“Life’s no piece of cake, mind you, but the recipe’s my own to fool with.”- Haruki Murakami.
Just back from my ultra short vacation by the beach , I can still feel the sand in my feet and the wind in my hair. I love anything and everything “beach” and “tropical” , and that goes for coconuts as well!
Being a true blue south Indian , I doubt there’s ever a time when there s no coconut in my kitchen. Which obviously means that it finds a way into my oven time and again! Like in these cookies. This cake is a more versatile kinda recipe . Its sweet and moist and light. Super duper delicious.
I have made this umpteen times actually . Turns out great every time . Have gobbled up wedges of it plain while reading Perry Mason . Have served it with whipped cream and pineapple compote for a dinner party . Have torted and filled it away to make a glorious birthday cake for a fellow coconut-loving pal.
If you like coconut , there s no way , absolutely no way that you cannot try this one!!
Coconut cake
Ingredients
- 155 grams or 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 200 grams or 1 cup granulated sugar
- 113 grams or 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or essence
- 120 ml or 1/2 cup milk at room temperature
- 3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Line a 8 or 9 inch round cake pan with parchment (bottom and sides) or grease with butter and flour well. Preheat oven to 180 C or 350 F.
- Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Keep aside.
- Beat or cream the butter for 3-5 minutes in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the sugar and beat for another 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one by one and beat each time until well incorporated. Scrape bowl as needed.
- Add the vanilla and beat well.
- Add 1/3rd of the flour mixture and beat at slow speed until combined.
- Add half of the milk and mix . Now repeat with the second 1/3rd of the flour - remaining half of milk - last 1/3rd of flour mixture , beating well after each addition. Scrape the bowl well.
- Add the coconut and mix until well combined.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake at 180 c/ 350 F for 45-50 minutes if using an 8 inch pan and 35-40 minutes if using a 9 inch pan.
- The cake is done when the top springs back when touched , the sides come away and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in the pan for five mins and on a wire rack until completely cool.
Notes
This can be baked in an 8 or 9 by 4 inch loaf pan for 50-55 minutes.
Store in an airtight container for upto 5 days in the refrigerator.
I have used fresh coconut here, but you can use desiccated coconut . If using sweetened , adjust sugar in recipe accordingly.
You could sub coconut milk instead of regular milk, I just prefer the regular milk better!
And oh by the way , this is no coconut “flavoured” cake . This is the real deal . There are loads of coconut bits in each yummy bite .I did say it already… but sweet , moist and super delicious!
Tried this simple recipe over the weekend…awesome as always! Your recipes never fail! It got over in a jiffy! Thank you for sharing such wonderful recipes !
Oh great Anita… Really happy you liked the cake…
Many of my family members don’t take eggs.
Kindly let me know the replacement for eggs in the receipe.
I want to try out all your receipes, will this replacement work on all?
Regards
Swati
Hi Swati…. I havent tried this cake without eggs.. in many cakes , you can replace eggs with curd (1/4 cup thick curd for each egg) with 1 /2 tsp baking soda . There will be some difference in texture though. You can check out some of the eggless cakes i have on the blog and see if you like anything – I have chocolate , vanilla , chocolate chip , mango , strawberry , coffee and red velvet eggless cakes.
That looks soo moist and yummy…will be trying it soon. Can u plz tell whats the height of the pan u used, if have 9 X 2 and 9 X 3, which one wld be better? TIA
Hi Sadia… i would double the recipe and use a 9 x 3 pan … do let me know if you try it !
in the recipe you mentioned to use either 8 or 9 inch round cake pan…so not sure y i need to double the recipe, i don’t mean a 9 X 13 rectangle pan.. i meant a 9 inch round pan with 2 inch or 3 inch height..which one wld be better?
In the picture is the cake I have baked in a 8 inch pan Sadia. Some readers wrote in saying that they didn’t get much height in a 9 inch pan.If you want a higher cake, you could double the recipe. For the same recipe, 9 x 2 inches round pan will be good. Hope you try and like the cake !
Want to try this recipe, just want to know if I can use salted butter for this?
Hi Ankita… Yes u can.. just skip the salt in the recipe..
Hi Akshatha,
Tried this cake now and it’s come out very well. It’s light, moist and soft. Just that I had a cracked top:( How do I rectify that next time?
Thanks for the lovely recipe !!
the cake looks so inviting..one query..if i use desiccated coconut ,do i need to increase milk as it will be on the drier side..
Thank you Usha ! You can use desiccated coconut and the cake will be slightly dry but flavour will still be good. Or you increase the milk by 2 tablespoons or so…
Thank you so much…Will definitely try and let you know.
Hi.. 🙂 can we make layer cakes with this?will it b strong enough 🙂 ?
Yes Maha.. u can surely make layer cakes with this… Might b too soft to carve though …
Can I use dessicated coconut? Is the shredded coconut a fresh coconut used?
Hi Sonal… you can use desiccated as well, i have used fresh shredded coconut as i like the taste better 🙂
Trying to make muffins out of this recipe. What’s the temperature and baking time for the muffins please? ☺
Hey Sushila… At 180 c if you don’t mind domes, or at 160 c if you wanted flatter tops.. I d start checking them at 15 or 16 minutes… Let me know how they turn out please !
Hi Akshatha, Thank you so much for this awesome recipe. I tried this today and it came out very fine. Soft and yummy!
Happy to know that Deepa.. thanks so much for letting me know !!
hi….had tried this cake last weekend. Came out super yumm n moist.
Thanks for such simple and lovely recipe.
Hi Sripriya ! Awesome – happy that you liked the cake and thanks a lot for the great feedback!
Oh this looks so inviting!
Do you think this would work with whole wheat flour by any chance?
Hi Shif. It would work but the texture would differ . You can substitute half the flour for whole wheat and give it a try !
Any replacement for egg
Hi Shobha… U can try it with half cup curd and add a quarter teaspoon baking soda to the flour mix….
Looks great!
Thanks Radhika… I need to take better pics of this cake i think … d pics don’t do it justice!