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Home » Coconut Pineapple

Small Coconut Layer Cake

Modified: Apr 22, 2025 · Published: Jul 14, 2008 by Anna · This post may contain affiliate links · 23 Comments

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Small Coconut Layer Cake with Seven Minute Frosting is an easy weeknight coconut cake baked in two 8-inch round cake pans. I originally made it with self-rising flour, but it seems the USA brands of self-rising flour vary so much in salt and leavening that it's safer to just use all-purpose, baking powder and salt. That aside, this cake has some interesting features including a super easy sour cream filling and Seven Minute Frosting. The recipe also calls for coconut milk, for moisture and extra coconut flavor. And yes, we need a new picture here!

Slice of Small Coconut Layer Cake on a Porteirion plate.

Sour Cream Coconut Filling

Small Coconut Layer Cake has an easy filling made of sour cream, sugar, coconut and cream which you just stir together. It's a bit tart and a nice contrast to the sweet cake and 7 Minute Icing.

Small Coconut Layer Cake Seven Minute Frosting

The best part of this cake is the Seven Minute Frosting! This version is made the old fashioned way by beating egg whites and sugar with a hand held mixer in the top of a double boiler. If you have a stand mixer, you can use a different technique. Put the stand mixer bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and stir for 4 minutes or sugar dissolves. Transfer the bowl back to the stand and beat with the whisk attachment for 7 minutes.

Self-Rising or Self Raising Flour

  • If you live in the UK or somewhere where they sell self-raising flour instead of self-rising, you can omit the baking powder and just add the salt since self-raising doesn't have salt.
  • If using an American brand of self-rising flour, be careful because some of the brands (White Lily, especially) are geared more for biscuits and have too much baking powder and salt. I think King Arthur brand self-rising would work, and of course you'd want to omit the baking powder and salt.
  • Self Rising Flour Banana Bread
  • Self-Rising Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
  • How to Make Self-Rising Flour and Cake Flour
  • Recipes with Self-Rising Flour
  • Easy Chocolate Muffins with Self-Rising Flour

Recipe

Small Coconut Layer Cake

Anna
An 8 inch coconut layer cake
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes mins
Cook Time 25 minutes mins
Total Time 55 minutes mins
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 8

Equipment

  • Double Boiler

Ingredients
 

  • 1 ½ cups all purpose flour 6.8 oz** -- spoon and sweep
  • 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter room temp
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup coconut milk not lite (Taste of Thai or Thai Kitchen)

Filling:

  • ⅓ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • ⅓ cup flaked coconut
  • 1-2 tablespoons milk or cream

Seven Minute Frosting

  • 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
  • 2 large egg whites
  • ⅓ teaspoon cream of tartar or 1 tablespoon corn syrup
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
  • Sweetened coconut flakes 1 cup -- optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8 inch round metal cake pans.
  • Sift flour, baking powder and salt together 2 or 3 times. Set aside.
  • Beat butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl. When light and fluffy, beat in eggs, one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each egg. Beat in vanilla.
  • Stir the flour mixture and coconut milk into the batter in three parts, alternating between flour and coconut milk. Do this with lowest speed of mixer or preferably, a mixing spoon.
  • Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans and bake for 22-24 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then flip onto a rack and cool completely.
  • While cakes cook and cool, prepare filling. Mix together sugar, sour cream, coconut and milk. Keep chilled until ready to use.
  • Make Frosting: Combine sugar, cream of tartar or corn syrup, salt, water, and egg whites in the top of a double boiler. Beat with a hand-held electric mixer for 1 minute. Place pan over boiling water, being sure that boiling water does not touch the bottom of the top pan. Beat constantly on high speed with electric mixer for 7 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Stir in the coconut if using.

