Chocolate orange coconut cake for the win!
Although some people prefer pure unadulterated classic coconut cake
For me chocolate and orange are a perfect match up, and when you add coconut to the mix it’s a party!
Super moist layers of coconut cake with chocolate fudge filling and orange scented buttercream.
This thin layer of fudge is just the right amount of bittersweet chocolate against that moist luscious coconut layer cake.
But to make your life easier you can substitute in the easier to make and actually healthier ganache recipe instead!
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Notes for Success:
3 layers of 7″ Cake pans are my choice for most of my cakes although you can always just divide the batter between 2-8″ pans instead
While I am using a store brand egg replacer here, the egg replacer is quite interchangeable so if you prefer to use aquafaba or even flax egg you can sub it in here with no trouble.
Just replace some of the liquid in the recipe with the aquafaba or for flax egg reconstitute 2 Tablespoons of flax meal with 6 tablespoons of the plant milk
I will let you in on a secret too, I forgot to add the egg replacer this last time and it still came out great
Originally I used yogurt in the cake recipe as you see listed below and in the video
However since I don’t always have yogurt on hand, I have recently replaced it with more plant milk with great results
RECIPE UPDATE: I have recently created a new coconut cake recipe that has much less ingredients and is easier to mix!
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE
Chocolate Orange Coconut Cake
Ingredients
For the Coconut Cake
- Granulated Sugar 1 ¾ cups (350g)
- Vegan Butter 14 Tablespoons (196g)
- Coconut Oil or any vegetable oil ½ cup (118ml)
- Unsweetened Coconut Yogurt ½ cup *see notes
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon
- Coconut extract 1 teaspoon
- All Purpose Flour 2¾ cups (340g)
- Egg Replacer 2 teaspoons *see notes
- Baking Powder 1 teaspoon
- Baking Soda 1½ teaspoons
- Salt ½ teaspoon
- Light Coconut Milk or any plant milk 1 cup (237ml)
- Shredded Coconut 1 cup
- Buttercream of your choice
- Zest from 1 large orange approx 1 Tbs
- Juice from 1 - 1½ Oranges approx 4Tbs
- ¼ Recipe Fudge Filling
- OR for a less sweet filling use Ganache
- Whole Coconut flakes for garnish *optional 4oz
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325°F
- Grease and parchment line 3-7" cake pans *see notes
- Sift the flour with the egg replacer, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
- Combine the plant milk with the coconut yogurt and the extracts
- Cream the vegan butter and coconut oil with the sugar until light and fluffy approximately 3-5 minutes until it is light and fluffy *It's ok if your coconut oil is melted and liquid I have done it both ways with fine results
- Add 1/3 of the sifted dry ingredients while mixing on low speed just until it is combined then add half of the milk mixture.
- Add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients, the remaining milk mixture and then the last of the dry ingredients mixing just to combine between additions.
- Mix on medium speed for about 10 seconds to develop the batter then add the shredded coconut and mix to distribute evenly
- Portion into the greased and parchment lined pans and bake in a preheated 325°F oven for approximately 30 -35 minutes or until they are springy to the touch when you gently press the centers or a toothpick inserted comes out with moist crumbs.
- Cool in the pan until you can touch the pan easily without burning yourself and then tun out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile prepare the buttercream as per the instructions on that post and add the orange juice and zest at the last stage of mixing.
- Prepare the optional fudge or ganache filling as well.
- You will only need about ¼ recipe of the fudge filling for this cake, but I always prepare an entire batch because you can never have too much fudge icing! It does refrigerate for up to 1 month and freezes for several months. Be careful with your math is you do decide to divide the recipe into ¼
- Ice the cake as shown in the video tutorial
Notes
This cake can stay at room temperature for up to 2 days or refrigerate for longer up to 1 week wrapped well to prevent drying.
