This moist vegan lemon coconut cake is quick and easy to make, incredibly delicious, and even healthier than traditional loaf cake recipes because it‘s eggless and oil-free! Topped with whipped coconut cream, exotic passion fruit and crunchy coconut chips, this fluffy cake is perfect for summer!
The best vegan coconut cake
Fancy an indulgent trip to the Caribbean or just want to bake a delicious cake without much effort? Then try this super easy coconut cake recipe! It’s moist, fluffy, and irresistibly delicious – so it’s exactly how a perfect vegan cake should be! And the best part – It doesn’t require any eggs, butter, dairy milk or extra oil at all!
You can even get super creative with this basic recipe. For example, you can fold fresh or frozen fruits and berries into the batter and top the cake with your favorite toppings. You could also turn this recipe into cute coconut lemon cupcakes, muffins, donuts, madeleines, a bundt cake, or even an impressive layer cake instead of making a classic loaf cake.
Whatever you whip up from this quick fuss-less recipe, no one will notice that this coconut cake is vegan and oil-free!
Ingredients for this recipe
For this recipe, you’ll only need a few simple pantry staple ingredients that you might even already have at home. The batter is whipped up in less than 5 minutes and then all you have to do is pour it into a baking pan and bake!
- Flour: both all-purpose and spelt flour as well as gluten-free flour are suitable for this recipe: using finely ground light flours will make the cake fluffier, but you can also mix light flour with whole wheat flour.
- Raw cane sugar: or coconut blossom sugar or other sugar to taste.
- Baking powder & baking soda: or just one of each.
- Salt: just a pinch.
- Vanilla extract: or ground bourbon vanilla or or the pith of a vanilla bean.
- Coconut milk: full fat from a can.
- Desiccated coconut: or ground almonds.
- Lemon: the juice and zest of it. Alternatively, you can sub a lime, orange or tangerine.
- Topping: such as coconut cream, passion fruit, red currants, coconut chips, and mint.
How to make the best vegan coconut cake
As always, I recommend checking out the recipe video and these step-by-step instructions first. Then you’ll find the full recipe with the exact measurements in the recipe card below!
Step 1: Make the batter
First, whisk together flour, desiccated coconut, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Next, add the coconut milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract and stir briefly until just combined.
Step 2: Bake the cake
Pour the batter into a prepared 25-cm loaf pan and bake the cake at 356 °F (180 °C) about 45-50 minutes, or until a chopstick comes out clean (if necessary, cover with parchment paper after 30 to prevent the top from getting too dark). Then allow to cool.
Step 3: Make the coconut cream passion fruit topping
Once the cake has cooled, beat the coconut cream with San-apart and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form and spread on the cake. Garnish with passion fruit, coconut chips, berries and mint if desired and serve. Enjoy!
More cake topping ideas
As an alternative to the coconut cream passion fruit topping, you can also top your cake with a quick and easy lemon glaze made with just powdered sugar and lemon juice. If you like it more colorful, you can also use fruit juice like strawberry juice, blueberry juice, mango juice or pineapple juice to make a pink, purple, orange or yellow glaze. Of course, a vegan cream cheese frosting with toasted almonds or coconut makes a great cake topping too! Just be creative!
Tips & tricks for making the perfect vegan cake!
While the recipe itself is super simple, there are a few things to keep in mind when baking cakes without eggs. If you follow the tips exactly, your vegan coconut cake will turn out perfectly!
- Line your baking pan with parchment paper so that you can easily lift the cake out later.
- Follow the recipe and weigh the ingredients exactly to ensure the batter has the right consistency.
- If the flour or baking powder has lumps, sift it through a fine sieve first.
- Stir the batter gently with a whisk and do not use an electric mixer. If you overmix the batter, it will become sticky and tough, so that the cake will not rise so well. Stir it only until the ingredients have just combined so that the cake turns out nice and fluffy!
- Don’t forget the chopstick test! Take the cake out of the oven as soon as no more raw batter remains on the stick. Don’t overbake it, either, or it will get too dry.
- Let the cake cool completely before you cut it, so that it becomes more sliceable. Vegan cakes are always very crumbly when they are freshly baked and still warm.
How can I store leftover cake?
