Table of ContentsHomemade coconut cake recipe made with cake mix, and topped with homemade coconut buttercream!
Fluffy homemade coconut cake, with creamy coconut frosting, and sweetened coconut flakes. Sounds pretty damn good right? I swear, I love coconut cake. The only thing I don’t like, is making it completely from scratch all the time. Call me crazy, but I prefer to take shortcuts whenever possible. That’s why I have plenty of semi homemade recipes.
My semi homemade coconut cake is pretty darn easy to whip up, and it tastes like it was made from scratch! No one will know the difference.
For this coconut cake, I use coconut buttercream, which is homemade. I simply bake the cakes, let cool, then frost them with the homemade coconut buttercream. After I frost the cake, I then add sweetened shredded coconut…
The outcome…
C’mon. You know it looks good… and I promise you, it tastes even better! Give this recipe a try y’all!
Watch me make this semi homemade coconut cake!
Semi-Homemade Coconut Cake
Ingredients
- 15.25 oz box of white cake mix and ingredients on the back of box( Replace water with coconut milk)
- 1 tsp coconut extract
- 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
- Coconut Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 4 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 tbsp coconut milk
- 2 tsp coconut extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Pour the cake mix into a large mixing bowl, then sift or whisk to get rid of the lumps.
- Add in the eggs, coconut milk, and vegetable oil.
- Mix until well combined, then add in the coconut extract, and mix.
- Spray the cake pans ( two 8 or 9 inch pan) with baking spray, then pour in the cake batter.
- Bake each cake for 25-30 minutes or until done.
- Let the cakes cool completely.
- Combine all the ingredients for the buttercream in one bowl, and mix until creamy.
- Once the cakes are cool, frost them, then add the shredded coconut on the top and sides.
- Let the cake sit for at least 30 minutes.
- Serve ad enjoy!
I love the frosting! Coconut cake is one of my favorites. Merry Christmas!
Happy Holidays Joanne!
Coconut cake screams Christmas! We’ve always had coconut cake for Christmas dinner….always will! This recipe is fantastic. Pinned. Thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas Mary!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I have enjoyed following you this year.
Happy Holiday Pat!
I’m definately going to give this recipe a try for Xmas. I cannot locate any coconut extract any suggestions?
Try Walmart or Krogers.
The listed ingredients say use yellow cake mix but in your tutorial you said white cake mix. Which one should I use?
Thanks for catching that. Use white cake mix. Happy holidays!
Thanks! Happy Holidays!
I made this for Christmas. It was amazing!
I was thinking of a cake mix recipe with coconut milk, but didn’t know if it would work. Then I found this! Yay! And, boy o boy, there are a lot of great recipes here. Looking forward to trying a lot of them. Thank you!
Thanks for coming by Chris!
Unsweetened or sweetened coconut milk?
unsweetened.
Thanks! Turned out perfect!
Absolutely delicious. I replaced the oil with melted butter and doubled the amount for a perfectly moist white cake. This is a keeper.
I made this recipe last night and you wouldn’t believe how amazing it made my whole kitchen smell! It was quick and easy with great results. I was wondering, though, have you ever tried it with coconut oil instead of the vegetable oil? I don’t think it would make a huge difference, but I might give that a try next time. Thanks so much for the great recipe! Your pics of the cake are beautiful too!
Great recipe I made this cake yesterday and only have one slice left. My family and I loved it. Thanks Rosie
Thanks so much for trying my recipe!
I want to make this cake for a special occasion. Do you use frozen or bagged coconut in this recipe? Please let me know.
I used bagged coconut.
This was such a fun cake to make. Thank you for the great recipe usng a cake mix and the buttercream frosting is great too. I made mine and using red gel food coloring to make the coconut pink. We will all enjoy this Mother’s Day treat.
This has become my husband’s favorite cake! I do add some shredded coconut to the mix and it comes out perfectly.
Thank you!