Orange Coconut Pound Cake

This moist Orange Coconut Pound Cake has the perfect balance of light citrus and coconut flavor. It has a soft, fine crumb and is perfect for all sorts of occasions. Keep this delicious recipe in mind the next time your cravings for pound cake strike!

Ingredients for Orange Coconut Pound Cake

Here is a quick look at the key ingredients for this recipe. You can find the full, printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

• butter (we use unsalted to have more control over the amount of salt in the recipe)
• sugar
• large eggs
• cake flour (makes for a soft crumb as it contains less protein)
• buttermilk makes for a tender cake as well
• coconut extract, orange extract, vanilla
• orange zest for an added layer of citrus flavor.
• flaked coconut (we use sweetened as it is much softer than unsweetened)
• baking powder and salt

How to Make Orange Coconut Pound Cake

• Grease and flour a tube pan. Preheat the oven to 325℉.
• In a separate bowl whisk the dry ingredients to combine: cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside for later.
• Using an electric mixer (paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), cream the softened butter on medium speed until smooth. Next, gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy for 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add the eggs one at a time, blending after each addition until the yolk is incorporated.
• Add the vanilla extract, coconut extract, orange zest, and orange extracts to 1 ¼ cup of buttermilk.
• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture in the mixing bowl. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. I do three additions of dry, alternating with two additions of wet. Mix on low speed just until incorporated.
• Gently fold in the ¾ cup flaked sweetened coconut.

• Scoop batter into the prepared bundt pan.

• Bake at 325℉ for approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes. The cake is done when the cake springs back when the top is lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean (or with just a few moist crumbs attached). *Baking times may vary. Start checking as the timer approaches 1 hour. (See notes for details on pan size/type)
• This makes approximately 8 cups of batter.
• Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out.

Coconut Glaze

We topped the cake off with a simple coconut glaze. We often glaze our pound cakes and bundt cakes to add another layer of flavor, and to dress it up a bit!

You could use coconut extract as we did for a coconut glaze, or if you prefer an orange glaze, simply substitute orange extract.

This simple glaze (based on our vanilla glaze for pound cake) is a combination of powdered sugar, a bit of milk, a pinch of salt, and extract. Too thick? Add a bit more milk. If it is too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar.

Spoon the glaze over the cooled pound cake (or you can use a piping bag or ziplock bag with the corner shipped away). We topped it with a sprinkling of orange zest but flaked coconut would be nice also!

Recipe FAQs

More Pound Cakes to Try

We love pound cake recipes! We've made many over the years- it is impossible to pick a favorite! Some of our most popular are our classic pound cake recipe, buttermilk pound cake, lemon cream cheese pound cake, and coconut pecan pound cake. But there are so many more!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! We hope that you enjoy the recipe. Make sure to check out our full collection of favorite cake recipes and cake decorating tutorials!

Orange Coconut Pound Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This delicious Orange Coconut Pound Cake has the perfect balance of citrus and coconut flavor! It has a soft, fine crumb and is perfect for all sorts of occasions!

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 15

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Ingredients

• ▢ 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (339g)
• ▢ 3 cups (600g) sugar
• ▢ 5 large eggs, room temperature (place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes to speed up the process).
• ▢ 3 cups (342 g) cake flour (Not self rising. We use Swan's Down, bleached)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (2)g baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
• ▢ 1¼ cup (299g) buttermilk
• ▢ 1 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) Coconut Extract
• ▢ 1 tablespoon (12g) orange extract
• ▢ zest of two oranges
• ▢ 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut (75g)(We use Bakers Angel Flake Coconut)

Simple Coconut Glaze

• ▢ 2 cups Confectioners Sugar (230g)
• ▢ 3 to 4 Tablespoons milk (Add more if needed for the consistency you like) (45-60g)
• ▢ Pinch of salt Approximately ¼ teaspoon
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Coconut Extract (Adjust amount to your liking) (4g)

Instructions

• Grease and flour a tube pan. Preheat the oven to 325℉.
• In a separate bowl whisk the cake flour, baking powder, and salt to combine, set aside for later.
• Using an electric mixer (paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Next, gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy for 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add the eggs one at a time, blending after each until the yolk is incorporated.
• Add the vanilla extract, coconut extract, orange zest, and orange extracts to 1 ¼ cup of buttermilk.
• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk to the butter/sugar/egg mixture in the mixing bowl. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. I do three additions of dry, alternating with two additions of wet. Mix on low speed just until incorporated.
• Gently fold in the cup of flaked sweetened coconut.
• Scoop batter into the prepared bundt pan.
• Bake at 325℉ for approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes. The cake is done when the cake springs back when the top is lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean (or with just a few moist crumbs attached). *Baking times may vary. Start checking as the timer approaches 1 hour. (See notes for details on pan size/type)
• This makes approximately 8 cups of batter.
• Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out.

For the Glaze

• Combine the confectioners sugar, milk, coconut extract, and a pinch of salt in a small bowl and stir until smooth.
• Spoon it over the cooled pound cake. If you prefer, you can also spoon the glaze into a disposable piping bag or ziplock bag with the tip/corner snipped away and pipe it over the cake.

Notes

Bundt Pan: Our bundt pan has a baking capacity of 12 cups and measures about 10 inches across. If you are working with a smaller pan, it will take longer to bake. Be careful not to overfill. (General rule of thumb: don't fill pan past ⅔ full)

*If using a light colored bundt pan, you can increase the temp to 350 if you'd like- and then start checking the cake for doneness at about the 50 minute mark- adjust time as needed. 

Freezing: This cake can be frozen. If working in advance, we like to tightly wrap our freshly baked cake in a layer of plastic wrap and foil while the cake is still a bit warm and pop in the freezer. The cake can be frozen for up to three months.

Thawing: Bundt cakes take longer to thaw than cake layers. It is best to move the frozen, wrapped cake to the refrigerator the night before, and then move to the kitchen counter the next morning (still wrapped) to continue thawing for a few hours. If you'd like, you can remove the foil after a condensation has formed.

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