Coconut Cake with Sour Cream Frosting

Coconut Cake – the sour cream cool whip frosting makes this cake! It is AMAZING!!! So easy to make and everyone loves it! This is my go-to cake for holidays and parties. Everyone always asks for the recipe! Only 5 ingredients -Cake mix, sour cream, cool whip, coconut, and sugar. The frosting has to sit overnight in the refrigerator, so plan ahead to make this easy Coconut Cake! 

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The BEST Coconut Cake with Cool Whip Frosting

I got this Coconut Cake recipe from my Mom. She had it at a holiday party last year and asked for the recipe. OMG! I’m so glad she did! This Coconut Cake is so light and delicious. We ate WAY too much of this! It was totally worth it though. It is seriously one of the best cakes we’ve ever eaten. All you need is a few sliced strawberries and you are set! This is a great dessert for birthdays, cookouts, dinner parties, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving – really just any occasion that you need a dessert!

cake on a plate

How To Make Coconut Cake

This cake is super easy to make. There are only a few simple ingredients – cake mix, sugar, sour cream, coconut, and cool whip. The day before making the cake, you will want to make the frosting and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. The frosting is made up of coconut, cool whip, sugar, and sour cream. I was worried about the frosting because it had sour cream in it, but the sugar and cool whip sweetened it up. The frosting was obviously my favorite part of the whole cake!

The cake layers are made from a box of yellow cake mix. You are going to split each baked layer into two layers giving the cake a total of four layers. Make sure to let the layers cool completely before slicing. Once the cake is sliced, just frost with the coconut frosting. 

This is a very simple cake to make, it just requires a little planning. The actual hands-on time is minimal. I used full fat cool whip and full-fat sour cream in the frosting. I haven’t tried this with reduced-fat or fat-free ingredients. If you try it, let us know how it turns out.

dessert on a plate

How to Store Coconut Cake

You can make the cake a day in advance and store it refrigerated in an air-tight container. The cake needs to be refrigerated because of the frosting. It will go bad if it isn’t refrigerated.

This cake is perfect for parties, potlucks, holidays, and Mother’s Day. We served the cake with some fresh strawberries. Perfection!

cake on a plate

Can I Freeze Coconut Cake?

I love to make the cake layers ahead of time and freeze them for a quick dessert later. I bake the cakes, cool, and slice them before wrapping them in plastic wrap and putting in freezer bags. When I’m ready to make the cake, I take the layers out of the freezer when I make the sour cream/coconut mixture. The cake is thawed by the time I am ready to frost the cake.

I haven’t frozen this particular cake frosted. It didn’t last long enough to freeze. Typically, it is just fine to freeze cakes. You will want to put the cake in the freezer and once it has frozen wrap it tightly with freezer plastic wrap. I also like to put it in a freezer ziplock bag. You don’t want any air to get on the cake in the freezer. The cake should last several months frozen.

slice of cake on a plate

Coconut Cake with Sour Cream Frosting

Yield: 12 people
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Coconut Cake – the sour cream cool whip frosting makes this cake! It is AMAZING!!! So easy to make and everyone loves it! This is my go-to cake for holidays and parties. Everyone always asks for the recipe! Only 5 ingredients -Cake mix, sour cream, cool whip, coconut and sugar. The frosting has to sit overnight in the refrigerator, so plan ahead to make this easy Coconut Cake! #cake #coconutcake #dessert #recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 box Golden Butter Cake Mix, plus ingredients to make cake
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 (16-oz) container sour cream
  • 1 (14-oz) bag sweetened coconut
  • 1 (12-oz) container Cool Whip, thawed

Instructions:

  • The night before making the cake, combine sugar, sour cream and coconut. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
  • The next day, prepare the cake mix according to package directions for two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans. Let cool completely. Split each layer into two for a total of 4 cake layers.
  • Remove the sour cream coconut mixture from the refrigerator. Remove 1 cup of the mixture and set aside.
  • Spread remaining sour cream coconut mixture in between the cake layers.
  • Blend the Cool Whip and 1 cup of reserved sour cream coconut mixture together. Frost cake with this mixture.
  • Place cake in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.

Steph

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Comments

  1. I use this basic recipe, but I use white cake mix, and add 1 tsp of almond flavoring to the cake batter. Delicious!!

  2. Did you use frozen coconut in your recipe? I was wondering if the frozen has excess water, my mixture was runny too.

  3. I used 1 container of sour cream, 1 cup of sugar, 1 tub of Cool Whip, and 12oz of frozen coconut. Will this mixture turn out? Letting it come together in the fridge over night.

    1. I use power sugar ..
      I mix the power sugar ..cool whip and sour cream together ..then put coconut in and stir it all together.
      Put on cake layer then sprinkle little more coconut on top of the cake layer.
      Then add another cake layer ..do the same thing .. last cake layer ice the top layer and all around the cake ..put little .more coconut all over and around the cake ..
      I make 8 layers out one cake mix.
      Put 3/4 cup batter in one cake pan ..do all 8 layer like this . Bake about 12 minutes on 325%.
      Takes 7 packs of frozen coconut …
      Set coconut out to thaw.
      Using these small thin layers makes a cake so much better.
      Called old fashion coconut cake .

      1. I love this cake and always make it with regular granulted sugar. How does it affect the taste. Is it sweeter with confectioners sugar. Anyone else try this

  4. I’ve been making this cake for many years and it is delicious. I followed the same recipe for the icing but it is to runny and I don’t know why. Do you have any suggestions? I would love to hear from you.

  5. My mother in law used to make this same cake for every occasion. I always looked forward to her making it for my birthday!

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