Notes

If you have self-rising flour, omit the baking powder and salt it in place of the all-purpose.  If  your self-rising flour does not contain salt, do not omit it.
Keyword Small Coconut Cake
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

More Coconut Cakes Archive

  • Eggless Pineapple Cake
    Eggless Pineapple Cake
  • Six Inch Pineapple Upside Down Cake
    Six Inch Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
  • Coconut Mist Cake
    Coconut Mist Cake aka Weeknight Cake
  • Coconut Celebration Cake
    White Lily Coconut Celebration Cake

Comments

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  1. brenda helmer april 4st 2010 10..00 am says

    April 13, 2010 at 11:16 am

    my is brenda i had never maked a coconut cake my grandmom made one it was so good now i am going to try this. i know it will be good thank you for this. brenda can you make cakes with butter.let me know thank you

  2. Julie O'Hara says

    July 27, 2008 at 3:11 pm

    We both loved this cake! I've never made 7 minute icing before, and now it's Mike's favorite. I only have 9-inch pans, so I made one big cake and sliced it in half, which worked out fine.

  3. Anna says

    July 23, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    Julia, I think they did. The thing is, I'm not sure if it's actually a Paula Deen original but rather an old Southern recipe. Then again, Paula does use a lot of self-rising flour in her earlier (pre-Food TV) recipes. It might be hers.

  4. Julie O'Hara says

    July 23, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    So this is kind of funny, Anna. I'm getting ready to go shopping for ingredients to make this cake for my husband's birthday. Then I remember I saved a Paula Deen coconut cake recipe from Good Housekeeping a few months ago. I thought it was the greatest thing at the time, so I found it to compare with yours and decide which to go with. They're exactly the same, right down to the self-rising flour and 7-min. icing. Did the the person on recipezaar not give credit to Paula? Oh, well, it doesn't matter to me...I don't have to make a decision:) I'll let you know how it turns out!

  5. Randi says

    July 19, 2008 at 3:13 pm

    I have a coconut cake recipe that was given to me by an egullet member. Its going to be in the November issue of Southern Living. I'll give it to you if you want it. Its long and involved.

  6. Bronte says

    July 16, 2008 at 11:40 am

    YUUUUM...I loooove anything with coconut in it, especially cake! this looks soooo good, ill be sure to try it sometime...thanks!
    <3

  7. Debbie says

    July 15, 2008 at 7:22 pm

    Yum - your cake looks amazing!! Have you ever tried the Coconut Layer Cake recipe on Epicurious that is from the Shubox Cafe (Dec 1999 issue)? It is so delicious - everyone always asks for the recipe when I make it. I even used it to make my sister's wedding cake! It uses Coco Lopez (cream of coconut) in the batter and a cream cheese frosting with coconut flakes. Without the frosting, you can barely tell the cake is coconut - it just tastes like a really moist delicious white cake. Definitely worth a try! 🙂

  8. Ashley says

    July 15, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    Oohh this looks so good!! I love coconut. I'd never have thought to make a filling using our cream, but both the filling and the icing look so insanely good!

  9. Chris says

    July 15, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    I just made coconut cupcakes over the weekend and posted a recipe for coconut frosting on my blog: cookleitz.blogspot.com

  10. Anna says

    July 15, 2008 at 11:31 am

    Sue, this is a good one. It comes together surprisingly quickly, even with the 7 minute icing.

    Carole, I think a 9 inch square pan would work better. You might not use all of the batter, but you'd get a nice tall square cake.

    KAnn, I loved the 7 minute icing, but you could just make a double or triple batch of the filling and slop some of that over the top. Then you could cover the whole thing in whipped cream, I guess.

    Honey, I'm not a coconut lover and I liked the cake. You would love it.

    Rita, yes. I hate having coconut milk lying around. It doesn't keep well. Whole Food sells it in 7 oz cans. I wish everyone would.

    Veggiegirl, thanks for the tip. I don't have that book but I'll look for it in the store.

    Susan, Mary, Cathy and Diggigirl. Since you all like coconut, you might want to experiment. I think the cream cheese icing is a good idea too and I also like the idea of somehow incorporating lemon curd. If you aren't intimidated by slicing layers horizontally, you could make this a 4 layer cake and alternate lemon curd and the sweet coconut filling.

