You'll love this moist, juicy coconut pound cake for its wonderfully rich coconut flavor! Every time I make it – usually in the summer alongside my homemade vanilla ice cream – it's usually devoured in no time! Thankfully, it's a quick and easy recipe to whip together in just an hour.
Between the coconut milk, the shredded coconut flakes, and optional a little white rum, this cake is full of intense and delicious flavors that will blow you away!
No matter where in the world you are, this coconut pound loaf cake will have you feeling like you're living it up on a tropical island!
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🥘 Ingredients
- Shredded Coconut
- Unsweetened Coconut Milk or Canned Coconut Milk - can be substituted with whole milk.
- White Rum - if you have kids, replace it with coconut milk, as I did 🙂
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated Sugar
- Eggs - medium-sized
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Kosher Salt
- Vegetable Oil
- Vanilla Ice Cream (optional)
See the recipe card for quantities.
🔪 Instructions
First things first – preheat your oven to 180 °C // 350 °F before you start prepping!
Your first real step will be to mix together the coconut milk, the rum (or the additional coconut milk), and the coconut flakes in a small bowl. Allow them to soak for at least 15 minutes.
While that's soaking, though, you can start beating the softened, unsalted butter and granulated sugar on high speed, either with a Kitchen Aid whisk attachment or handheld electric mixer, for 3-4 minutes.
From here, lower the speed to medium and add your eggs in one by one. Make sure you stop the mixer to scraping the edges of the bowl, though, between adding each egg. You might still notice some clumps left once you've mixed in all of your eggs, but that should not be a problem.
Next, you're going to be adding your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the butter and egg mix – but make sure you're adding them in through a sieve!
After that, you can also add the shredded coconut milk mixture.
Mix everything together for another 3-4 minutes, starting at medium speed. You can increase your speed as you go, but just make sure you're scraping the edges when needed.
Go ahead and grease your bread pan with vegetable oil and dust it with a little flour.
From here, you can go ahead and pour the dough batter in and bake in your preheated oven for 20 minutes. At the 20-minute mark, score the top of the pound cake with a knife lengthwise. This should help it cook faster and more evenly.
After you've scored your coconut pound cake, let bake for another 25 minutes at the same temperature.
You can poke the pound cake in the middle with a wooden skewer afterward to check if it's ready. When you take your wooden skewer out, it should be dry, and no batter/dough should stick to it.
Using a spatula, gently release the sides of the pound cake from the pan and let it cool down completely on a wire rack. Once it's cooled, you can turn it over and slice it into pieces to serve!
I might be a little bias, but adding in a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream is an excellent way to enjoy this tasty treat!
If you are a fan of coconut, then try out this delicious chocolate macaroon pie or pair our cake with a yummy coconut pineapple drink!
🍽 Equipment
- Oven
- Kitchen machine with a whisk attachment
- Spatula
- Two 9 inch Loaf Pans or one big loaf pan
🌡 Storage & Tips
This coconut pound loaf cake can be kept for up to a week, but if your family loves it as much as mine, the leftovers probably won't last that long! You can actually store it in the cold oven, covered with a tea towel, without it losing its delicious, juicy quality!
This moist pound cake is also freezer-friendly. Just wrap it tightly in cling film and pop it in the freezer. It will keep there for several months when frozen.
It is possible to make this cake in a large loaf pan, but I recommend using two small loaf pans. There's several advantages to this;
- it'll be easier to divide
- it'll be better to store (less space)
- it'll be baked through after the specified baking time
- it won't crumble when you cut it, and you can also cut thinner slices
- it'll be easier to handle
🙋🏻 FAQ
According to his family and friends, Elvis was a big fan of coconut pound cakes! One of his close friends said she would prepare it every Christmas and bring it to Graceland!
Pound cakes are usually a little more dense. Traditionally, pound cake got it's name because it was made from a pound of butter, eggs, and flour.
