Coconut Velvet Cake

If you love coconut desserts, this Coconut Velvet Cake belongs on your must-bake list!

Named for its velvety soft texture, this Coconut Velvet Cake has amazing flavor and richness, a fine crumb, and bakes up nice and tall as an impressive three layer 8 inch cake. Don't miss our full collection of velvet cake recipes!

What does Cream Cheese do in Baking?

Like many of our other "velvet cake" recipes (like Lemon Velvet Cake, White Velvet Cake) this cake contains cream cheese as the secret ingredient in the cake batter. The cream cheese really elevates the texture and richness of the cake.

The mild acidity of cream cheese plays a role in softening the strands of gluten in the cake batter, making for a more tender cake. However it seems to be the higher fat content of the cream cheese that gives the cake its creamy, decadent quality.

We used to only use cream cheese in our pound cakes (like our cream cheese pound cake and chocolate cream cheese pound cake) but about a year ago, we started adding cream cheese to some of our layer cake recipes as well and loved the results!

A few of our other "velvet" cakes that contain cream cheese in the cake batter are Vanilla Velvet Cake, Homemade Strawberry Cake. They all have the uniquely soft, decadent quality that we love so much!

What does Buttermilk do for a Cake Recipe?

We often use Buttermilk in our cake recipes as well. As we mentioned above, acidic ingredients act to soften the strands of gluten in cake recipes, which creates a more tender crumb. This is the case with so many of our Buttermilk cake recipes, including our popular Orange Cake, Vanilla Buttermilk Cake and Buttermilk Pound Cake.

Today's Coconut Velvet Cake benefits not only from the addition of the cream cheese in the cake batter, but also from buttermilk- a winning combination for an incredibly moist, rich texture and flavor.

How to Make Coconut Velvet Cake

You can find the full, printable cake recipe card further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of our steps!

First, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and grease & flour three 8 inch cake pans. We like to line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper as well.

1. Flour Mixture: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for 30 seconds and set aside.
2. Buttermilk Mixture: In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, coconut extract, and vanilla extract. Set aside.
3. Butter & Cream Cheese: In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and softened cream cheese and mix at medium speed until smooth.
4. Sugar: Gradually add the granulated sugar and mix at medium speed for 2-3 minutes.
5. Eggs: Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
6. Adding Dry and Wet Ingredients Alternately: With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (We did 3 additions of the dry ingredients, 2 additions of wet ingredients)
7. Fill the Pans: Mix the coconut cake batter just until well combined- be careful not to over-mix. Divide the batter between the three prepared pans.
8. Time to Bake!: Bake at 325 degrees F for 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pans on a wire rack before turning out.
9. This recipe makes 7 ½ cups of batter. Works for cupcakes also (although there will be little to no dome).

Coconut Seven Minute Frosting

Seven minute frosting is so billowy and light, and is often used with coconut cakes! We love the marshmallowy flavor, and the added coconut extract complements our coconut velvet cake layers perfectly.

You can find the full, printable recipe below, but here is a quick rundown of our steps!

1. Make sure the mixing bowl and beaters are clean without a trace of grease. (Any grease will keep the egg whites from increasing to full volume.)
2. Place the egg whites into the bowl of your mixer and add the vanilla extract and coconut extract. Set aside until it's time to beat the whites.
3. In a saucepan, add the water, sugar, cream of tartar (or white corn syrup). Cook on medium/high heat. Do not stir, or stir just enough to distribute the sugar. The mixture will begin to boil and become clear. After it boils for a minute or so, remove from the heat, you will be able to see that the sugar has dissolved.
4. Beat the egg whites and vanilla to the soft peak stage. At soft peak stage, the egg whites will not form peaks but will just fall over, cloud like.
5. With the mixer beating on low speed slowly pour in a small stream of the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites. Increase the mixer to high speed and beat approximately 7 minutes (it could be longer if using a hand mixer) until stiff peaks form (stiff peaks stand straight up).
6. The frosting should be applied to the cooled cake layers soon after making, as it sets up fairly quickly.
7. Makes 5 cups frosting

Assembling the Coconut Velvet Cake

• This coconut cake couldn't be easier to put together! Once the cake layers have cooled, place the first cake layer on the cake base or pedestal.

• Spread with a layer of coconut seven minute frosting. *If you'd like, you can sprinkle with a bit of shredded sweetened coconut as well. (Sweetened coconut is softer than unsweetened).

• Next, add the second coconut velvet cake layer and repeat.

• Top with the third cake layer and frost the top and around the sides of the cake with coconut frosting.

Lightly press a layer of flaked/shredded coconut into the frosting to cover the entire cake. That's it!

