Easy Coconut Refrigerator Cake
Easy Coconut Refrigerator Cake is moist and delicious, with the perfect amount of sweet, creamy filling.
***HEY, GUYS!! HEY!! This recipe and post was originally published in 2010, about 3 months into my blog. Although the photos were always a hot mess and the writing was definitely NOT my best work, this has HANDS DOWN stayed my MOST POPULAR recipe EVER. I am actually not surprised — I make this cake several times a year and get requests for it from friends and family members often. It’s not too sweet, moist, and just all around pretty fabulous. I’ve taken the liberty of cleaning the post up a bit and updating the photos. Enjoy!! ***
I remember as a child, begging my mom to buy a coconut at the grocery store so I could drink the coconut milk. Obsessed with the way coconuts were portrayed on cartoons, I desperately wanted to hold one in my hands, stick a straw through the top, and drink from it like I saw on TV.
One day my dreams finally came true — my mom bought one and I discovered that not only are coconuts way harder to crack open that what I had always been led to believe, but coconut milk was completely disgusting.
Recently my son when through the same phase, and BEGGED me to buy a coconut while we were at the store. I bought it and when we came home I put my husband to work getting it cracked open. “Why did you buy this thing anyways, he’s not gonna like it,” my husband said.
And I explained to him the thing that makes us moms just a little smarter than the average person. The thing that my mom obviously knew all those years ago. That I could tell my son he wouldn’t like it, but he would never believe me. It is much easier to spend the couple of dollars and let him see for himself. And then he will never bother me about a coconut again. My husband then admitted that he too once talked his mom into buying a coconut so he could drink from it. He too was disgusted. And he too, was done with fresh coconuts.
After about sixteen hours, my husband got the coconut open. My son grabbed it and took a sip….and the look of disgust on his face was priceless. That is when I learned that not only was it worth the money to get him over his little coconut dream, but also to see the look on his face when he tasted the milk.Maybe my mom knew that too.
I have made this coconut cake a couple of times, and so far it is my favorite. The recipe is from one of my favorite cake cookbooks, The Cake Mix Doctor Returns, and it is best made a couple of days in advance. The frosting, made with sugar, sour cream, and whipped topping, can then absorb into the cake layers, making it even more moist and delicious. You guys — this cake is SO incredible!
Ingredients
- Vegetable oil, for misting the pan
- Flour, for dusting the pan
- 1 package (18.25 oz) plain white cake mix (my favorite is Duncan Hines)
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup cream of coconut, plus more cream of coconut for brushing the baked layers
- 3 large eggs
- Frosting:
- 2 cups sour cream
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 container (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed (Cool Whip)
- 3 1/2 to 4 cups sweetened flaked coconut
Instructions
- Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350. Lightly mist two 9 inch round cake pans with vegetable oil spray, then dust them with flour. Shake out the excess flour and set the pans aside.
- Place the cake mix, milk, 1/2 cup cream of coconut, and eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the ingredients are incorporated, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 1 1/2 minutes longer, scraping down the sides of the bowl again if needed. The batter should look well blended.
- Divide the cake batter evenly among the 2 prepared pans, about 1 1/2 cups batter per pan, smoothing the tops with a rubber spatula.
- Place the pans in the oven and bake until layers are light brown and the tops spring back with lightly pressed with a finger, 18 to 23 minutes.
- While the cakes bake, make the frosting. Place the sour cream and granulated sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until the sugar has dissolved, 2 minutes longer. Add the whipped topping and beat on low speed until well blended. Stir in 3 cups of coconut and beat on low speed until mixed. Place the frosting in the refrigerator to chill for at least 10 minutes.
- Transfer the cake pans to wire racks and let the cake layers cool for 5 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edge of each cake layer and give the pans a good shake to loosen the cakes. Invert each layer onto a wire rack, and then invert again so they are right side up.
- While the cakes cool, use a small brush to gently brush the tops of the cake with the remaining cream of coconut. Let the cakes cool completely, 15 minutes longer.
