Coconut Almond Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Toasted coconut blitzed and then mixed into this delicious coconut cake batter. Topped with cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
To Toast
- 1 cup Baker’s Corner Coconut Flakes
- 1/2 cup Southern Grove Slivered Almonds
Coconut Sheet Cake:
- 1 3/4 cups Baker’s Corner All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup Countryside Creamery Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons neutral oil (such as vegetable or Simply Nature 100% Pure Avocado Oil)
- 2 teaspoons coconut extract
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup milk
- 4 large Simply Nature Grade A Organic Cage Free Brown Egg Whites (egg whites only)
Frosting:
- 1 cup Countryside Creamery Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
- 4 ounces Happy Farms Cream Cheese, at room temperature
- 4 cups Baker’s Corner Powdered Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Stonemill Pure Vanilla Extract
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- Food coloring gel, optional
Instructions
To Toast:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. To a baking sheet, add the coconut flakes and slivered almonds. Transfer to the oven to bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly brown. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a food processor. Pulse for about a minute, until the mixture resembles a meal of sorts.
To Make the Coconut Sheet Cake:
- Keep the oven at 350 degrees F (as it was for roasting the coconut and almonds). Grease a 9x9-inch cake pan. I also like to line it with a sheet of parchment, leaving strips up the sides for easy removal. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk until combined. Set aside.
- To the bowl of a stand-up mixer with the paddle attachment, add the butter, oil, coconut extract and sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. In a measuring cup, pour in the milk, egg whites and whisk until combined.
- Turn the mixer to low speed and, alternating between the dry ingredients and the liquid ingredients (the egg white mixture), add them to the butter/sugar mixture until the batter is relatively smooth. Add the reserved crushed up coconut flakes and almonds and gently fold into the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and transfer to the oven to bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and then invert onto a cooling rack and cool to room temperature. It’ll probably take a good hour.
To Make the Frosting:
- To the bowl of a stand-up mixer, with the paddle attachment (or you could use a bowl with an electric hand mixer), add the butter and softened cream cheese. Beat until smooth. I like to do this step first, before adding anything else to ensure a super smooth consistency.
- Sift in the powdered sugar, add the vanilla extract, salt and heavy cream. Beat the frosting for about 3 minutes. The fluffiness from the heavy cream really lightens up this frosting so be sure to beat it for the full 3 minutes. If the frosting is too loose, feel free to transfer it to the fridge to chill for about 10 minutes. Then beat it one last time.
- Decorate the cake however you like. I reserved about 1/4 cup of frosting to the side and added 1 drop of red and a teeny drop of brown food coloring gel to make this mauve color. I added all of the frosting to the top of the cake, smoothed on and created swoops. I then added little dollops of the dyed frosting to create a marble effect. I added buttercream flowers on top as additional decoration. That part is totally optional!
Nutrition
Calories: 375kcal | Carbohydrates: 29.4g | Protein: 4.1g | Fat: 12.1g | Saturated Fat: 5.8g | Cholesterol: 71mg | Sodium: 78mg | Potassium: 49mg | Fiber: 0.5g | Sugar: 16.4g