If you'd like, you can add additional cake decorations or cake toppers, but we love our coconut-covered cake just as it is ;0)

More Coconut Cakes to Try

If you love coconut desserts, we have more recipes for you to try! We'll share a few more of our favorites below, but you can find our full collection here: 25+ Cakes with Coconut.

Some of our most popular are Coconut Cream Cake, White Chocolate Coconut Cake, Carrot Cake, and Italian Cream Cake!

Enjoy the Recipe

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy the Coconut Velvet Cake. It is a year-round favorite and is also included in our Top 10 Christmas Cake Recipes post as well.

Don't miss our favorite cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes from our cake recipes section!

You can also find hundreds of cake decorating tutorials in our huge collection of free Cake Decorating Tutorials!

Coconut Velvet Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This moist Coconut Velvet Cake is named for its velvety soft texture. It is so tender and decadent, with a luscious coconut seven minute filling and frosting.

Course: Dessert

Servings: 13

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Equipment

• ▢
  Wilton Offset Spatula- 9 inch
• ▢
  Magic Line Pans- 8 inch

Ingredients

• ▢ 8 oz (226g) cream cheese, softened (We used an 8 oz package of full fat cream cheese.)
• ▢ 1 ½ sticks (168g) unsalted butter, softened (Should be soft enough to dent when pressed, but still hold shape.)
• ▢ 2 cups (400g) sugar
• ▢ 4 large eggs, room temperature (Place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes if in a hurry.)
• ▢ 3 cups (342g) cake flour
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
• ▢ 1 cup (242g) buttermilk
• ▢ ¼ cup (54g) vegetable oil (we used canola oil)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) Coconut Extract

For the Coconut Seven Minute Frosting

• ▢ ⅔ cup (150g) water
• ▢ 2 cup (400g) sugar
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Cream of Tartar or 1 Tablespoon white corn syrup
• ▢ 4 egg whites
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) coconut extract- adjust amount to your liking.

Decoration

• ▢ 14 oz 396g package of sweetened flaked coconut onto the top and sides of the cake (We used Bakers brand)

Instructions

For the Coconut Velvet Cake Layers

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8 inch pans, adding a circle of parchment or wax paper to the bottom of each pan.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for 30 seconds and set aside.
• In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, coconut extract, and vanilla extract. Set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and cream cheese and mix at medium speed until smooth.
• Gradually add the sugar and mix at medium speed for 2-3 minutes.
• Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (We did 3 additions of the dry mixture, 2 additions of wet)
• Mix the batter just until well combined- be careful not to over-mix. Divide the batter between the three pans.
• Bake at 325 degrees F for 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pans on a wire rack before turning out.
• This recipe makes 7 ½ cups of batter. Works for cupcakes also (although there will be little to no dome).

For the Coconut Seven Minute Frosting

• Make sure the mixing bowl and beaters are clean without a trace of grease. Any grease will keep the egg whites from increasing to full volume.
• You will be using only the egg whites for this recipe. If a bit of egg yolk happens to get mixed in, the recipe will likely not work as the egg whites won't whip up properly. Place the egg whites into the bowl of your mixer and add the vanilla extract and coconut extract. Set aside until it's time to beat the whites.
• In a saucepan, add the water, sugar, cream of tartar (or white corn syrup). Cook on medium/high heat. Do not stir, or stir just enough to distribute the sugar. You don’t want sugar crystals sticking to the sides of the pan. The mixture will begin to boil and become clear. After it boils for a minute or so, remove from the heat, you will be able to see that the sugar has dissolved.
• Beat the egg whites and vanilla to the soft peak stage. This happens rather quickly. At soft peak stage, the egg whites will not form peaks but will just fall over, cloud like. At this time, with the mixer beating on low speed slowly pour in a small stream of the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites. Avoid hitting the beaters as you pour because the hot syrup could splash onto you. Increase the mixer to high speed and beat approximately 7 minutes ( it could be longer if using a hand mixer) until stiff peaks form (stiff peaks stand straight up).
• The frosting should be used right away as it set up rather quickly. The frosting does not become hard but does form a slight crust. The cake can be kept at room temperature or refrigerated. Leftover frosting can be stored in the refrigerator and remixed, it will still taste good but will be softer and will not hold a stiff peak.
• Makes 5 cups frosting

Assemble the Cake

• Place the first coconut cake layer on a cake pedestal or cake plate.
• Spread with a layer of coconut frosting. You can sprinkle with a bit of flaked coconut if you'd like as an optional step.
• Repeat for the next layer, and top with the last cake layer. Frost the cake with coconut frosting on top and around the sides of the cake.
• Gently press the flaked sweetened coconut all over the cake.

Notes

Substitution for Cake Flour: Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch. Whisk to blend.

Substitution for Buttermilk: Add 1 Tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup. Add milk to the 1 cup mark, stir. Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use.

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