I’m so happy with how this vegan coconut cake recipe came out. Beautiful buttery moist texture with a sweet coconut flavour. The cake crumb is tight yet fluffy which makes it a great vegan cake for stacking. It keeps for 5 days in an airtight container out of the fridge. If you keep it in the fridge you need to add sugar syrup in between the layers to help keep the moisture in.
I used 3 x 6-inch cake tins for this recipe, however, you can also use two 6-inch cake tins too. Here are a few tips for this recipe:
- For perfectly flat layers use baking strips. Here is a quick video on how to make them. Just remember that if you do use baking strips you may need to bake for an extra 5-7 minutes.
- Bake your cake on the middle oven rack and make sure your oven has preheated to the correct temperature.
- Use sugar syrup between the layers if you’re not eating the cake straight away or storing in the fridge.
- Use unsweetened coconut milk for this recipe.
- To get perfect equal-sized layers, weigh each tin when it’s filled with batter.
- Dust your cake pans with flour after greasing. This will stop them from going really dark on the outside.
- This cake pairs well with my lemon curd recipe as a filling.
I have photographed some of the steps so you can follow along.
Make sure your flaxseed egg has thicked before you add it to your other liquids.
To achieve those perfectly even cake layers I weighed each cake tin with batter to approximately 380 grams.
Vegan Coconut Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 1 3 layered 6 inch cake 1x
Ingredients
Vegan Egg Replacer
- 2 tbsp flaxseed
- 5 tbsp boiling water
Dry Ingredients
- 220 g vegan butter or margarine room temperature
- 200 g caster sugar
- 350 g plain all-purpose flour
- 2 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 90 g desiccated coconut
Wet Ingredients
- 175 mls unsweetened coconut milk (carton kind)
- 100 mls water
- 2 tsp vanilla bean extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven 150°C/302°F and line 3 x 6IN / 15.24CM cake tins with baking paper, grease with oil and dust with flour.
- Mix ground flaxseed with boiling water and mix together with a fork. Set aside so it can thicken.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until creamy with no lumps.
- Sieve flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small mixing bowl. Stir through the desiccated coconut.
- In a small jug mix coconut milk, water and vanilla together. Add thickened egg replacer and mix well.
- Add one-third of the flour mix very slowly and mix on lowest speed to the creamed butter, then add one-third of the liquid. Repeat until all ingredients are just combined. It will be a very thick batter.
- Pause mixer and scrape down sides and mix for a few seconds.
- Divide between tins, tap tins on the bench to release air bubbles, bake 36 to 39 mins, check with a skewer through the centre, if it comes out clean it’s ready. If you want perfect layers, weigh the cake tins with batter in them. It should weigh approximately 380 grams in each cake tin.
- Let cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then flip on a cake rake. Decorate with your favourite buttercream. You can also use my lemon curd recipe for the cake filling.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
Keywords: cake, coconut, vegan, vegan cake
Did you make this vegan coconut cake? Tag @veganbakesbysarakidd on Instagram and hashtag it #veganbakesbysarakidd ….
I am so excited to try this recipe for my daughter’s birthday. Her favorite fruit is strawberry and so will this pair well with strawberry buttercream frosting?
Yes this would be amazing!
Great recipe!
For a 8 or 9 inch pan, should i double the recipe?
Thanks! Double the recipe
What is the sugar syrup between the layers? And what is the purpose of them? Thanks.
Hey Lindsay, it’s primarily a solution of sugar dissolved in water and it’s used to keep your cakes moist.
Hey, do you think i could substitute oil for shortening ? If yes can i know the quantity?
Hey Mansi
I think you could get away with it. Just sub for the same amount.
About to make this for the first time. Any recommendations on what to cover it with?
Yes, this would go great with my vegan whipped cream that’s in this recipe – https://sarakidd.com/swedish-princess-cake-vegan/
Hi this looks delicious and I want to make it for my nephew’s birthday at the weekend. I only have a deep 7 inch tin, am I best upping the recipe and baking it three times over in my cake tin? Or do you think I could use the same recipe and do two layers by baking twice? Thank you
Bake 3/4 of the recipe for each 7 inch layer. They will be tall layers.
This is the best coconut cake I have ever tasted. It comes out perfectly ever time. With chocolate ganache it’s just like eating a bounty 😋
★★★★★
Thank you Aimee xoxo
I followed this recipe for my friend’s birthday gathering yesterday, and I was really happy with how it turned out! I made the cake and also used the lemon curd recipe for the filling. Both were really tasty and not too complicated. I’m new to vegan baking and was impressed by how well the flax egg substitute worked out. The cake was a big hit. 🙂
★★★★★
Thank you so much for leaving a review. So glad it was an easy, yummy bake for you!
Could this cake be made with gluten free flour?
I would recommend finding a GF recipe as this will save so much time and money on ingredients as turning a non-GF recipe isn’t always as simple as just replacing your ingredients. Some gf ingredients react differently in baking and this needs to be taken into consideration.
Loved this recipe made it yesterday was a hit in our family. Definitely will make again
★★★★★
Thanks so much Katie