Leftover moist vegan coconut cake can be stored without cream topping in a cake box at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator, it will even keep for up to 5 days.
If the cake has become too dry over time, you can warm it briefly in the microwave before eating. This will make it super soft, fluffy and moist again!
How can I freeze leftover cake?
You can freeze leftover cake for 3 months without any problems. Simply place in freezer bags (separate individual pieces with parchment paper or wrap them separately in plastic wrap). Then, when you want to eat a piece of coconut cake, you can just take it out of the freezer and thaw it at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator or briefly in the microwave.
This vegan lemon coconut loaf cake is:
- Eggless
- Without butter, without oil
- Dairy free (lactose free)
- Easy to make
- Made in just one bowl
- Nice and moist and not too dry
- Soft and fluffy
- Topped with whipped coconut cream and fruity passion fruit
- So delicious!
- Perfect as a dessert or sweet snack for spring, summer and anytime!
More easy vegan cake recipes to try
- Grandmas Apple Cake
- The Best Lemon Cake
- Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
- One-Bowl Chocolate Cake
- Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- Cranberry Orange Bread
- Raspberry Almond Cake
- Blueberry Bundt Cake
- Blood Orange Bundt Cake
- Apricot Cake with Coconut
- Strawberry Rhubarb Cake
- Chocolate Banana Bread
- Classic Banana Bread
- Zebra Marble Cake
- Chocolate Pumpkin Marble Bread
If you try this best vegan coconut loaf cake, feel free to leave me a comment telling me how you liked this recipe! And if you take a photo of your delicious cake and share it on Instagram, please tag me @biancazapatka and use the hashtag #biancazapatka so I don’t miss your post! Happy baking! 🙂
The Best Lemon Coconut Cake (Easy + Vegan)
Author:Ingredients
Coconut Cake
- 2 ½ cups (300 g) flour all-purpose, spelt or gluten-free flour
- ½ cup (50 g) desiccated coconut
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda or 2 tsp. more baking powder
- ¾ cup (150 g) raw cane sugar or other sugar to taste
- 1 pinch of salt
- 14 oz (400 g) coconut milk full-fat
- 1 organic lemon about 3 tbsp juice and the zest of it
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or the pulp of a vanilla bean
Topping (of choice)
- 7 oz (200 g) coconut cream chilled
- ½ tbsp San-apart or other cream stabilizer
- 2-3 tbsp powdered sugar to taste
- passion fruit
- coconut chips
- mint
Instructions
*Note: Check out the recipe video + step-by-step instructions above!
- Preheat the oven to 356 °F (180 °C). Lightly grease a 9.8x.4.3-inch (25x11 cm or similar size) loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
- Whisk together flour, desiccated coconut, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add coconut milk (see note below*), lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract and whisk briefly until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake the cake for about 45-50 minutes, until a chopstick comes out clean (if necessary, cover with parchment paper after 30 to prevent the top from getting too dark).
- Let the cake rest in the pan for about 15 minutes, then carefully lift it out and let it finish cooling on a cooling rack.
- Once the cake has cooled, whip the coconut cream with San-apart and powdered sugar and spread on the cake. Garnish with passion fruit, coconut chips and mint if desired.
- Slice and enjoy!
Notes
- If needed, gently warm the coconut milk so that the solid part becomes liquid and a smooth mixture is formed.
- Use finely ground light flour if you want a fluffier cake, but you can also combine light flour with whole wheat flour. If your flour and/or baking powder have lumps, it is best to sift through a fine-meshed sieve first.
- If you want to fold fresh or frozen fruits into the batter, toss them in cornstarch first to prevent the cake from becoming soggy.
- More information on storing and freezing as well as helpful tips on how to make your vegan cake perfectly are mentioned in the blog post above!
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Which gluten free flour have you tried with this recipe? Do you think Bob’s red mill baking flour would work?
Yes! 🙂
Hi, i made this and it turned out be awesome! I added pineapple to the coconut whip like a pina colada frosting.
I’m making it a second time now like a layered cake.
That’s great! ☺️ Thank you ❤️
I try to use date paste as sweetener, how would the measurements change and will it work at all in your opinion?
I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t recommend it.