Your sweet tooth has met its dream cake in my old-fashioned coconut buttermilk cake! Creamy, tangy buttermilk and vibrant coconut combine to create an out-of-this-world buttermilk cake that puts to shame all other fruit cake recipes.
You may need more than one slice to fully believe this flavor — go ahead and indulge! Cake recipes won’t tell!
If you’re a coconut nut I hope you’ll try my coconut cupcakes, coconut cake, coconut pound cake, and my coconut sheet cake!
Let’s bake this!
What I Love About This Recipe
I most love that just the name — coconut buttermilk cake — makes my mouth water! Who knew two simple ingredients could be so good together?
- Perfect buttery, chewy texture!
- Coconut flavor at its best
- Great for parties, barbecues, and more
- Crowd favorite!
x
How To Make Coconut Buttermilk Cake Recipe
-
Spray a 9X5-inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-
Make the cake: Combine flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
-
In the bowl of a stand-up mixer, add butter and granulated sugar and beat on medium for 8 minutes.
-
Add vanilla and coconut extract to the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well, scraping down the bowl, after each addition.
-
Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with two- 1/2 cup additions of buttermilk and mix until incorporated.
-
Mix in 1 1/4 cups of the coconut.
-
Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake in preheated oven for about 60 minutes. Allow the cake to cool in the loaf pan set on a wire rack. Remove from pan and allow the cake to cool completely.
-
Make the topping: Spread the remaining 1/4 cup of coconut in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake until the coconut is golden. Remove from oven and cool.
-
In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the remaining buttermilk. Add an additional buttermilk until you reach a nice thick pour-able consistency. Drizzle glaze over completely cooled cake and top with toasted coconut!
Buttermilk Coconut Cake Ingredients
- Buttermilk:Â Buttermilk is a magic baking ingredient. Tangy but creamy, it helps baked goods rise without being overpoweringly sour.
- Coconut Extract: This is very important for the flavor of your cake — get coconut extract, not coconut oil or flavoring. The ratios of the actual flavors vary with each, and coconut extract will give you the smoothest coconut flavor for this cake.
- Ingredient Addition:Â Follow the steps when adding your ingredients! Baking is a science. If you just dump all the ingredients together, you’ll end up with a dense, inedible cake. Remember chemistry!
Tips
- Oven: Do not overbake your cake! If your skewer comes out clean, the cake will be slightly overdone, and you will miss the fabulous moistness the cake is supposed to have. If your oven temperature tends to run a bit hot, either turn it down or check the cake for doneness a few minutes earlier than the recipe calls for.
- Pan: You need a 9X5-inch pan to accommodate the volume of batter in this recipe.
- Glaze: When making the glaze, add the second tablespoon of buttermilk slowly so you can control the thickness of the glaze. You may not need the entire second tablespoon.
Storing + Freezing + Make-Ahead
- How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge? Wrapped or in a container, your cake can sit in the fridge for up to a week, no problem! This is the best storage option if you’ve put the glaze on. It keeps the glaze nice and chilled!
- Can You Freeze This? Yes! This cake stores wonderfully in the freezer. Wrap it in cling wrap or put it in a sealed container, and you can let it sit in the freezer for up to 4 months.
- To thaw, let it sit in the fridge until it’s slice ready. I know a lot of people who like their pound cake a little on the frozen side, so use your judgment!
- Make-Ahead Tips: Unfortunately, like most cake recipes, this cake can’t really be made ahead. Once you start adding one ingredient, the others have to follow soon after! But! This cake does store very well, so if you need to make it a day or two before an event, it can sit at room temperature with no problem — just withhold your glaze until serving if you plan to do that! The dairy in the glaze cannot be outside of the fridge.
- Food Safety: If you’d like more info on food safety check out this link.
