How To Make the Best Classic Coconut Cake from Scratch

My love affair with Southern-style coconut cake happened 10 years ago — just after I moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and began working on a little TV show called Good Eats. My very first bite of coconut cake made me fall in love with its steep peaks of fluffy frosting, tender white cake, and halo of freshly shaved coconut.

But here’s the secret: That coconut cake required several days of work from a kitchen intern (me). I vowed to someday make a coconut cake of that caliber with less fuss. Well, my friends, that day has arrived!

I learned the most about coconut cake in the first season I worked on Good Eats. I was an intern on that particular episode and was tasked with cracking and hand-grating the coconut for each cake. Alton Brown’s coconut cake recipe requires two whole coconuts — their juices drained and their meat freshly grated (by hand) and turned into both coconut cream and coconut extract. The entire process for that cakes takes about a week (the extract has to sit for several days), but the efforts are tasted in every single bite of the cake.

This recipe takes all the lessons I learned from that cake with every improvement for ease. You’ll have to buy a few special ingredients — coconut extract, coconut milk, and coconut water — but you won’t need to buy, crack, and shred your own coconuts, and the cake will taste just as sweet and full of coconut.

Coconut cake requires a few ingredients you might not already have in your pantry. Here’s what to grab for the most coconut-filled coconut cake.

• Coconut extract: You’ll only use 1 teaspoon total, but this is one ingredient, like vanilla extract, where quality really makes for a better-tasting cake.
• Coconut milk: This is one ingredient you just might have already. Make sure to give the can a few good shakes before opening and a decent stir before measuring; the cream can separate from the water of canned coconut milk, and we need the homogenous mixture.
• Coconut water: Coconut milk would ruin the texture of our coconut 7-minute frosting, but coconut water will give us the light, airy texture we desire. This is the only coconut ingredient that can be substituted — use plain water in a pinch.

• Use cake flour. Tenderness is at the heart of coconut cake, and cake flour has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour, all but guaranteeing a tender finished cake.
• Skip the cartoned egg whites. Between the cake and frosting you’ll need 11 egg whites. It is very tempting to use the cartoned egg whites instead of separating nearly a dozen eggs, but don’t. I’ve tried and failed to produce the same fluffy cake and airy frosting with cartoned egg whites and have been nothing short of disappointed.
• Fold whipped egg whites into the cake batter. Lofty cakes like angel food and coconut cake rely on the volume of egg whites for their height, texture, and tenderness. And folding them — that is, gently working them into the cake batter without losing all their volume — is the trickiest part of coconut cake. Here’s how to get the best results: Sacrifice the first third of the egg whites by quickly and vigorously beating them into the cake batter. This will loosen up the cake batter and lessen the volume loss in the next two additions. Now gently work the remaining egg white mixture into the batter in two portions — a few streaks should remain after each addition.
• Frost with a 7-minute icing. Seven-minute icing is essentially a Swiss meringue — just egg whites and sugar heated over boiling water until thickened — with coconut water and coconut extract added for flavor. It is prized for its marshmallowy texture, but it’s also incredibly easy to make and eat.

Once your cakes are baked and cooled, your frosting whipped, and your cake stand ready, now comes the most fun part: the frosting! The 7-minute icing is pretty sticky stuff, and just a dab will hold the first cake layer in place. Use about a cup of the frosting to fill the two cakes. The rest of the frosting can be spread on in an airy, swirly layer.

Now here’s how I think you finish the very best coconut cake: Skip the sweetened angel flake coconut (that would make the cake too cloying) and go straight for unsweetened shredded coconut. Sprinkle the coconut on top of the cake and then use your filled palm to guide the coconut up the sides.

Seven-minute frosting is a little better, stiffer, and easier to cut after a quick chill, so stick the whole cake in the fridge for 30 minutes before slicing, serving, and rejoicing in the tender perfection of a job well done.