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Coconut Loaf Cake Recipe

Yield Serves 8-10 1x
Prep: 50 minutesCook: 70 minutesTotal: 2 hours

A buttery Coconut Pound Cake topped with cream cheese lime frosting.

Ingredients

Coconut lime cake

  • 230 grams (1 cup or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 200 grams (1 cup) caster sugar or granulated sugar
  • Zest of 1 lime
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 280 grams (2 cups) plain flour or all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 120 ml (1/2 cup) full fat coconut cream, room temperature (see notes)
  • 50 grams (1/2 cup) desiccated coconut, lightly toasted (see notes)

Lime cream cheese frosting

  • 250 grams (1 and 1/4 cups) full fat block cream cheese, room temperature
  • 2 level tablespoons icing sugar or powdered sugar, sifted
  • Zest of 1 lime
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon full fat or whole milk

Instructions

  1. Coconut lime cake
    Preheat oven to 170 C (340 F) standard / 150 C (300 F) fan-forced. Grease and line a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan with baking or parchment paper.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, add butter, sugar and lime zest. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined and then turn speed up to medium and beat for a further 1-2 minutes or until butter turns pale, creamy and almost fluffy.
  3. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat briefly to combine – don’t worry if the mixture goes a little bit lumpy at this stage – then scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  4. Add flour, baking powder, salt, coconut cream and desiccated coconut. Mix on a low speed until cake batter is smooth and creamy (but try not to over mix). It will be very thick.
  5. Transfer cake batter to your prepared cake pan and smooth the top. Bake for approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. If your cake is very brown after 50-60 minutes, loosely cover the top with aluminium foil.
  6. Leave cake to cool for 5 minutes, then gently remove cake from pan and place it on a wire rack to cool completely.
  7. Lime cream cheese frosting
    In a large mixing bowl, add cream cheese, sugar, half of the lime zest (reserve the other half for decorating), lime juice and milk. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until smooth and creamy.
  8. Generously frost the top of the cake. Sprinkle over remaining lime zest.

Notes

Butter: Creaming your butter and sugar correctly will result in a soft, buttery cake. You need to mix together your butter and sugar with an electric mixer, until the butter turns pale, light and fluffy. If your butter is soft to begin with, it won’t take long – just a few minutes on medium speed.

Coconut cream: I tested this recipe using full fat coconut cream, which can usually be found in the Asian aisle of your local supermarket. If you do not have access to coconut cream, you can use coconut milk in this recipe. They are not quite the same – coconut cream has a higher fat content – but coconut milk will work.

Desiccated coconut: You can use desiccated coconut as is, or you can lightly toasted it for a little more coconut flavour. To do this, simply place coconut in a flat-bottomed frying pan on medium heat. Stir occasionally until coconut turns a light golden brown. Leave to cool completely before adding to your cake batter.

Cream cheese: I recommend using a block or brick-style full fat cream cheese. If you don’t have access to it, you can use the spreadable kind but you may want to reduce or omit the milk as this type of cream cheese is less stable and more runny.

Cracking: Pound Cakes do generally crack – it’s normal don’t worry! The cake batter is very thick and dense, so it takes a long time to bake. The top of the cake cooks first, causing the remaining batter to rise up and burst through the crust as it bakes.

Dry cake: Make sure you don’t over-measure your flour – I highly recommend using gram measurements over cups – as too much flour will result in a dry cake. Same goes for the desiccated coconut. Try not to over-mix your cake batter and (perhaps the most important thing) don’t over-bake your cake.

Storage: Pound Cake is best eaten on the day it’s made, however it will keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for 1-2 days. Once you add the cream cheese frosting, you can keep it in the fridge, but let it come back to room temperature before serving. Personally I recommend freezing any leftovers to maintain maximum freshness.

Nutrition Information

Serving Size: 1 slice Calories: 607 Sugar: 45.2 g Sodium: 168.3 mg Fat: 32.3 g Carbohydrates: 68.8 g Protein: 7.1 g Cholesterol: 130.7 mg
Nutrition information is a guide only.
Author: Jessica HolmesCategory: CakeCuisine: Australian
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