Coconut Carrot Cake with Jam Swirled Buttercream.

Embracing springtime with a sweet Coconut Carrot Cake with Jam Swirled Buttercream. Three layers of light and fluffy cake swirled with sweet coconut, carrots, and a touch of warming cinnamon. This one is for all of those carrot cake lovers out there. Each cake layer is frosted generously with berry jam swirled buttercream. Every bite is layered with coconut, sweet vanilla, and filled with creamy buttercream. An easy, mouthwateringly delicious, carrot cake with incredible flavor to enjoy anytime time of the year! One of the best desserts!

When life gives you a lot of time to bake – we bake cakes! Or at least that’s what I’ve been doing. I mean, sort of. I’ve baked this cake, plus two others in the last few weeks. It’s just that time of year. Honestly, I wasn’t sure…heck, I’m still not sure…if you all would be interested in a cake recipe. Times are obviously a little different right now. But with Easter this Sunday I decided to go for it and share this easier carrot cake with you guys. This would also make for a great Mother’s Day cake. Time to get out the electric mixer!

I’ve been plotting and dreaming up this cake in my head for months now. I know we’re not having any large Easter gatherings or even any spring gatherings, but we can all still enjoy some cake, right?

Yes, yes. We have the time to bake, so let’s bake cake.

In all seriousness, I’m really excited to share this cake with you guys. If you’ve been reading for a while, you know that chocolate cakes are the usual favorite around here. But I’ve slowly started to enjoy baking with fruits…and now vegetables too. For the longest time, I never understood why anyone would want carrots in their cake. It just didn’t make sense to me, but now I get it. Carrot cake is delicious.

It’s sweet, tender, moist and so flavorful with great texture.

The perfect springtime cake.

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour 
• Baking powder 
• Baking soda 
• Ground cinnamon 
• Kosher salt 
• Melted coconut oil 
• Milk or buttermilk 
• Eggs 
• Granulated sugar 
• Light brown sugar 
• Vanilla extract 
• Grated carrots 
• Shredded sweetened coconut 

Tangy Cream Cheese Frosting with Berries

• Salted butter (unsalted butter works too if you would prefer)
• Cream cheese 
• Vanilla extract 
• Powdered sugar 
• High quality fruit jam 
• Salted pistachios 
• Fresh berries 

Some details.

With times being the way they are, I did have to adapt the recipe slightly from what I had originally created. I know many of you are cooking and baking using your pantry staples. So I wanted to be sure this was something we’d all be able to make with ingredients we all have access to. You’ll still need fresh carrots, but personally I always have carrots in my fridge.

The other key dry ingredients here are the usual baking items…flour, baking powder, etc. You’ll also need shredded coconut and any jar of berry jam. Not sure if coconut and jam are staples for everyone, but I like to have both on hand at all times. You never know when you might want a sweet coconut cake or maybe even just a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If you like to add chopped walnuts or pecans into your carrot cake, you can add these to the dry ingredients as well. I didn’t include them for my recipe, but some people love the nutty flavor and texture.

Let’s start with the coconut carrot cake.

The batter is simple. As mentioned, you need the usuals plus shredded carrots and shredded coconut. I like to use coconut oil for even more coconut flavor and a touch of cinnamon to warm the cake up. The cinnamon is classic for carrot cake, but I also find it especially delicious when paired with the coconut.

It’s not even that you notice the cinnamon so much as it really just helps to highlight the flavors and make them that much better. These cake layers are soft and fluffy and have just the right amounts of carrots and coconut swirled throughout.

The carrot cake layers themselves are truly delicious. Soft carrot cake layers with melt in your mouth frosting coming up!

But every cake needs a good buttercream.

Fun fact? I always go back and forth about whether to use the word buttercream versus frosting. I finally took the time to google what the difference really is…and it’s pretty simple. Frosting doesn’t use butter but instead uses shortening or cream cheese. And buttercream, well it always uses butter! Just in case you were all wondering.

Ok, moving along…

This buttercream is extra special. For one, it’s made with the addition of both butter and cream cheese. Classic carrot cakes always use a cream cheese frosting, so I wanted to incorporate a bit of that flavor into my buttercream. And two, this is an extra “whipped” buttercream with heavy hints of vanilla.

The other thing I wanted was a berry-filled buttercream. Since not all of us have easy access to berries right now, I decided to use jam, which honestly worked out better than using fresh berries. You can use whatever jam you like, but I used half raspberry and half strawberry.

Twas’ delicious.

Now, decorating.

I used the last of our fresh raspberries and strawberries plus a light sprinkle of very finely chopped pistachios. You can really decorate however you’d like. But I loved the simplicity of this, and the added salty, nuttiness from the pistachios are a nice touch. Sweet recipes are the best!

If you’re looking to go the edible flower route, I love using chamomile or thyme blossoms. Sadly, there’s no chamomile around here right now.

And that’s it, a simple cake that’s fun to make and beyond delicious. Perfect for our days at home this spring. So what do we all think? Tuesday cake baking? I know many of us have the time, so why not? Sounds like the perfect stay at home baking day to me. Have fun and enjoy some sweet carrot cake! We hope this recipe gets you star reviews at home or at your next gathering!

Looking for some other Easter cake ideas? Try these:

Lemon Coconut Naked Cake with Whipped Vanilla Buttercream

Coconut Carrot Cheesecake

Strawberry Coconut Carrot Cake with Mascarpone Buttercream

Lastly, if you make this coconut carrot cake with jam swirled buttercream, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!