Cake layers can be frozen wrapped airtight for up to 1 month
3.5.3251
Have you tried the neat egg before? When I bought it from Target it made one of your recipes taste like pure garbanzo beans. It honestly made the cake inedible. I’ll try the other options instead. I hope to make this cake this weekend. Wish me luck!
Really? yes I have tried (I can’t remember in what though LOL) but I did not find it offensive. I did not opt for flax here, because this is already a high fat cake, with the vegan butter, oil, coconut milk, that I find flax “egg” to be heavy in a higher fat cake, flax is just more fat.
What other egg replacer can I use? I’ve gone to the Facebook page and there is no information on how or where to purchase the freely vegan egg. I even left a message last week and got no response.
Hi Cassia, I’m sorry to hear this, Deborah has been great about getting back to people who join the page. Since it is not available in nationwide stores yet (there is some legal processes that have to still happen like getting barcodes etc…) Deborah has been shipping it direct to people who contact her. I will let her know to check again and also give her your email. But meanwhile you can use another egg replacer as I mentioned in the blog post here (I named specifically Bob’s Red Mill or The Neat Egg as good alternatives and even flax “egg” will be acceptable but not my first choice)
I have been using your recipes but we are not vegan would you be offended if I asked for none vegan alternatives to beprinted?
Butter is easy but 2 spoons of plant based egg replacer equals how many eggs?
Shame if we can never again use your recipes.
Hi Elizabeth thanks for using my recipes. While I will not be adding in the non vegan recipes to the blog, it is pretty simple for those who are not willing to try the vegan recipes and wish to convert them back again, Vegan Cream Cheese= cow cream cheese, vegan butter= cow butter, milk alternative = milk.. the egg replacer listed here is for 2 eggs
I do explain that question here in my Q & A if you are interested skip to 26minutes in the video
I do love it when non vegans stay for my recipes though, after all we are sharing ideas as well as recipes and perhaps you would want ot give a vegan recipe a go sometime, OR you just never know if someone you bake for in the future may have an egg or dairy allergy. So it’s good to keep an open mind.
Hello ! In this rep above Instruction 11 by mistake empty or its over ?
sorry about that! It just goes to step 10. THANKS!
this cake looks very tasty
Oh sorry I read in the comment box below how many eggs are needed if non vegan recipe. Thanks anyway for sharing great recipes always. Have a good day!
The coconut is very large flakes. May I ask where you purchased it? The cake looks Devine!!
Thanks! I was able to find them at my local ShopRite, in the “natural foods” section
Hi Gretchen,
Thank you for the recipe. I have one question: I used Bob’s Mill Egg Replacer and I added two teaspoons of it to the recipe. Did I use it right according to your directions or should I have created two eggs as listed in the directions on the back of the package by adding water? My cake sunk and I am not sure if it is because I opened the oven door early or did not use the egg replacer in the way you meant it. The cake was tasty and so was the orange buttercream. I have a lot of frosting left over and I want to do the recipe again without the sunken effect of course.
hi there, I have not used the bob’s red mill brand, but I suspect it would work ok. I doubt it was opening the open door as this is not a chiffon or foamed egg cake that would warrant that type of fragility. It is possible you overfilled the pans, as that is the leading cause of sinkage (the cakes rise nicely but if the better is too full they have no place else to go at the max point of rising so they go down)
Be sure to always fill pans slightly more than half full, not more to give them room.
**The liquid is adjusted in the recipe for the plant based egg – which is the same amount that would be required for bob’s brand (I believe)
I really love making the coconut cake but it deflated and sunk in the middle of the cake. I used 3 6 inch cake pans. I would like to try it again, because it really was tasty and it was not over sweet….the cake batter was very fluffy…..Please help
Dire cake follower
hmm, Im not sure why it would have sunk. It’s a pretty straight forward recipe. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the pans were filled too much? If they are overfilled, they will rise nicely but subsequently collapse from lack of room to grow
Thanks I am trying it again with 9 inch pans instead of the 6 inch…. hope it turns outs ok this time!!