Reviewed: May 24, 2012

I first saved this recipe over a year ago and now that I only work part-time I finally had the chance to make it for a special occasion. Boy was I disappointed. I am a very experienced baker and was a professional at one time. The other reviews I read were right on when they say "Do not use an entire half cup of butter in the filling". It is too buttery tasting and over powers the coconut flavor to where you can't taste the coconut unless you're actually chewing on a flake of coconut in the filling. The filling squished out the sides of the cake so I had to wait even longer after it cooled to frost it. I get my eggs from a farmer near me so my eggs were VERY FRESH, but the cake itself was dry. I did use a generous amount of the syrup too, so the dryness surprised me. The cream cheese frosting is just a bad idea altogether. I tried it becuase I thought with the addition of the coconut milk it would be nice. Had I been on top of things yesterday, I wouldn't have frosted the whole thing with the cream cheese frosting. Oh well, live and learn, the cream cheese is also way too much and I definitely would cut the amount of cream cheese in half, at least, if ever making it again and I would use cream of coconut in its place. All in all, I feel this was a huge waste of time and money for ingredients. If not for the flaked coconut in the filling and on top of the cake, a person would never know it was supposed to taste like coconut:(

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
0 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Joanna

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Milton, Washington, USA

Living In: Dickinson, North Dakota, USA

Reviewed: Sep. 28, 2011

Was disappointed that the filling never set up - not even after 2 days in the refrigerator. Was only able to us a little between the layers and ended up throwing most of it out. Otherwise the cake itself was delicious and the favorite of several of my friends. If anyone has a cure for the filling not setting up, please let me know.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
0 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Jack & Peggy

Reviewed: Apr. 24, 2011

Great recipe! All 5 family members here have radically different tastes, and all loved the same cake for once! Crazy. This will remain a special-occasion go-to recipe for me.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
2 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

AustinJen

Reviewed: Apr. 15, 2011

This cake is definitely a keeper. It's a lot of work, but worth the effort with your prize at the end. I would strongly suggest however, that you minimize the amount of butter for the filling. All of the butter gave the filling a strong taste of just that; BUTTER, and it overpowered the taste of coconut. Instead, use a tablespoon of butter to give the filling a stronger taste of coconut. I ended up making it twice and I want to save everyone else from wasting products. Other than that, I made this cake, dished it out to the neighborhood and received rave reviews. I will be making a lot more of this cake, as I am a huge coconut fan.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
6 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Tammy

Reviewed: Oct. 30, 2010

I made cupcakes with this recipe which may have impacted the cake part somewhat but I found the cake to be very dry. I LOVE the icing and the filling and ended up using them on cupcakes made with just a regular white cake mix. I did reduce the amount of sugar in the filling to just 1/2 cup and in the frosting to just 2 cups.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
2 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

kcummings

Reviewed: Oct. 13, 2010

My husband loves coconut cake, so I made this cake for our first anniversary. This was a bit challenging for me personally, as I do not like coconut!!! Even so, he really loved this cake!!! The cake itself was a little more dense than I had originally hoped and not quite as moist as I would have liked, but the flavor of it seemed to be great (according to the husband)! The filling is absolutely out of this world!! Before I flavored it with the coconut, I could have eaten the entire batch straight out of the pot!! I made no changes to it! For the icing, it calls for a crazy amount of sugar, so I actually used 16 ounces of cream cheese, 3/4 cup of butter, and approximately 2 cups of sugar (sweeten to taste). This is similar to the cream cheese icing that I use for almost all of my cakes! This change does lend a bold cream cheese flavor, and is nowhere near as sweet. You'll notice it also doubles the amount of icing so you will have some left over! I got rave reviews over this cake, even though I was unable to personally decide whether it was good or not, since I do not like coconut. I will make this again! Also, I do recommend microwaving each slice for 10-20 seconds before eating it. Storing it in the fridge solidifies the filling and cake a bit, so zapping it makes it perfect!!!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
1 user found this review helpful

Reviewer:

snicholw

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Elk Creek, Virginia, USA

Living In: Wytheville, Virginia, USA

Reviewed: Aug. 22, 2010

Very moist, delicious cake. The frosting and filling is very sweet though, you do need to have a very sweet tooth for this. I made it for the first time to take to a family gathering and everyone enjoyed it, though some did find it a little over sweet due to the icing. Next time though, I will make the filling a little stiffer/thicker as the weight of all the layers of cake made some of the filling ooze out of the sides before I could add the frosting. Still a 5 star cake in my opinion!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
1 user found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Catkin

Cooking Level: Expert

Living In: London, Greater London, England, U.K.

Reviewed: Mar. 15, 2010

Takes awhile to make with all the steps but makes a noticaeable difference from box cakes. Turned out good even with my revisions. Half and half instead of whipping cream in the filling with an egg added to help in thickening. If you don't have cream of coconut you can skim a tablespoon off the top of the cocount milk before srirring it. I didn't find it necessary to use the syrup. I toasted the coconut for the top and used macadamia nuts as an additional garnish.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
2 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Sheryl

Reviewed: Apr. 7, 2009

I added Malibu coconut rum to the filling and it gave it just the right touch! This cake was delicious, I even got a few marriage proposals out of it!! But I prefer the recipe from Paula Deen... I make this every year for my Cats' birthday (minus the rum, lol) and they love it, and they are picky eaters!! hehe...

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
1 user found this review helpful

Reviewer:

KellyJoy

Home Town: Sarasota, Florida, USA

Reviewed: Feb. 8, 2008

Yummy! My 7 yr old son, who shares my love for cooking, wanted to buy a coconut. Long story short, I wanted a recipe that used fresh coconut and something he could do with just a little help from me. This cake was perfect. Not too difficult, a little time consuming, but worth it in the end. This cake was great! The only thing I changed was instead of 3 layers, we made 2. Turned out great!!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
1 user found this review helpful