A super moist apple coconut cake with the perfect amount of apple and coconut flavor, then covered with a cinnamon cream cheese glaze. The addition of coconut milk helps to make this cake so moist. You’ll chop your apples for this cake, which means there’s no grating them and that will save lots of time. This cake is so good your family will ask for it over and over again.
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Hey there! Before you scroll, there’s lot’s of important stuff in the post!…including the FAQ section, which may answer any questions you might have about this recipe. Enjoy!
Am I allowed to say this is my favorite cake this fall if it’s a cake I came up with? Well, I’ll just say it…this moist apple coconut cake is my absolute favorite this season. Yeah, I know I have lots of favorites…it’s true…I’ve got an all around obsession with cake, but I’m just sayin’ you’ve gotta try this one.
If you haven’t had good luck baking bundt cakes, or have had them come out dry as sometimes will happen with bundt cakes, you won’t have those problems with this one.
It comes out very moist and stays moist even after refrigerating it. I think the secret to the moisture in this cake is the addition of coconut milk. I just buy the canned organic coconut milk. You want to shake up the cake well before opening it and stir it before measuring it out.
Let’s talk about some of the ingredients in this cake:
Apples: Let’s talk about the apples. I used honey-crisp apples because they’re sweet, but they don’t turn to mush when you bake them. You’ll use two cups, but you’ll want to make sure they’re peeled and chopped small. You don’t need to grate the apples…that’s just too much work. Chopping them in small cubes works perfectly.
Coconut: As far as the coconut…if you just hate shredded coconut, you can omit it, but I challenge you to try it. The combination of the flavors (the apple, coconut and cinnamon glaze) is really amazing. I added only one cup of shredded coconut here and I used unsweetened coconut flakes.
Tips & FAQs for this cake:
When you bake this one, you’ll want to make sure your pan is coated well with shortening or pan release. You’ll also want to flour your pan well after it’s coated with shortening or pan release. This is a very moist cake, so you’ll want your pan prepared well, so it doesn’t stick. Check out my post on getting your cakes to release properly.
Oh and we’re baking this cake low and slow. It’s a thick batter and we want the entire cake to bake all the way through, so it’ll bake for about an hour.
Once the cake is baked, set it on a wire rack to cool for 15 – 20 minutes and then turn out of the pan and let cool fully on the wire rack.
While it’s cooling, you can prepare the cinnamon cream cheese glaze. This in combination to the apples and coconut flavor of the cake, just takes it to a whole other level.
You’ll want the consistency of the glaze to be a little thinner than normal buttercream, but not too thin that it’s watery. I then just used a piping bag to pipe it right over the top. If you want to go simple, just spoon it over the top of your cake…that’ll work too.
Alright…on to the recipe!
Note About Recipe Measurements: I write recipes using volume (cups) measurements because here in the U.S., this is what people are more familiar with and I don’t want anyone to feel intimidated when baking. For metric/weight measurements, click the ‘metric’ button under the ingredients in the recipe card below. The weights are converted by a program, not me, and it’s just a best guess. I can’t guarantee that weighing the ingredients will produce the exact same results, since I test recipes using volume measurements.
Recipe:
Moist Apple Coconut Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Glaze
Ingredients
For the apple coconut cake:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup coconut milk (Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk – shake up the can, then stir)
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks, room temperature)
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 2 cups chopped and peeled honey crisp apples (chop apples small)
For the cinnamon cream cheese glaze:
- ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick, room temperature)
- 1 8 oz pkg. cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon milk (can add another tablespoon if needed)
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Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan very well.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
- In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and coconut milk. Set aside.
- In your main mixing bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add in the sugar and whip for a couple minutes until fluffy.
- Add in ½ of the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix just until combined.
- Add in ½ of the liquid mixture, mix until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add in another ⅓ of the flour mixture, mix until combined, then the last of the liquid mixture and mix until combined.
- Add in the last third of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix once more only for a short time. Try not to over mix your batter.
- Add in the coconut and the chopped apples. Fold in with a spoon.
- Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan.
- Bake at 325 degrees for about an hour.
- Once the cake is baked, set the pan on a wire rack to cool for only about 20 minutes, then turn out onto the pan to cool completely before adding the glaze.
For the glaze:
- Mix one stick (½ cup) of butter.
- Add in a package of cream cheese and mix until smooth.
- Add in the vanilla and cinnamon and mix.
- Add in the powdered sugar and two tablespoons of milk. Mix until well combined.
- Check your consistency. You may need to add in another tablespoon of milk to get a glaze consistency.
- You can add the glaze with a piping bag, or just spoon onto the top top of your cooled cake.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Items & Tools Used to Make the Apple Coconut Cake:
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Debra
Made this cake last April, early in pandemic lockdown mode here in Pennsylvania, to celebrate my mother’s 88th birthday. Had to find a recipe I could make with stuff I had on hand and Google searched “apple coconut cake” (decent sweet/tart apples were in fridge from months earlier, holding up OK; always have unsweetened shredded coconut in freezer and, luckily, a pound of unsalted butter was there too). Found this recipe and followed it exactly but modified the icing as we had no cream cheese. So delicious, made it again this year for Mom’s 89th and made sure to have cream cheese this time. I used less sugar than called for in the recipe and swapped coconut milk for regular milk and the icing was perfection. Also put it on while cake was a bit warm, so it thinned out and melted down the sides. Resulted in lots of leftover icing (for another cake!). This is a keeper. A big hit with everyone who has been lucky to get a slice!
Kara Jane
Debra, what a wonderful review! I’m so glad you like this cake…and I LOVE your adjustments too!
MAU
Hi I made these twice and it is so good. I used granny smith because i had so much of it from my tree. Gives it that tart taste I like. Just wondering if you have frozen your cake after making it.
THANKS
Kara Jane
Oh I’m so glad you like it! And I’ll need to try the granny smith apples in it next time…that sounds good. I haven’t tried freezing this one. I worry a little about how the apple texture would do after frozen and defrosted, but I’ve frozen apple bread before and it ended up fine, so I’m leaning on the side of ‘it’ll be ok’. 😉
Mau
I’ll let you know I think I’m gonna try To freeze a small piece.