Another celebrity who's reportedly a huge fan of coconut cake is Tom Cruise – although his recipe calls for slight different ingredients than the one you're looking at now.
To avoid ending up with a dry coconut pound cake, take extra special care when you're mixing together all the ingredients! The quants and the order really matter. You'll also want to make sure you don't leave your pound cake in the oven for too long!
Other Recipes for You to Try
- Best Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe
- Austrian Coconut "Busserl" cookies - like from granny
- How to Make Vanilla Flavored Vodka Whipped Cream
- Easy Vanilla Sauce
- Divine Leftover Egg Yolk Cookies
If you make this recipe, let me know how you liked it by ★★★★★ star rating it and leaving a comment below. This would be awesome! You can also sign up for our Newsletter or follow me on Pinterest or Instagram and share your creation with me. Just tag me @combinegoodflavors and hashtag #combinegoodflavors, so I don't miss it.
📖 Recipe
Juicy Coconut Pound Cake
Equipment
- Kitchen machine with a whisk attachment
- Loaf Pan 1 big loaf pan or 2 small loaf pans
Ingredients
- ½ cup Shredded coconut
- 1 ¼ cup Coconut milk can be substituted with regular milk
- 3 tablespoon White rum or coconut milk
- 1 ¼ cup Butter unsalted, at room temperature
- 1 cup Granulated sugar
- 4 Eggs medium-sized
- 1 cup All-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon Baking powder
- ⅓ tablespoon Baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon Vegetable oil
- Vanilla ice cream optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180 °C // 350 °F, top-bottom heat.
- Mix the 1 ¼ cup Coconut milk, 3 tablespoon White rum or coconut milk, and ½ cup Shredded coconut in a small bowl and then soak for a minimum of 15 minutes.½ cup Shredded coconut, 1 ¼ cup Coconut milk, 3 tablespoon White rum or coconut milk
- Beat the softened 1 ¼ cup Butter and 1 cup Granulated sugar on high speed using your kitchen machine with a whisk attachment for 3-4 minutes.1 ¼ cup Butter, 1 cup Granulated sugar
- Lower the speed to medium, and add the 4 Eggs one by one while stopping the mixer and scraping the edges of the bowl between adding each egg.4 Eggs
- Mix 1 cup All-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon Baking powder, ⅓ tablespoon Baking soda, and ½ teaspoon Kosher salt and sieve them in the butter and egg mix.1 cup All-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon Baking powder, ⅓ tablespoon Baking soda, ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- Next, add the shredded coconut milk mix.
- Mix all ingredients together for another 3-4 minutes, starting on medium speed, then increasing it and scraping the edges if needed.
- Grease the bread pan with 1 tablespoon Vegetable oil and then dust it with flour.1 tablespoon Vegetable oil
- Pour the dough batter in and bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C // 350 °F for 20 minutes.
- After the first 20 minutes, score the top of the pound cake with a knife lengthwise; this should help it bake faster and more evenly.
- Bake for another 25 minutes at the same temperature.
- After this, poke the pound cake in the middle with a wooden skewer, and when you take it out, it should be dry and have no batter/dough should stick to it.
- Using a spatula, gently release the sides of the pound cake from the pan and let it let the cake cool down completely, then turn it over.
- Slice in pieces and serve with Vanilla ice creamVanilla ice cream
Nutrition values are estimates only, using online calculators. Please verify using your own data.
⛑️ Food Safety
- Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
- Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
- Wash hands after touching raw meat
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
- Never leave cooking food unattended
- Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
Gloria
I love pound cake. Simple and so delicious. I would love a slice of this with my coffee right now.
Giangi Townsend
We all loved this soft and rich-in-flavor coconut pound cake.
Super moist, and I added rum, too as you suggested, and it was perfect. A hint but not powerful to overshadow the other ingredients.
Thank you.
Helen at the lazy gastronome
Oh my this is a delicious cake!! I love coconut and the flavors just burst in my mouth!!