Coconut Easter Cake

This recipe is adapted from Loving It Vegan’s delicious recipe for coconut cake with coconut rum frosting. I left the cake recipe almost exactly the same, but created my own icing (sans rum).

I wanted to make a coconut cake in remembrance of my grandmother, who recently passed away. Her birthday was April 6th, and my mother always made her a coconut cake, which was featured at our family Easter party each year. Amidst the Easter celebrations, we would pause and sing Happy Birthday to grandma, before slicing into my mom’s delicious two-layered coconut cake.

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

• 2.5 cups cake flour (or all purpose flour)

• 1 .5 cups sugar

• 2.5 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 3/4 tsp salt

• 2 cups shredded coconut (unsweetened)

• 1.5 cups full fat coconut milk (canned)

• 1/2 cup coconut oil

• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Icing:

• 3.5 cups powdered sugar

• 2/3 cup softened vegan butter (I used Miyoko’s)

• 4 Tbsp full fat coconut milk

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper.

2. In the bowl of a standing mixer, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and shredded coconut. Mix until well incorporated.

3. Add in liquid ingredients one at a time: coconut milk, melted coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract until just incorporated.

4. Pour batter into the two cake pans and spread the tops with a spatula to even them out.

5. Put cakes in the oven and bake for about 35 minutes (or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean).

6. Carefully remove the cakes from their pans and place onto a cooling rack. Let cakes cool completely before adding any icing (or icing will melt and you will just have a slippery mess).

7. While cakes are cooling, make the icing! Mix together powdered sugar, vegan butter, and coconut milk until thick and smooth. If the icing is too thick, add more coconut milk. If too thin, add more powdered sugar.

8. Ice the cake and decorate completely with shredded coconut.

9. Enjoy!