coconut
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) Full Fat Coconut Milk*
- 1/2 cup (120ml) Coconut Oil (Melted)
- 1 Tbsp White Vinegar (or Apple Cider Vinegar)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
For the Coconut Rum Frosting:
- 4 and 1/2 cups (540g) Powdered (Confectioners) Sugar
- 1/2 cup (112g) Vegan Butter
- 1/4 cup (60ml) Malibu Coconut Rum*
- 1 Tbsp Coconut Milk
For Decorating:
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Spray two 8 inch cake pans with non stick spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and then add the sugar, baking soda, salt and dessicated coconut. Mix together.
- Then add in the coconut milk, melted coconut oil, vinegar, and vanilla and stir into a thick batter. Make sure it’s well mixed but be careful not to overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans and spread it out to the edges of the pans with a spatula or the back of a spoon, the batter will be too thick to spread out on its own.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Transfer the cakes to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting by adding the powdered sugar, vegan butter, coconut rum and coconut milk to a mixing bowl and mixing with an electric mixer starting off slow and then gradually increasing speed until thick and smooth. If your frosting is too thick, add a tiny bit more coconut milk, a drop at a time until you reach the right consistency, if it’s too thin add more powdered sugar.
- Frost your cake and decorate it with plenty of dessicated coconut.
Notes
*Use full fat canned coconut milk.
*If you prefer not to use coconut rum, then you can sub the rum for coconut milk.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice (of 12)
- Calories: 664
- Sugar: 70.7g
- Sodium: 432mg
- Fat: 29.4g
- Saturated Fat: 22.3g
- Carbohydrates: 95.3g
- Fiber: 3.2g
- Protein: 4.3g
Decidedly coconutty and flavourful!
★★★★★
Absolutely! 🙂
Delicious. I didn’t find the texture as ‘cookie-like” as the description made it sound, but it was less moist than some cakes. Not in a bad way, though; if that makes sense. Only reason it got 4 stars is because Loving It Vegans other coconut cake is my 5 star cake. Yum!
★★★★
Hi Linda, yes I totally agree with you it’s a bit less moist, from all the coconut in there, so it’s different but not worse for it. Hahaha, I just thought the tops of the cakes looked a little cookie-like, but it’s not that way in texture. I’m not sure what other cake you mean, do you mean our coconut cream pie? Thanks so much for posting and your review! 🙂
May i use fresh grated coconut as we live in the tropics?
If it’s more ‘wet’ than the dried dessicated coconut then no, because it would make the cake too wet, if you experiment with the proportions you may be able to make it work but a straight swap wouldn’t work.
Hello, I love your vegan recipes and I wanted to try making this coconut cake next! Though, I own a 7 inch round cake pan. Do you think this would work as well or is it better to buy and use an 8 inch cake pan for this recipe?
Hi! Yes it would definitely be better if you used 8 inch cake pans for this one. If you used 7 inch cake pans you would need to scale the recipe down by about a third, which can be quite complicated to do and usually requires getting out your calculator! 😂 If you made the recipe as is, with 7 inch cake pans it would result in very tall layers and as the cake pans would be very full it would likely affect how well it bakes in the middle.
Hi. Can I replace vegan butter with something else? Can’t find it here in Holland.
Thank you
Elli
Hi Elli, some people have replaced the vegan butter in my frostings with coconut oil, I also have a homemade vegan butter recipe, but in my view, a storebought vegan butter works best. Usually most countries will have a margarine that doesn’t contain animal products, if you look around. I found this guide to being vegan in Holland and it sounds like there are a couple of brands that are vegan. All the best!
Hello! Can I use shredded coconut flakes instead of desiccated coconut? Can’t wait to try the recipe!
Hi Erica, that should be fine, so long as it’s the dry flakes and not wet coconut, then I think it would work, but I haven’t tried it myself. Since the flakes are much bigger than the dessicated coconut, it would likely not mix in as well and might have more texture, but that isn’t necessarily an issue.
This looks awesome! Can I replace the all purpose flour with all purpose GF flour?
Thanks!