More Delicious Cakes To Try
- Sock It To Me Cake
- Lemon Buttermilk Cake
- Berry Chantilly Cake
- Red Velvet Bundt Cake
- Butterfinger Cake
- Hummingbird Cake
- Louisiana Crunch Cake
- Apple Bundt Cake
Craving more delicious recipes? I hope you’ll join our cooking family! Subscribe to Gonna Want Seconds and receive all our latest recipes delivered straight to your inbox! Absolutely free to you and we never share your email address.
Coconut Buttermilk Cake
This Coconut Buttermilk Cake is incredibly moist, tender, and loaded with coconut flavor. The texture is beyond incredible! You're going to love this one!!
Servings: 8 people
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 1/4 cups sweetened shredded coconut
Topping:
- 1 cup powdered sugar sifted
- 2 tablespoons buttermilk
- 1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut divided
Instructions
Cake:
- Spray a 9X5-inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- In a medium bowl combine flour (2Â cups), baking powder (1 1/2Â teaspoons), and salt (1/2Â teaspoon) and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand-up mixer, add butter (1 ½ sticks) and granulated sugar (1 cup) and beat on medium for 8 minutes (Yes, 8 minutes!). Scrape down the bowl as needed.
- Add vanilla (1Â teaspoon) and coconut extract (1/2Â teaspoon) to the bowl. Add the eggs (3Â large) one at a time and mix well, scraping down the bowl, after each addition.
- Set the mixer to low and add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with two-Â 1/2 cup additions of buttermilk (You will be adding 1 cup total of buttermilk), and mix until incorporated.
- Using a large spoon mix in 1 ¼ cups of the coconut.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake in preheated oven for about 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Allow the cake to cool in the loaf pan set on a wire rack. Remove from the pan and allow the cake to cool completely.
Topping:
- Spread the remaining 1/4 cup of coconut in a single layer on a baking sheet. Place in a 350°F (177°C) oven for 5-10 minutes, stirring often, or until the coconut is golden. Remove from oven and cool.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar (1Â cup) and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the remaining buttermilk. Add an additional 1/2 tablespoon of buttermilk a couple of drops at a time until you reach a nice thick pour-able consistency. Drizzle glaze over completely cooled cake and top with toasted coconut!
Fans Also Made:
Notes
- Oven: Do not overbake your cake! If your skewer comes out clean, the cake will be slightly overdone, and you will miss the fabulous moistness the cake is supposed to have. If your oven temperature tends to run a bit hot, either turn it down or check the cake for doneness a few minutes earlier than the recipe calls for.
- Pan: You need a 9X5 inch pan to accommodate the volume of batter in this recipe.
- Glaze: When making the glaze, add the second tablespoon of buttermilk slowly so you can control the thickness of the glaze. You may not need the entire second tablespoon.
© Gonna Want Seconds. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media/website/blog is strictly prohibited.
Source:Â Martha Stewart
This is a great recipe! It passed the hubby test with high accolades! I’ve made many kinds of quick breads over the years, I’ll be putting this one up high on the list to make again!
Wow, thank you so much for your positive review! I’m so happy you and your hubby liked this!
I was imagining it with a layer of pineapple filling and graham cracker crumbley brown sugar toasted coconut streusel under that glaze.
This recipe sounds fabulous. I’m going to try it soon.
The instructions says to bake in 9×5 loaf pan, but I read somewhere and it said don’t even think about putting it in a loaf pan. So I was confused on the size pan to use.
Hi Kathi, so I’ve only made these in a loaf pan and have had fabulous results.
Hi! I haven’t made the cake yet but it is a definite candidate for Easter this year. I like the idea of it being smaller, too – there will probably only be three of us. Question: the recipe calls for sweetened coconut and I am wondering – would it make a difference if I used unsweetened coconut? If I did, would I need to add some more sugar? Not sure you’ve tried it like that so no worries – I don’t mind experimenting!
Hi Jennifer. I haven’t tried it that way. One thing I do find is that the sweetened coconut seems to be more moist than unsweetened. I’m sure it will work, though. Let me know how it goes if you try it! It’s a really lovely cake with an amazing texture!!!
