Coconut Loaf Cake with Coconut Milk - Moist and Easy

This homemade coconut loaf cake is an easy, made from scratch cake. It is not only simple, but is also super moist and yummy! Made using both coconut milk and shredded coconut, this ultimate coconut cake is incredibly delicious even without frosting.

The cake is baked in a loaf tin and drizzled with a quick lemon glaze topping. The combination of the tangy lemon glaze drizzle and the aromatic coconut milk in this loaf cake is truly inviting. But you can always leave the drizzle out if you want, or you can even top the cake with other frostings like cream cheese frosting or even chocolate ganache if you like.

This coconut loaf cake makes a great snack cake and is also perfect as an afternoon tea cake. If you wish to make this cake as a celebration cake or even a coconut birthday cake, double the recipe below and make in 2 round cake tins. Sandwich the layers and cover the cake with a frosting of your choice and decorate as you wish.

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Coconut Milk and Shredded Coconut

There are many recipes for coconut cakes that use coconut milk and coconut extract to flavor the cakes, but hardly any that actually add coconut flesh into the cake batter. I wanted to bake a coconut cake from scratch, one that has coconut flesh in it and not just coconut milk.

So, after 4 attempts, I finally managed to nail down the perfect coconut loaf cake recipe with both the coconut milk and coconut flesh added to the batter. To this, I also added vanilla. The result – a truly aromatic, coconut loaf cake that lets one feel not just the taste of coconut but the actual coconut flesh too!

The coconut cake was pretty easy to make. I baked mine in a loaf pan and gave it a light drizzle of lemon glaze icing for a perfect vanilla coconut loaf cake.

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How to Make

Ingredients

The main ingredients for this coconut loaf cake are as follows with the full details in the recipe card below:

• Butter
• Granulated white sugar (caster sugar)
• All purpose flour + salt + baking powder
• Shredded coconut (unsweetened)
• Coconut milk
• Eggs
• Vanilla extract

And the lemon glaze topping is made up of a simple combination of the following:

• Icing sugar / powdered sugar (sifted)
• Lemon juice
• Warm water

Mixing the cake batter

1. The making process for this coconut cake loaf is similar to most other butter cakes. Start by creaming the butter, in a large bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed, followed by sugar, and beating until they turn light and fluffy.
2. Because the proportion of sugar to butter in this recipe is almost double, to ease the creaming process, add half of the coconut milk in the recipe to the butter and sugar mixture and beat them all until they become all fluffy. For the measurement given in the recipe below, this process should take about 2 minutes.
3. Next, add the eggs, one at a time. Beat them well after each addition. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl halfway through.
4. And then the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt) should go in, alternately with the remaining coconut milk. If your butter or eggs are not at room temperature, the coconut cake batter will tend to cuddle at this stage and that is fine.
5. Next, add the vanilla extract followed by the coconut. Mix well.
6. Pour batter into a prepared loaf pan. Grease the cake tin and line it with parchment paper for easy release of the coconut cake after baking.

Bake the coconut loaf cake in a preheated oven for about 35 to 40 minutes and do a skewer test in the center of the loaf to check if it is done at least 5 to 10 minutes before the baking time is up. Remove the cake from the oven and let it rest in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Making the simple lemon glaze icing

• Sift the powdered sugar into a small or medium mixing bowl.
• Add the lemon juice and water and mix well.
• Pour the icing into a piping bag, and snip the tip to drizzle it onto the top of the cake.
• Use a sharp knife to slice the coconut cake.

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Notes

Coconut Milk

• This is the white substance that is squeezed out of the coconut flesh and not the clear water that is present in the coconuts.
• Coconut milk can be readily purchased from grocery stores. Sometimes, the milk tends to separate, so if that happens, shake your container well.

Shredded Coconut

• Coconut flesh in this form is slightly more coarse than its desiccated form. I used the unsweetened version and the sweetened ones will end up making the cake too sweet.
• I have not tried making this coconut loaf cake with desiccated coconut, but if you wish to try, use the fresh desiccated coconut instead of the dry one.

Proportion of flour to sugar

• The proportion of flour in the cake to the sugar is almost half and that is because part of it is replaced by the coconut. And so, it is important that the coconut used is the unsweetened version instead of the sweetened one.

Do not over bake the loaf cake

• The baking time plays an important factor is the success of this coconut cake. Because of the shredded coconut in the batter, this cake will have soft crumbs. However, its moist texture keeps the cake together. Over baking can result in the coconut loaf cake becoming too crumbly. When checking for doneness, remove the cake from the oven as soon as a skewer inserted in the center comes out with a few soft crumbs attached to it.
• Waiting for a stage where the skewer comes out totally clean maybe a little too late for a moist coconut cake. 

Use a sharp knife to cut the cake

• Also because of the rather long stands of coconut (shredded coconut) in the cake, cutting the cake requires one to use a really sharp knife that would cut through the coconut shreds. A not so sharp knife will not be able to cut through the shreds resulting in rather crumbly cake slices.

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Like this easy and simple loaf cake recipe? Here are my other posts you might want to check out

• Glaze Icing Recipe
• Coconut Rolls with Coconut Glaze
• Crispy Coconut Cookies - Light and Easy Cookies
• Coconut Candy Recipe (with Fresh Grated Coconut)
• Chocolate Ganache Recipe
• Coconut Candy with Desiccated Coconut
• Coconut Jelly with Palm Sugar
• Pandan Jelly with Coconut
• Cherry Coconut Cookies
• Sago Pudding with Coconut Milk and Palm Sugar Syrup

Recipe (Printable)

Here is the full printable version of my super moist coconut loaf cake recipe.

And that's my quick and easy, homemade coconut cake with coconut milk and shredded coconut and a simple lemon glaze topping.

Happy Baking 🙂