This high altitude chocolate coconut cake, frosted with fluffy coconut cream cheese buttercream, covered in crunchy coconut flakes and chopped dark chocolate. Chocolate cake with coconut frosting is simple to decorate, but makes a beautiful dessert for any holiday or special occasion.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Easy to Decorate: One of the things I love about coconut cake is that you don’t have to have any cake decorating skills at all. Your frosting doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth, because you’re just covering it all up with crunchy coconut flakes. A few dark chocolate squares or truffles on top of the cake adds the perfect finishing touch.
• Soft and Moist: The chocolate cake is a wonderful cake recipe that stays soft and moist for days after baking. It pairs perfectly with any flavor of buttercream.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake

• ½ recipe Chocolate Cake

Coconut Buttercream

• 4 oz (1/2 block) full fat block cream cheese, cold
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp meringue powder, optional
• 1 tsp corn starch
• ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp coconut extract
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 2 oz dark chocolate, chopped

Instructions

Chocolate Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly spray the bottoms of three 6-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
• Prepare 1/2 the recipe for Chocolate Cake, as instructed.
• Divide the batter between the prepared pans, and bake for about 20-22 minutes, until the tops of the cakes spring back when gently touched, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Set the pans on a cooling rack and cool the cakes completely before frosting.

Coconut Buttercream

• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter for 1 minute, until smooth.
• RWith the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder, corn starch and salt, mixing until combined. Add the extracts.
• Increase the speed to medium, and beat the buttercream for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl down several times, until light and fluffy.
• Stack, fill and frost the cooled cakes with the buttercream. I recommend applying a thin crumb coat first, chilling the cake for 30 minutes, then frosting the cake with a final coat of buttercream.
• Chop the chocolate so that you have a mixture of fine pieces and chunks no bigger than 1/4 inch. Combine the chopped chocolate with the coconut, then press the mixture all over the top and sides of the cake. Do this by just scooping up handfuls, pressing it against the sides, and gathering up what falls onto the counter to press it back onto the cake.

Recipe from Curly girl kitchen