- When the cakes are cool, use a large serrated knife to cut each cake in half horizontally to make 4 layers.
- To assemble the cake, transfer one layer, cut side up, to a serving platter. Spread the top with 1/4 of the frosting. Repeat this process with the remaining layers.
Notes
This cake can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.
Make this cake today and it will be moist and yummy just in time for Easter dinner. Enjoy!!
Glad to have met you on food buzz. Look forward to following your interesting blog here. Have a wonderful weekend.
You are not suppose to combine the whipped topping into the sour cream filling. The sour cream and coconut filling goes between the layers and on the outside, then you cover the cake in whipped topping and sprinkle with coconut. I know because I have had this cake twice a year all my life, it’smy dads favorite. It’s also very southern. Your site is great.
You can wait to use the whipped topping for covering the entire cake but you can also mix it in and use it as directed in this recipe; either way works fine. I have seen variations of this recipe on several sites. This is a yummy recipe either way.
Cecily, that may be the way you have had it but I have also had this cake all my life and all of the ingredients are combined. Some people also add 1 cup of chopped coconut to this exact recipe. It is very delicious both ways, especially on hot summer days.
This is the quintessential cocoanut cake, and my mother-in-law, who was a southerner, made it every Easter. It is a wonderful recipe, and I’m sure there are variations in the frosting, but she kept the sour cream as the filling and frosted the outside with only the whipped topping. Sublime.
I make a cake similiar to this, only using frozen coconut. I have much better luck splitting the layers with a piece of thread. Just take thread long enough to reach around the layer, center it, cross and pull the thread and your layers will be perfectly halved.
Great tip, Ray! I’m so making this, soon!
My mom also made this cake at Easter, and she called it “resurrection cake,” because she would make it around Good Friday, store it in the fridge and by Easter Sunday it was perfect!
As for coconut milk, many people refer to the liquid inside the coconut as “coconut milk,” but it is really coconut water. Coconut milk, as we know it from the canned version, is a blend of that juice and the pulp of the coconut, which is then strained. It has a much richer and sweeter flavor than the coconut water (which, interestingly, is now gaining popularity as a canned beverage that is supposed to help rehydrate after a workout).
My mom made this same cake and it had to rest in the frig for 3 days before we could eat it to give icing flavors time to meld together.
Could I use something other than Whipped Topping as I do not like to eat this product. How would a regular icing do? My husband always wants a cocunut cake and I have had trouble finding one and this one looks wonderful.
Regular whipped cream might work as well — heavy cream, sugar, and a little vanilla blended make a good homemade whipped cream that’s easy and tastes different from the frozen whipped topping stuff.
Yes, you could use lightly sweetened whipped cream. The problem this poses, though, is that the whipped cream will deflate over time, and will eventually liquefy. If you want to help stabilize the whipped cream so that it won’t deflate and liquefy, you can do so with a bit of cream cheese. There are fancier stabilizers that you can buy at cake decorating supply stores, but cream cheese is easier to find. Here’s the recipe I use for stabilized whipped cream (it’s from Cook’s Illustrated). And don’t worry — it doesn’t taste like “Cream Cheese Frosting” that you usually get with Carrot Cake or Red Velvet Cake — it really does taste very much like plain whipped cream.
8 oz cream cheese , room temperature
1/2 C sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp table salt
2 C heavy cream
1. Place cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Whisk at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed.
2. Reduce speed to low and add heavy cream in slow, steady stream; when almost fully combined, increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture holds stiff peaks, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes more, scraping bowl as needed (you should have about 4 1/2 cups).
The coconuts we get are not the same as “fresh off the tree”. When they are fresh the inside is soft and sweet and the “water” as is known in the islands is sweet. When we get them, the meat is hard and not so sweet. The milk/water varies as from not sweet to sweet. Wish you could have a coconut cut from a tree in Trinidad or islands or coastal areas and not the grocery store.