I love every ingredient in this cake
Thanks, Nadia!
Very good taste with a few changes. I subbed gluten free flour ( King Arthur Measure for Measure) and used Swerve sugar (at a much lower measure). The cake came out great.
Oooh that’s awesome, nancy! 😀 Happy to hear you like it!
This recipe looks great, want to try it, can I use 1 cup of coconut flour and 1 of regular flour?
Hi Marcela. Gosh, I’m not sure what the would be. Sorry, I haven’t used coconut flour in this recipe <3
You can’t . Coconut flour is very absorbent. The cake will not be the same.
Hi…this recipe looks really great want to try it…but is it possible for you to give the cup measurements in grams…it wld really be helpful
Hi, Tejaswini.
Conversion:
169.5 grams unsalted butter
250 grams all-purpose flour
6.65 grams baking powder
2.1 grams salt
201 grams granulated sugar
4.2 grams vanilla extract
2.1 grams coconut extract
3 large eggs
245 grams buttermilk
160 grams sweetened shredded coconut
Coconut Cake is my favorite. They are known for their moist, crumbly texture and this cake delivered the perfect results. I followed your recipe precisely and it was spot on. I have one other coconut cake recipe that I’ve always used, but this recipe is just as delicious. The texture is perfect! The taste is amazing. I didn’t even put the glaze on top. My husband loved it. I find that most cakes that have buttermilk as one of the ingredients gives the cake a good balance of fat and moistness. This recipe is going to be a regular in our home. Thanks for posting – we love it!
Thanks, Debbie! 😀 So glad to hear you and your hubby loved it!
I made this cake according to directions other than an additional 1/2 t coconut extract and it tastes good but the texture is very disappointing. It crumbles when cut, it doesn’t hold up to slicing like a regular pound cake. I found it to be a tad bit dry too.
Hi CA. Gosh, dry is the last thing I’d call this cake. Honestly, I’m crazy about its texture too. I totally agree that it’s not as firm when cut as a standard pound cake would be. I’m sorry I can’t be of any help. I wish it had worked out better for you. NO worries though we have lots more coconut cakes to try <3
Very good cake but way overdone when I took out of oven at 52 min. My oven is spot on with oven thermometer. I will try 40 – 45 min next time.
Hi Mirian. I’m so sorry the baking time was off for you! I know how disappointing that is! Thank you for letting everyone know.
Don’t you think you should list the coconut that goes into the cake under “cake” instead of “topping”?
Hi Lucinda! You are absolutely right! Thank you so much for your suggestion. I’ve amended the recipe instructions to reflect that. Have you made this cake? We’d love to hear back from you if you do. It really is a fabulous cake! <3 Thank you again!
Is there any other type of baking pan I can use? Would a bundt pan or a tube pan work?
Hi Crystal! I haven’t made this in any other types of pans. Sorry!
I was wondering if you could make mini cakes and how long would you bake them. I’d like to give them as gifts. I bought 6 mini pound cake loafs, and thought it would a great gift. Everyone that’s tasted it, loves it.
I made this cake two times in one day. The first time I thought I forgot to include the powered sugar in the batter and added it after creaming the butter and granulated sugar. I didn’t understand that the powdered sugar was only for the glaze and not to be included in the batter. I used the 9×5 pan and it overflowed. So I made it again, and again I used both the granulated and powdered sugar in the batter, but used two smaller loaf pans. It came out really good, but I think it would have been better if I did not use the powdered sugar in the batter. This needs to be clear on your recipe to just use the powdered sugar only for the glaze and not include it in the batter. No one but me knows the mistake and loved it anyway. Please clarify on your recipe about the use of the powdered sugar. Maybe that’s what caused the overflow.
Hi Terry. I’m sorry the instructions confused you. I’ve gone back and labeled the sugar as granulated sugar. Hopefully that makes things clearer 😉 Thank you for your input!