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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
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!
Coconut Carrot Cake with Jammy Swirled Buttercream
Servings: 20
Calories Per Serving: 466 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups melted coconut oil or canola oil
- 3/4 cup milk or buttermilk, at room temperature
- 3 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups grated carrots
- 1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
Berry Frosting
- 3 sticks salted butter, at room temperature
- 4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup high-quality fruit jam
- 1/3 cup salted pistachios, finely chopped
- fresh berries, for serving
Instructions
- 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 3 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter/spray with cooking spray.2. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a hand-held mixer), beat together the oil, milk, eggs, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Beat in the carrots and coconut. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Mix until just combined and there are no clumps of flour. 3. Pour the batter among the cake pans and bake 25-30 minutes, until the tops are just set and no longer wiggly in the center. Remove and let cool five minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the pan. Turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack. Cover and let the cakes cool completely before assembling.4. To make the buttercream. Add the butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until light and fluffy. Gently swirl in the jam, leaving streaks of jam throughout for a "swirled" look. 5. To assemble, place one cake layer on a serving plate or cake stand. Spread the buttercream over the cake. Add the 2nd cake layer and spread with buttercream. Add the final cake layer and spread buttercream. Lightly frost the outside of the cake, it shouldn't look "perfect". Chill 30 minutes or store in the fridge for up to 3 days. 6. Before serving, decorate the cake, as desired with berries and pistachios.
This post was originally published on April 7, 2020
SO GOOD
Thank you Kathleen! xTieghan
Very easy, very moist, very tasty…thanks for yet another recipe to keep! And easy to work with – we used canola instead of coconut oil; also did two-thirds of recipe qty to make just a 2-layer cake…still worked perfect!??
Hi Bonnie! I am really glad this cake turned out so well for you! Thank you for trying it! xTieghan
Oh man, made these as cupcakes for dessert tonight. Incredible! I think I may have over-baked them because I didn’t know what carrot cake looks like out of the oven, but the icing and the carrots evened things out. That icing is a WINNER. Truly the best icing I’ve ever had! I used strawberry jam. Incredible.
Hi Alix! I am so glad you tried this and enjoyed it!! Thank you so much! I hope you continue to enjoy other recipes of mine! xTieghan
Made this for myself on my birthday and it was soooooooo good! I made half your portion size and it was perfect! Thank you!!! I usually don’t leave feedbacks on any blog, but this cake came out exceptionally well. So I had to!
I am so glad this turned out so well for you Sana! Thank you for trying this! I hope you had a wonderful birthday! xTieghan
Just made it yesterday and enjoyed as a quarantine Easter dessert. SO SO yummy and moist. Thanks for creating something fun and yummy for the weird times we are in.
Thank you so much Megan! I am so glad this turned out so well for you! I hope you are staying well! xTieghan
Made this into cupcakes and it was amazing! The cake was the perfect level of moistness. I preferred slightly less jam in the frosting because the buttercream itself was just so delicious. Great flavors!!
Hi Hannah! That is so amazing to hear! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! xTieghan
Made this gluten free with one-to-one Bob’s flour – and it was delicious. There’s just two of us, so I cut the recipe down to a third and it worked out well. I ran out of oil, but subing some of the oil (about a third of it) with some plain greek yogurt worked out! I eye ball it – but I suppose the amount of yogurt I used compared to the oil I needed was about double.
I think this cake is delicious without the frosting (I’m not a big frosting fan). However – I had some cinnamon cranberry orange jam in my fridge and it paired well. YUM! This one is a keeper for my recipe box. Thank you!
Thank you so much Jen! I am so glad this recipe turned out so well for you! I hope you continue to love other recipes you try of mine! xTieghan
Question-I am going to try to bake this! It looks amazing, recipe says use 3 cake pans—but in your pics only see 2 layers—should we do 3 or 2 layers?!
Thanks!
Hi Renata! I have three layers in the cake in the photo, its a little hard to see though! Sorry about that. It is three layers! I hope you love this! xTieghan
Just made this cake and it is delicious! The only thing I’m wondering is if I could replace the pistachios with something else?
Hey Janelle! Sure! Any other nut you really love would be great. My choice would be cashews.Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you!! xTieghan
Hi Janelle,
So glad you enjoyed the recipe! You could replace the pistachios with another nut that you enjoy! Please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
This cake was delicious and simple to make. It is beautiful and the icing is SOMETHING SPECIAL. Wow! Thanks so much for this sharing recipe, Tieghan!
Thank you Rebekah! I am so glad this turned out so well for you! xTieghan
Hi Tieghan,
I am prepping on making this cake but I was wondering if the flavor of coconut jumps out at you in a good way or if its subtle? Also wondering if you think it would take over adding ginger and pecans? The cake looks very crumbly in the picture as well.. is it not moist? Thanks so much I look forward to your feedback?
HI! I think the coconut is subtle, but would not use it in addition to ginger and walnuts. The cake is crumbly due to the stir ins/ It is very moist. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you!! xTieghan
Hi Fern,
The coconut flavor is subtle with works great with the carrot cake. I think adding the ginger and pecans would be a touch overwhelming. The cake is moist, sorry if it doesn’t look like that in the photos. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
DELICIOUS! Everything I love about a carrot cake with a tasty surprise of coconut and jam!
Thank you so much Rachel! I am so glad this turned out so well for you! xTieghan
The flavor is amazing and love the texture. My rounds were really small though. feel like I should have doubled the recipe to get such a high cake! And maybe add walnuts next time!
Thank you so much Kathleen! I am so glad this turned out well for you! I hope you love it with walnuts next time! xTieghan
I made this today and will do the frosting/decorating tomorrow as it’s Easter Sunday. I did try a crumb and it’s sooooo good! Can’t wait to dive into it! Oh and I halved the recipe and baked it for 20 in a brownie pan – it doesn’t do any harm to the cake and its natural beauty ? thanks so much for sharing this easy yet amazing recipe right in time for Easter, Tieghan ?? happy Easter to everyone! Stay safe!
Hi Lara! I am so glad this turned out so well for you!! I hope you have an amazing Easter! xTieghan
Yummy! Making this tomorrow. But it is only my husband and I, and we only have 1 9 inch pan, do I cut this recipe in half? Help!! I don’t really bake but want to make something special for Easter tomorrow:))
Hi Mariela,
INGREDIENTS
1 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cups melted coconut oil or canola oil
1/4 cup milk or buttermilk, at room temperature
1 eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cups grated carrots
1/3 shredded sweetened coconut
BERRY FROSTING
1 sticks salted butter, at room temperature
1 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons high-quality fruit jam
2 tablespoons salted pistachios, finely chopped
fresh berries, for serving