I’m going to try your cake as it sounds wonderful.
This cake was great! I kept the 3 layers intact instead of splitting them to make 6 (just didn’t have the time…and I didn’t think I could do it very well anyway), and I poked shallow holes in the layers right when they came out of the pan before I spread the cream of coconut on it. It was great, ended up seeping into the cake and leaving it really really moist and yummy! 5 stars! If you only do 3 layers, you end up with a lot of extra icing, so ice generously!
GREAT recipe! Thank you for sharing!!
WOW!!! Making this right now
If the cake tastes like the batter/frosting….mmmmmm
So worth it!
More than the cake, I loved the memories. I think we all have done the same thing with a coconut!
I can’t wait to bake this cake…..I am hosting my cards group next week, so this sounds just perfect! I have a December birthday: Christmas Eve in fact. My mother ALWAYS baked a fresh coconut cake for me. And, she got a real, live coconut at the grocery, too! I was so relieved to keep reading your directions and see that I could escape that….you had me scared! Thanks for the recipe. I can tell just by reading it that it will be delicious!
Made this cake today with my granddaughter. We can’t wait to eat it tonight for dessert tonight.
I am confused about what cream of coconut is? Is this different than coconut milk? where would I find it? HELP! I really want to make this for my Dad’s birthday on Sunday :) Thanks!
I found cream of coconut at walmart by the mixers for alcoholic drinks. it is often used to make pina coladas.
HELP! Would love to make this for a shower but lemon curd filling has been requested. Could I make this a couple days
ahead with the lemon filling and keep the frosting as is?
I just made this cake for Easter!! My question, do I need to cover the cake when it sits in the fridge for a few days or can I leave it uncovered?? Thanks!
Did anyone else think the icing was super runny? I followed every direction and kept it in the fridge for over 2 hours after I made it and it just about all slid off the top.
you mixed it to much I do it by hand, the mixer can make it runny :)
I not only am here to help validate you and your blog but to tell you how many times you made me smile along the way ~~what treasures all you young gals are to the whole of us older mothers hearts~~so rewarding to see you gals pick up the gauntlet where we left off~~very heartwarming ~~smile
I think I would prefer homemade whipped cream and would like to add white chocolate shavings to the coconut. Has anyone tried either of these variations?
I made this for my family last weekend for Easter. I don’t consider myself a great cook and I thought it was really pretty easy and it go RAVE REVIEWS. It was kind of hard to find cream of coconut on short notice so I just skimmed off the top layer of the can of coconut milk. It was still wonderful! I will make this again:)
Found this recipe via Pinterest, and it turned out to be one of the best cakes I’ve ever made! It was perfect for Easter, and I can see this becoming a tradition. I also found the cream of coconut near the alcoholic drink mixes at the grocery store. Thanks for sharing.
When I make this cake I use yellow cake and I mix sour cream and sugar together with a fork, I find the mixer makes it to runny. I then add the coconut and add some between each layer. you will have about 1/3 of the coconut mixture left I then add the whipped cream to that and mix a little then ice the cake :) its wonderful. you can use homemade whip cream if you don’t like the store bought, just make sure it gets nice and thick first.
Love, love,love this recipe! I call it “mom’s 3-day coconut cake”. I’ve never made it myself (just ate Mom’s). No one else in my house would eat it. It is so yummy! A must for coconut-lovers. Thanks for posting. The comment about adding lemon sounds interesting, too.
This is the best coconut cake you can ever make or eat! Have made it for years and always make it at least 3 days prior to when planning to eat same and make sure to store in air tight cake container in fridge. Always get major raves when I make this.
Thanks for posting! Can wait to try this it looks amazing!! yum
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I left the question in March about lemon curd. This is what I did: I bought 2 jars of Trader Joe’s Lemon Curd, set aside about 1 and 2/3 C frosting and mixed 1 and 1/2 jars of the lemon curd and used that to fill between each layer. You can add the lemon curd to taste. Continue as directed in the recipe. WOW!! It was great for Easter and I just catered a shower where it was a huge hit!