    Jennifer, you could halve this one again and do it in 1 8 inch pan. You'd have to split that one layer, but even if you mess up, you can glue it all back together with the filling. Scale one down for yourself.

    Jody, I'll bet if people tried this one they'd like it. The coconut milk is kind of mild yet still flavorful. That is, you can tell it's coconut, but it's not in your face coconutty like coconut extract and whatnot.

    Katrina, I'll bet one of your boys will outgrow the cake aversion.....and NONE TOO SOON.

  11. Katrina says

    July 15, 2008 at 11:14 am

    Looks really yummy! Too bad my kids and my husband don't really like cake, especially frosting. (Yes, they're crazy!) I shouldn't eat any anyway.

  12. Jennifer says

    July 15, 2008 at 9:36 am

    Coconut cake is one of my very favorite things. Quinn doesn't like coconut at all, so I can't remember the last time I made one. I've been tempted to scale a recipe way back and just make one for myself. Sad, huh? Oh, and I'm not an icing skimper either. The more, the better.

  13. Digigirl says

    July 15, 2008 at 8:46 am

    I've been looking for a good coconut cake recipe to make for my boyfriend. This one looks perfect and your picture is just delectable!

  14. Cathy - www.wheresmydamnanswer.com says

    July 15, 2008 at 8:42 am

    This looks so great - Light and just plain YUMMY. All things coconut are good!!

    Cheers
    Cathy
    http://www.wheresmydamnanswer.com

  15. jodycakes says

    July 15, 2008 at 9:41 am

    This is a beautiful little gem of a cake!!!
    I wish more people would order coconut cakes...I love to bake with the stuff!!!
    Keep all those beautiful creations a-coming...
    jodycakes (from where's my damn answer)

  16. Mary M says

    July 15, 2008 at 8:14 am

    What a ko-winkidink!
    Bobby Flay on Food Network had a coconut cake throw down this weekend- your posting makes me REALLY want to make one too! I suppose the Food Network website has the recipes they used. The challenger sliced his layers so he ended up 9 layers and used a cream cheese-based frosting.
    It's my birthday this weekend- maybe I'll have to indulge myself? (My hips just screamed "NO!")

  17. Susan says

    July 15, 2008 at 7:34 am

    My husband and I love coconut. I'm going to have to try this recipe. Thanks.

  18. VeggieGirl says

    July 15, 2008 at 6:39 am

    I love making coconut layer cakes - there's a great recipe for the cake and frosting in "Eat, Drink & Be Vegan."

  19. Clumbsy Cookie says

    July 15, 2008 at 2:33 am

    What a great looking cake Anna. Opened coconut milk cans tend to call our names to be used, they get me everytime! Good thing you did the full amount of frosting, it looks perfect like that!

  20. HoneyB says

    July 15, 2008 at 2:32 am

    I love coconut! Your cake looks delicious!

  21. KAnn says

    July 14, 2008 at 11:59 pm

    The cake looks wonderful! Coconut may just be my very favorite flavor-possibly ahead of chocolate-very close, at least! I do many coconut desserts and cookies but I have never done a coconut layer cake. Anna, is there an alternative to the 7 Minute Icing?

    btw, coconut fans, LaraBar will be introducing Coconut Cream Pie flavor next month and it tastes incredible, too, if you are fond of LaraBars.

  22. Carole R. says

    July 14, 2008 at 11:40 pm

    Do you think it would work in 1 13 x 9 x 2?

    My Food lovers companion says that a 8 x 2-inch round pan holds 6 cups of batter. So two pans would be 12 cups. A 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan holds 15 cups. So my c ake would not be too tall.

  23. Sue says

    July 14, 2008 at 10:11 pm

    My husband loves coconut. I should try this sometime. I keep meaning to make him coconut cream pie, but I don't seem to get it done.

Peanut Butter Fudge Jumbles recipe baked in a 9-inch square Pampered Chef stoneware pan.

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