Hi Christine, others have done a straight swap in my recipes and been pleased with the results, but I have usually found that in a straight swap with gluten-free flours the result is a bit too dry, so it can be a good idea to increase the oil as well. If you take a look at my gluten-free vegan chocolate cake recipe I talk a bit about this there. I have not tested this cake as gluten-free, but as a general rule of thumb if you use a bit more oil in gluten-free baking you’ll have a better result. All the best!
Hello.please send me a red velvet cake recipe
★★★★★
Hi Joan, if you use the search button on the site – if you’re on mobile it’s in the drop down menu and if you’re on desktop it’s in the top right hand corner – you can search for whatever recipe you need. You can find our red velvet cake recipe here.
Hello!!! I am so happy to find your recipes! Not only are they low fuss and easy, THEY TASTE AMAZING!!! Can you do another fruit recipe?? I wanted to do something seasonal but I’m in Australia so won’t be the same produce. Keep baking lots of luv Kim
Thank you! So glad you like the recipes! We have done a few fruit recipes, like a fruit salad and a bunch of smoothies, if you just use the search bar you’ll find what we’ve done so far. 🙂
Hi Allison,
Thank you for the recipe. They turned out well; moist and soft.
However, I find the soda flavour overpowering .
Could you advise
Could I substitute with baking powder instead?
Hmm, I don’t know why you are tasting it at all it’s only a small amount for a whole cake, but if you prefer baking powder, you could probably try it but in terms of amounts and other adjustments needed (like you wouldn’t need the vinegar for example) that would be an experiment to get it right, one that I haven’t done myself. 🙂
Hey! This recipe looks delicious, but I only have 9inch cake pans… would this recipe still work?
Hi Alexa, I think it would be fine, the layers are really quite fat for the 8 inch pans so it would just result in thinner layers but I reckon they will still be great! Let us know how it goes if you try it! 🙂
Hi 🙂 I was just wondering would it be possible to either use less sugar or sub for coconut sugar? I want to make this cake for my daughter’s 1st birthday and don’t want to use much refined sugar? Thank you in advance!
Hi Alice! Coconut sugar will darken the color quite a lot, but I don’t think it would be an issue. I haven’t tested it that way, but since it’s also a granulated sugar I don’t see an issue. 🙂
super duper delicious! at first to be honest i was quite tempted to try it. but seriously the taste is over this world, like really, had a piece and still thinking of having another one(lol). and it really has that cookie texture you mentioned.
★★★★★
Hello
I’ve yet to test out your recipe, but it looks great! I have to make a vegan wedding cake. I’d like to use this recipe. Any idea on how long in advance I can make the cake? I’ll let you know how it goes.
While it stays edible up to a week (covered in the fridge) it’s always going to taste best either the day of baking or the next day.
Hi, can I use baking powder instead of baking soda? It gives a sort of metallic taste!
You could try it with baking powder, but I have not tested it that way. If you did, I would use at least 3 and maybe even up to 4 tsp baking powder and you could omit the vinegar. Not sure how it will come out exactly but that should work in theory.
Looks fantastic!
Can I use maple syrup as a sweetener? Like, would 1/2 cup ruin the texture? I’m also using GF flour for baking.
★★★★★
It might be okay since you’re using gf flour which is drier. I am not sure though, but it’s worth a try and I think it might work. 🙂
Thank you! Going to bake this today😍
★★★★★
Hello! I’ll be making this cake for my daughter’s 4th birthday next weekend. I’d like to do a single layer though. Would the batter fit into a 9×13″ pan ok or would I need to adjust measurements?
Hi Cassondra, yes I think this would adapt to a 9×13 sheet cake though I haven’t tried it. It would just bake for a shorter time. If you see our recipe for a vanilla sheet cake, it is a similar recipe (in proportions) and even though that one was done in a half sheet pan, I know it also works for 9×13. I am thinking it would need to bake somewhere in the region of 20-25 minutes (I would check it after 20 minutes and see how it’s doing).
can I use toasted grated coconut 160gm
Hi Lata, sorry I’m really not sure what impact that would have. It might be fine but I just don’t know.
So excited to make this for my mom’s birthday! When using the coconut milk, do I use the cream from the top of the can or the liquid or both?
You just mix it up (shake the can) and use it as it is, no need to separate the cream from the water first.