I have mixed the ingredients for the icing together and it isn’t anywhere close to a consistency of frosting. I have it in the freezer to solidify it. Is there something else that needs to be done?? I can’t imagine frosting the whole cake b/ c it run all over the place. Any information would be appreciated.
Thanks
It is runny, that’s how it absorbs into the cake. You should still be able to frost the cake with it, but if you are having trouble, refrigerate the frosting for just a bit first.
This is my most requested cake. It is very moist and very delicious. I only frost it between the layers as the frosting is really a filling and not a frosting. You must also refrigerate because of the sour cream and that helps give the frosting some stiffness.
Love this cake! The hardest part for me is the ‘wait time’ while the flavors meld, but it is so worth it in the end.
My grandma used to make this cake and I loved it. I have made it many times but it will never taste quite right cuz she is not making it for me.
this cake was very good! I just made it today and it was a hit!
I have never left a food review before this one!! Normally when I get recipes on-line I find that there just ok and always missing something. This recipe is one of the BEST I have found on-line!! I made the mistake of tasting this cake before refrigerating it…..big mistake!!! To everyone who will make this for the 1st time refrigerate at least half a day before tasting. The longer this cake sits in the fridge the better it gets!!! Thank u for such a wonderful cake recipe!!! My daughter & co-workers went nuts over it!!!
Where do you find cream of coconut? I have been looking and I am having NO luck! Is there an alternate name? Thanks so much!
My dad gave me the ultimate compliment after my 54 yrs of life. He turned to me as he ate his cake and said, “This is momma (his) worthy”!!! Thank you for giving my dad and myself a treasure and memories.
I have a great way of getting the coconut milk out for all the coconut lovers. all you have to to is find the eye of the coconut which there are 3 i believe at the top of the coconut they are like little brown circles put a wine opener in the center of it, work it as if you were opening a bottle of wine, pull it out flip the coconut over a cup and there you go fresh coconut milk !
Can you use coconut milk instead of cream of coconut?
I don’t see anywhere the temp for the cake. I will do it at 350. Also am stumped about the icing, seems like folks say it is runny. This sounds fabulous, I can feel my mouth watering for a piece and I haven’t even baked it yet! Seeing that it is New Year’s Eve, I fear I won’t be able to find the coconut cream. Blessings on the new year.
oops, sorry, just saw it. BTW, I always cut cakes in 1/2 with plain dental floss….works great!
This recipe is from the recipe book the cake doctor…
Yes it is!! I actually credited that in my post :)
I tried this a few years ago from the Cake Mix Dr and found the frosting too runny to stick to the sides of the cake. I assumed there was an error in the recipe, but it seems that others have had the same problem. I’ll try it again. Think I’d rather use heavy cream instead of cool whip also. I’m sure it would work as a sheet cake also.
Thanks for sharing! Everything turned out GREAT. And very delicious!
There is NO icing on earth to compare with 7 minutes icing to put on a fresh coconut cake.
It’s the most marvelous-tasting frosting in the whole world. You use a double boiler.
I’ve made all kinds and this one is heavenly. Try it !
The reason everyone’s icing is too runny is because the instructions say to beat the cool whip. Cool whip turns to liquid when beaten. (don’t ask me how I know LOL) Beat the other ingredients, then just fold in the cool whip and coconut, and the icing should be fine!!
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I’m making this cake ASAP – sounds wonderful! But I had to laugh when reading about your experiences with Coconut Water. We used to call it ‘coconut milk’ when I was a kid, and my brother and I used to fight over it every time my Mom bought a coconut. My Dad would get out his drill and drill out the eyes, drain the water, then use a hammer to crack the shell and his German bayonette to pry it apart and give us huge chunks of the meat. What a treat! Thanks for bringing back that memory. I haven’t thought of that in years!
