Deliciously perfect vegan coconut cake from scratch! Paired with a vegan coconut cream frosting. Simple to make and looks so professional!
I rarely share personal stories on our site, but this is one I wanted to share for this vegan coconut cake recipe.
Coconut, in my opinion, gets a bad rap. It’s not usually one of those hate it or love it foods that people immediately think of; however, it is completely a hate it or love it food. So many people have said that they just can’t stand the taste or smell of coconut anything.
I thought growing up, that I was one of those people. My mom didn’t like coconut and therefore by default, I didn’t like coconut either.
I remember that at almost every gathering or holiday, my grandmother would make a coconut cake. For years and years, I would never try it because, by default, I didn’t like coconut.
I was well into my 20s before I would actually ever end up tasting that cake and I immediately regretted all my life’s choices. How did my mom not like this cake? It was delicious.
Today, we are recreating for you a vegan coconut cake that reminds me perfectly of my grandmas’s cake, without adding in any dairy or eggs.
Watch How to Make Vegan Coconut Cake:
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What ingredients do you need for Vegan Coconut Cake?
There are 2 parts to this recipe: the cake and the frosting. For this recipe you need the following ingredients:
- Cake flour (can sub all purpose)
- Vegan sugar
- Dairy Free butter
- Unsweetened applesauce
- Vanilla extract
- Almond extract
- Coconut extract
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Full fat coconut milk
- apple cider vinegar
- powdered sugar
- dairy free milk
- coconut flakes
How do you make Vegan Coconut Cake?
Even though this egg free coconut cake looks fancy, it’s actually very easy to make.
To start, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Roll out parchment paper and trace around the bottom of 2 9-inch round cake pans. Cut out the circles and place at the bottom of your pans. Using butter or coconut oil, grease the sides of your pans liberally. Lightly dust with flour all around. Set aside.
In a bowl, sift together your flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar for 3-5 minutes. Because most vegan sugars are more coarse, don’t skip this step. The length of time is important to break down the sugar.
Next, add in the applesauce and mix just until combined. Then add the extracts and mix again.
Pour the canned coconut milk and apple cider vinegar together in a small bowl.
Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the coconut milk mixture. Mixing just until combined. See video if you need more direction on doing this.
Fold in coconut flakes.
Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven. Let the cakes cool for 30 minutes in the pan. Then, turn them onto a baking rack to finish cooling completely before frosting.
Tip: If you need to speed this process up, you can let cool for 10 minutes, flip out, wrap cakes with saran wrap and place in freezer until cool. Usually about 30-45 minutes total. Wrapping them keeps the heat in and stay moist.
For the frosting – Combine powdered sugar and softened vegan butter in a bowl with a mixer. Then, add in the extracts and mix together. Finally, Add in one tablespoon of milk at a time until you get your desired spreadable consistency.
Spread a layer of frosting between the cakes and then all around your cakes. Carefully pat handfuls of coconut flakes onto your cake.
*We left the top of the cake in the photos open so you could see the frosting; however, you can put coconut flakes over the entire cake.
Can I make this Top 8 Allergy Friendly?
You can swap out the flour for Measure for Measure flour from King Arthur. (Note, we haven’t ourselves made this vegan coconut cake gluten free; however, we’ve had successful trails work with this flour.
The butter should be soy free. Earth Balance Soy Free in the red tub is out favorite for that.
Any dairy free milk can be used.
If you are in the US, then coconut is a tree nut allergy; however, if you are in other parts of the world, it is not.
Therefore, technically, you can’t make this Top 8 Allergen free because coconut is not a swappable ingredients. Otherwise, besides the coconut, it is am allergen friendly cake!
Can you prep Dairy Free Coconut Cake ahead of time?
This vegan coconut cake lasts best stored covered in an air tight container or cake stand for 4-5 days! The bigger issue is let’s see if you can make it early and not delve into it! Yum!
WHAT ARE OTHER VEGAN CAKE RECIPES THAT I SHOULD TRY?
Just because you have food allergies or preferences, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be able to have great tasting desserts. We’d even venture to say that these are better than their “normal” counterparts. These are some other dairy free cake recipes that you should try:
- Vegan Strawberry Cake
- The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Carrot Cake
- Vegan Lemon Pound Cake
- Try these vegan vanilla cupcakes in a cake pan
- Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Cake
Pin this Vegan Coconut Cake for later:
Vegan Coconut Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 3 cups cake flour (can sub all purpose or GF- See post notes)
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups vegan sugar
- ¾ cup vegan butter
- 1 cup + 1 tablespoon unsweetened applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract (*If almond allergy, omit)
- 1 teaspoon coconut extract
- 1 can full fat coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup coconut flakes
For the frosting
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- ⅔ cup vegan butter, softened
- 2-4 tablespoon dairy free milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon coconut extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 12 oz coconut flakes (may not need all)
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Roll out parchment paper and trace around the bottom of 2 9-inch round cake pans. Cut out the circles and place at the bottom of your pans.
- Grease the sides of pans liberally (spread butter or coconut oil). Lightly dust with flour all around. Set aside.
- In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar for 3-5 minutes.
- Add in applesauce and mix just until combined.
- Add the extracts and mix again.
