Grain free and delicious, this coconut flour cake is sure to be a crowd pleaser!
This coconut flour cake recipe can be made as a sheet cake, cupcakes or in 2-8inch round pans. I have frosting recipes that I just love with this cake that you can find below. One is a traditional butter cream coconut frosting and the other is dairy free!
Coconut Flour Cake
Ingredients
- 5 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup of coconut cream (this is the thick cream on top of canned coconut milk)
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon coconut extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons coconut flour
- 1 1/2 cup rapadura
- 2 tablespoons baking powder (or homemade grain free baking powder)
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 10 tablespoons butter (1 1/4 stick) or coconut oil, cut into 10 pieces and softened
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Whisk egg whites, coconut cream, whole egg, and extracts together in a large bowl until combined. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl mix coconut flour, rapadura (or other natural sugar), baking powder and salt together.
- Using an electric mixer, combing flour mixture with butter pieces or coconut oil, one tablespoon at a time. Add 1 cup of egg mixture, increase the speed to medium-high, and beat until light and semi fluffy. Add the remaining egg mixture in a steady stream and continue to beat until the batter is combined. Mix in shredded coconut.
- Pour batter into two 8 inch greased pans, one 9×13 pan, or cup cake pan (makes 12 cupcakes).
- Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out with a few crumbs attached. The cake will be very golden brown. Let cool before frosting.
- Frost cooled cake. Top with toasted coconut and serve!
Coconut Frosting
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons raw cream
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon coconut extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 sticks of butter, softened
- 1/4 cup coconut cream (thick cream on top of canned coconut milk)
- 3 cups powdered coconut sugar (Use a food processor to powder rapadura)
Instructions
- Stir the cream, extracts, and salt together until the salt dissolves.
- Beat in the butter and coconut cream in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until smooth.
- Reduce speed to low-medium, slowly add sugar and beat until smooth.
- Beat in cream mixture. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, 4-6 minutes.
Dairy Free Coconut Frosting
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup homemade coconut butter or coconut cream concentrate, room temp
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons raw honey or maple syrup (add more if it’s not sweet enough for you)
- Coconut cream or coconut milk
Instructions
- Use food processor to soften the coconut butter.
- Add vanilla and sweetener.
- Process until combined.
- Add some coconut cream or coconut milk to thin to desired consistency.
- Refrigerate until frosting is a little harder and spreadable.
I’ve made this cake twice! Coconut cake is my husbands favorite! I used Erythritol for the sweetener as I a medium diabetic and he watches his carbs. I made a cream cheese frosting and sprinkle unsweetened coconut flakes over the top. This is a HUGE win in our book!
Hi,
What is another measurement for 2 sticks of butter in the frosting?
In Australia we don’t use this measurement.
Thanks for your clarification.
8 ounces of butter 🙂
I wish it was egg free!
Hi,
Can I use ricotta cheese instead of butter?
Thanks
I haven’t tried this recipe with ricotta so I can’t say for sure! Please let me know how it turns out if you do!
Hi, Tiffany!
Just wanted to stop by and say thank you, because I used this recipe for my daughter’s birthday cake and it turned out soft and delicious! Was able to decorate it with fondant and everything!
I think the brand of coconut flour you use has a lot to do with the result, I used King’s Arthur and it’s super fine.
★★★★★
Has anyone tried this using whole eggs in place of the egg whites? Just curious if it would work, but don’t want to waste a bunch of ingredients if it doesn’t turn out..
This is the absolute best coconut flour cake I have had. I made it for a birthday cake and it was delicious. Everyone at the party raved over it. On the top I used toasted coconut chips from Costco. It looked beautiful too. My only problem was that I couldn’t get it out of the pan. I tried and it started to crumble so I just left them in the pan. Still just as delicious.
This looks way too delicious to be healthy but it is healthy!!! Yum!!! i’ve got one question: is there a good diy recipe on how to make coconut extract??
Hi!
What is this ‘homemade grain free baking powder’ you are talking about?? I’m curious. I’m on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for Chrohn’s and baking powder is out (which makes it difficult in baking fluffy/risen goods.
Thanks for you time!
The cake looks great and I will be sure to try it out 🙂
Is there a way to sweeten this cake with stevia extract or possibly fruit instead of rapadura?
I would have to test that out. I’m not sure. I haven’t had a lot of luck with stevia in recipes which is one of the reasons I don’t use it much. Fruit could work. Maybe use soaked and pureed dates? Let me know if you try it out! 🙂
This cake looks so yummy….but there is a lot of sugar going into this and at 4G for 1tsp of Rapadura Unbleached Unrefined Organic Sugar, the total sugar amount for this cake at 288G…yikes!! Correct me if I’m wrong…but that’s a lot of sugar!
Hi Becca! Yes, If you’re making this with the frosting there will be more sugar. Whipped coconut cream with a few drops of stevia or monk fruit and vanilla will work well too! https://thecoconutmama.com/coconut-whipped-cream/
I used Erythritol. Worked perfectly.
Thanks, Kay!
I think you are mistaken with the “dairy free” label. 5 large eggs is not dairy free.
Dairy refers to dairy products from cows/goat milk, cream, butter, yogurt…. Eggs are not a form of dairy. 🙂
Very tasty, I used 1 cup of sugar and still found it too sweet…will try half cup next time…I found the batter was the consistency of cookies, very dry, certainly not what my experience of a cake batter is..so I added the juice of soaked dried fruit…it looked great in the tin, but came out in a soft crumble so I moulded it into a volcano for my sons birthday cake…wonderful! I will try beating the egg whites seperately as well to get more fluff…I look forward to another try!
I made this cake tonight and it is one of the moistest coconut flour cakes I’ve encountered. However, I would recommend cutting down the sugar to 1 cup as I found it a tad bit too sweet. Otherwise, great recipe!
Thanks for the feedback, Sierra! I will test the recipe out with 1 cup of sweetener and see how it works. It has been a while since I have made this cake 🙂
Can I make this with coconut sugar instead?
Holy cake eating mecca!
THis looks DIVINE! cake of the gluten free gods kind of goodness!
Cannot wait to have time to make it!
BLessings
http://bit.ly/odzYCI
Thanks for linking your great post to FAT TUESDAY. I just love all your recipes! Hope to see you next week! Be sure to visit RealFoodForager.com on Sunday for
Sunday Snippets – your post from Fat Tuesday may be featured there!
http://realfoodforager.com/2011/09/fat-tuesday-september-27-2011/
Hi,
This post is so informative. I would love for you to come
share it at FAT TUESDAY. I hope you will
put FAT TUESDAY on your list of carnivals to visit
and link to each week!
http://realfoodforager.com/2011/09/fat-tuesday-september-27-2011/
I love the sound of this wonderful cake, Tiffany. It has so many wholesome ingredients and sounds SO good! It also looks very pretty – it would make a perfect birthday cake, especially as it is suitable for virtually everyone regardless of their dietary restrictions. I'd love it if you would share it at The Gallery of Favorites this weekend if you have time. Have a lovely weekend.
My dad LOVES coconut cake and I'm trying to get him to change his diet with us! Thanks for this, he's gonna LOVE it!
@ Melissa – The only dairy in the cake is butter, which I wrote can be substituted for coconut oil =)
And then there is a dairy free option for the frosting below too!
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
I am looking forward to trying the Chocolate Coconut Clusters – and the Winter Squash Soup – and- and- and – probably all the recipes!! They ALL sound delicious!
Am I missing the dairy free option on the cake? I see the frosting dairy free option. My son has a dairy allergy, would love to try this. Thanks.
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