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I love coconut cake, but for the icing I use Philadelpia cream cheese i stick of real butter and 1 box of powdered sugar,dash of salt vanilla ,almond extract ..At Easter on top of the coconut put colored jelly beans, Ilike the flavored fruit ones Sparkle (I think)
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This story is so funny. When I was a little girl I thought vanilla extract HAD to be the best tasting thing in this whole entire world because it smelled so wonderful. My mother tried and tried to tell me that it did not taste as good as it smelled but I thought she was just being mean. Finally she tired of trying to save me from myself and let me taste. OMG! It was awful! As you said, sometimes you just have to let them “find out the hard way”. LOL! Also, my mom made this cake (but from scratch) and it is wonderful!
Just made this, but used a pink layer (Duncan Hines box with pink velvet and yellow
velvet mix….will split the layers and ice with the white coconut/sour cream icing…
hope the inside gives a look of Easter- will be a birthday cake for my 87 year old
mother…..have made before and agree to be gently fold in cool whip..covering
for a few days in the frig…
I have been cooking and baking for many years and this is the BEST cake I have ever made! Followed the directions and it was perfect. The longer it sits in fridge, the better it gets!!!!
Oh my. I am a horrible baker to begin with, but I had to try this cake. I only ended up with 3 layers because my cake pretty much crumbled when I handled it. Must be my lack of skill in baking cakes. It’s ugly and covered in the cool whip icing in the fridge. I will what it’s like in a few days. Thanks for the recipe!
I was going to make a coconut cake today for my dad’s birthday, and found your blog. This recipe looks fantastic! I’m thinking of making it this morning, and eating it tonight. Would it still taste OK?
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your story about tasting coconut milk for the first time, thank you for your sincerity. Look forward to making this cake as soon as possible. Will definitely try this.
Sonia 8/26/2014
I used homemade whipped cream instead of Cool Whip and the frosting is really thick!
I’m a terrible cook and only one of the three layers came out of the pans without breaking up because it was stuck to the bottom :( I’m sure it will taste good though!
Cake mix?? Seriously?? What a disappointment. I will not be making this.
look delicious, yummy
Sound like the art of knowing when a coconut is ripe has been lost. My father would check the eyes of the coconut to tell when it was ripe. I was too young to have much interest in it myself but I was always delighted when he said it was ready. The coconut milk was sweet and yummie. I wish I knew now what my dad knew then. By the way you cake looks delicious. I am going to make it. Thanks
I think i’ll try this recipe later or soon. :p
Help! My frosting is ridiculously runny!!! What should I do? Add another tub of Cool Whip!? Ahhhhh!
refrigerate it a bit and it will firm up!
I laughed when I read this post. I remember doing almost the same thing with my kids & coffee. The face made was PRICELESS!! I never liked coconut unless it was fresh, and I loved the coconut water inside. I have been afraid to try the “bottled” coconut water in case it doesn’t taste like fresh. I do have a lot of coconut lovers in my extended family and will certainly make this cake.
I am not a sour creme lover. I can’t imagine that this frosting would taste good. I love Butter.
Thanks so much for sharing this. I used to make it years ago and then lost the recipe. I’m so happy to find it again. And I agree — the hardest part is waiting 3 days for it to be perfectly ready. YUMMY. My granddaughter asked me to buy a coconut when she and I were shopping at the store Saturday. Visions of a chain saw flashed through my head!
This looks delicious! Do you know how it would work in a 9×13 pan?
I’d just do a bit less of the frosting (maybe half it?) and you should be fine!
Do i use any of the oil thats on the back of the cake mix box?
I have made this cake since Jimmy Carter became president and the recipe (minus cream of coconut) was printed in the newspaper as being served at his inauguration. Is our favorite cake! Crushed pineapple can also be added to the frosting.
Can you help me? This recipe sounds perfect except I’d like to make cupcakes. Any suggestions?