- Pour the canned coconut milk and apple cider vinegar together in a separate bowl.
- Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk. Mixing just until combined.
- Fold in ½ cup coconut flakes.
- Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven. Let the cakes cool for 30 minutes in the pan. Then, turn them onto a baking rack to finish cooling completely before frosting. (*See post notes if need faster).
For the Frosting
- Combine powdered sugar and softened vegan butter in a bowl with a mixer. Add in the extracts and mix together. Add in one tablespoon of milk at a time until you get your desired spreadable consistency.
- Spread a layer of frosting between the cakes and then all around the cake.
- Carefully pat handfuls of coconut flakes onto cake.
- Store cake covered at room temperature for 4-5 days.
Skye Lucking
This will now be my go-to cake. Forevah.
LarishaBernard
So happy to hear you enjoyed it
Elizabeth
Hey, so looking forward to trying this. I’m planning on making this for Thanksgiving/Birthday celebration. I’ll need to make it several days in advance as we are traveling. I know the recipe says it will keep 4-5 days at room temperature, but just wondering if you have any other tips on keeping it fresh for several days.
LarishaBernard
Make the cake and frosting. We’d recommend waiting to frosting until the day off. However, if you can’t then we’d recommend keeping it in the fridge or freezer.
Sirius
I don’t have coconut extract so I omitted it. So mine was not as coconutty as how I wanted it to be, but still very delicious. Thank you for this recipe!
LarishaBernard
You’re so welcome. Glad you enjoyed!
Shikhar
For the frosting, I added 3 cups sugar and it was still too sweet. Is the measurement correct?
LarishaBernard
It’s correct, feel free to reduce if you want
NashaLeeMusic
This cake was phenomenal!! It got the spot that was screaming for coconut!!!!! If you haven’t tried it you must!!!! Thank you
LarishaBernard
We love this! thank you for taking the time to leave a review! We really appreciate it.
Madhumita
Made this for my daughters birthday and it was perfect! Will be making this often now!!
LarishaBernard
So happy to hear you enjoyed it. Happy birthday to your daughter! We really appreciate you taking the time to leave a review! Have a great day!
Becca
My aunt made this for my papaw for his birthday last week. I have been going into a more plant based vegan lifestyle and I thought this cake was store bought or a mix!!! Its soooooo good!!! I FINALLY got the recipe!!! And I’ll be making it myself soon enough but jus getting to try it. Omg. I will be definitely be stopping in for more of yall treats!!!!
LarishaBernard
So happy to hear that. Thanks for taking time to leave a review! Happy birthday to your papaw!
Briana
Sweetened or unsweetened coconut flakes?
LarishaBernard
Unsweetened, the cake is already sweet enough!
Alexis
This is honestly the BEST vegan cake recipe out there! Vegan or not this was undeniably DELICIOUS! With most vegan cake recipes the cake comes out super dense almost like bread, not this one! This was moist, fluffy and had a great flavor! I added lemon juice to my icing to give a cheesecake flavor and it was so good! Thank you for this ❤️
LarishaBernard
So happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks for leaving a review!
Catherine
This is THE best vegan coconut cake have ever had…I. my life. It was decadent and delicious. Lots of coconut flavor. Be careful with using non-alcohol coconut flavor. It has an oil base unlike the extract and can make the frosting a bit oily. Its great for the actual cake as it lends moisture. 😉
LarishaBernard
We’re so happy to hear you liked it! Thanks for taking time out of your day to leave a review. We really appreciate it.
Leah
Easy enough to make, incredibly moist, and very tasty. Everyone loved it! Not too sweet and a solid coconut flavor. I used their coconut icing recipe and added a pineapple coulis in between the layers and on the side. I ate this cake for days and it only got better with time. Thanks for a great recipe!
LarishaBernard
We’re so happy to hear you are liking the recipe. Thanks for taking time to leave a review. Have a great week.
Lucia
Defiantly going to bake this cake in future. love coconut 🙂 would it be possible to make the recipie into cupcakes? Be easier to share with family & friends. Less time baking? Thank you
LarishaBernard
you absolutely can. Just grease a cupcake pan instead and only fill each 2/3 full. Probably 18-20 minutes.
Emily
This cake was delicious! Even my non-vegan friends loved it! I could just eat the icing with a spoon. Who am I kidding? I did eat it with a spoon! 😉
Emily
Can’t wait to make this for my birthday cake! I love coconut! Quick question – are the coconut flakes sweetened like Baker’s or unsweetened? Or something else altogether? Thanks in advance!
LarishaBernard
We’re using sweetened. We hope you love it
Athena
Thank you!!!
I made this cake as a birthday cake and was so afraid it wouldn’t work out – not much luck with vegan cakes for me 🙂
This was a hit!!! Love it (yes some left and soooo tempting to polish it off myself)!!
Can not tell it’s vegan!!! In the middle I mixed some strawberry jam with the frosting – delicious!!
Everything is exact in terms of measurements!! Yes caved and used cake flour – it was a cake for a special person!!
Would like to make again but will try less sugar – no idea if this will affect too much the outcome.
Please keep sharing your tried recipes with us!!!
LarishaBernard
We are so so so happy to hear this! Great idea with the strawberry jam. We appreciate you taking the time to leave a review!