Deep-Dish Coconut Carrot Cake
The truth is I’m terrible at making tiered cakes.
They taste good, sure. But the look is downright pathetic. So rather than continue to suffer this indignity I’ve decided to focus on deep-dish, one-layer cakes. This one being a stellar example.
While this coconut carrot cake is crazy delicious, perfect for Easter, and painfully easy to prepare (seriously), it’s also an exercise in disorderly decorating. Because unlike other, organized people who properly manage their daylight hours/life, I do not. So with barely 30 minutes of sunlight to shoot, I couldn’t manage any sort of thoughtful, jaw-dropping presentation. Instead, I put together THIS.
Chaos, but pretty.
But don’t let the mess of flowers, fruit, and lace distract you (I need to edit). This cake is fluffy, spongey, and worth eating in colossal forkfuls.
This is a straight-forward recipe that’s done in just 45 minutes, so it’s great even for timid bakers. A combination of cake flour, coconut cream + milk, and eggs whipped in sugar lend a fluffy AF texture, and here’s how it breaks down:
Cake flour has less gluten than all-purpose, so it inherently produces a less-dense cake.
Eggs whipped in sugar add loads of air bubbles to the batter. Air = fluff, basically, so this is very good.
The coconut cream and milk lend a luscious density that creates the cake’s spongey texture. It’s rich, decadent, and yes — moist. I know everyone hates that word, but dammit sometimes it’s the only descriptor that works.
Lastly: NO BUTTER!
Savin’ the best for last.
Get started by combining the dry and wet ingredients (separately!), then whipping the sugar and eggs inside a stand mixer until lightly and fluffy. Add the wet, then dry ingredients to this mix (batter!), stir in shredded carrots + coconut (even MORE texture), then transfer to a pan and bake.
So simple, so easy, you can totally zone out to Bravo while baking it.
Because I made this deep-dish style I used a springform pan, which frankly is the best thing ever. Using one makes extracting cakes SUPER easy + neat, so if you don’t already have one, invest! They’re like $5, so it’s worth it. After the cake’s cooled it’s time to decorate — I use a standard vanilla icing, nothing fancy — then decorate as you please!
The more of a pastels, the better. xo
Deep-Dish Coconut Carrot Cake
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted
- 1 1/2 tsps baking powder, sifted
- 1 1/2 tsps baking soda, sifted
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 vegetable or canola oil
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cream of coconut
- 1/3 cup full-fat coconut milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 large eggs
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- Crisco to grease
- classic vanilla frosting
- sweetened coconut, fresh fruit, nuts, and flowers to decorate
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 350F. Amply grease a 10″ springform pan with Crisco.
- In a small mixing bowl combine the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another mixing bowl whisk the oil, cream of coconut, coconut milk, and vanilla. Next, in the bowl of a stand mixer beat the eggs, egg yolk, and sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy and pale, about 5 minutes. Beat in the wet ingredients until incorporated, then beat in the dry ingredients (slowly) until the batter takes shape. Lastly stir in the shredded carrots and coconut.
- Transfer batter to greased pan, then bake on oven middle rack for 30 – 35 minutes until a toothpick comes out of the center clean. Allow cake to cool completely, then gently remove from springform pan. Decorate with vanilla icing, coconut flakes (I prefer sweetened on the outside), crushed nuts, fresh fruit, whatever! Serve immediately, saving any leftovers in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
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