Mmmm… coconut cake is always a good pick for desserts, but this one is light and fluffy with a creamy coconut buttercream! 3 luscious layers with toasted coconut on the outside. Let’s get baking!

Ingredients:

Cake

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
• 5 eggs
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp coconut extract
• 1 cup buttermilk (If you don’t have any, click here for an easy hack)
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Coconut Buttercream

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened (3 sticks)
• 1/2 tsp coconut extract
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3-5 cups powdered sugar

1. Start by pre-heating your oven to 325 F. Spray 3 8″ circle cake pans. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, mix oil, butter and sugar until combined. Then, add in your egg yolks one at a time mixing in between.

3. Add in your coconut extract, vanilla extract, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

4. Next, slowly mix in your flour and buttermilk alternating. (Flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk…) End with flour.

5. Gently stir in coconut flakes. Set aside.

6. In a medium bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form, between 6-8 minutes.

7. Gently fold your egg whites into the cake batter and divide evenly among your 3 cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

8. Let cakes cool before decorating.

While the cakes are cooling, let’s make the buttercream!

9. Start by combining the butter and powdered sugar in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. Then, add in your extracts and mix.

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10. Once the cakes are cooled, place the first layer on the plate/platter you plan to serve on. Layer cake, buttercream, cake, buttercream… until your cake is evenly stacked.

11. For the outside, put a thin layer of buttercream around all sides. Doesn’t have to be perfect because you’ll cover it with coconut shavings.

12. Once smoothed, place coconut shavings on all sides of the cake. We decided to use toasted coconut flakes. (In order to toast them, just place coconut flakes into a saucepan with a quick spray of oil and constantly stir on medium-low heat until toasty and golden.)

Ta-da! 🙂

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