Coconut Syrup Cake is a moist coconut sheet cake soaked through with a hot syrup, and coconut-pecan topping.
Coconut Syrup Cake
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
This week for Sunday Supper we are bringing out our best Thanksgiving dessert recipes for the Holidays. If your family is like mine, the desserts go well beyond the usual pumpkin pie. My Mom, for example, always liked to put out quite the spread of desserts, so everyone cold choose from a number of things.
One of the popular Southern desserts for Thanksgiving is a coconut layer cake. Ellen Folkman from Family Around the Table is bringing that to the table. Make sure you don’t miss that one! And so many other wonderful sweet treats from SS Tastemakers.
I recently received a request for a cake from Sherry, one of my readers back in October.
“Sue, I moved from Cincinnati to Southern Alabama a few years back and there is a cake that an elderly lady makes but will not divulge the recipe for. All I know is it has pecans, possibly coconut, and some kind of syrup or sauce that soaks through to make it so super moist all the way through and I do mean all the way through. I found one on taste of home for Coconut Pecan cake where it had a syrup poured over after cooking but it did not soak through the cake. I have coined this cake the crack of cake-land, because it is so super moist you can’t just eat a little. And there is no way to explain how moist it is except it is very wet. Like it was soaked in a pan of something rather than something was poured on top. Can you figure it out?”
I actually had never heard of this cake, but I am familiar with hot syrup cakes. Not finding any recipe online or elsewhere that I could reference, I set about to fashion it after my cousin’s recipe for Prune Cake which I have shared with Sunday Supper before. I swapped out key parts of the prune cake to make it a coconut cake. I realized that flying this airplane by the seat of my pants might well end up with a cake, maybe a delicious cake, but perhaps not THE cake. But I thought as long as it was good I would be happy with it. After all, the prune cake is awesome.
The cake turned out better than I hoped for. It’s baked as a rectangular sheet cake to keep the syrup in the cake as opposed to running out of it while it sets. The cake is refrigerated overnight. This sets up the syrup so when you serve it later on, you might want to bring it to room temp, or if you are in a hurry, nuke it lightly in the microwave to soften it up again. It turns out almost like a coconut pound cake with a baklava type of syrup. It’s great with ice cream.
I hope Sherry enjoys it and all of you as well. I think it may well become a holiday favorite for you and your families.
Happy Holidays! Until next time-
~Sue
Coconut Syrup Cake
Cake Ingredients:
- 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup melted butter, cooled
- 3 large eggs
- 5-1/2 ounces coconut milk (small can)
- 2-1/2 ounces milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon coconut extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
Syrup Ingredients:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup milk
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
Topping:
- 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
- 1/3 cup chopped toasted pecans
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Method:
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Butter and flour a 9″x13″ rectangular baking pan or spray with baker’s spray.
- Mix together cake ingredients to form a smooth batter.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.
- Allow cake to cool in pan completely. then poke all over with a fork to make holes for the syrup to seep in.
- Cover cake with shredded coconut, chopped pecans, and cinnamon.
- When cake is cool, bring the sugar, milk and butter for the glaze to a boil in a saucepan, and boil for five minutes; remove from heat and stir in vanilla and coconut extracts.
- Pour hot syrup evenly over the cake.
- Cover cake pan with foil or plastic and refrigerate several hours or overnight to firm up the syrup.
- Slice into serving pieces and serve at room temperature or slightly warmed in the microwave.
From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com
Sunday Supper
Best Holiday Dessert Recipes
Bars and Cookies
- Frosted Sugar Cookies by Pies and Plots
- Gluten Free Cinnamon Shortbread Bars by Gluten Free Crumbley
- The Best Pecan Pie Bars by Life Tastes Good
Cakes
- Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- Clementine Cake with Cranberry Glaze by Caroline’s Cooking
- Coconut Pecan Cake with Coconut Rum Frosting by The Chef Next Door
- Coconut Syrup Cake by Palatable Pastime
- Japanese Sugar Plum Fairy Cupcakes by NinjaBaker.com
- Moms Texas Sheet Cake by My Life Cookbook
- Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese Frosting by Recipes Food and Cooking
- Rave Review Coconut Cake by Family Around The Table
- Salted Caramel Mocha Bundt Cake by A Mind “Full” Mom
- Salted Caramel Pretzel Cupcakes by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
- Spiked Chocolate Eggnog Cake by The Crumby Cupcake
Cheesecakes
- Raspberry Cheesecake by Mindy’s Cooking Obsession
- White Chocolate Cranberry Cheesecake by Baking Sense
Drinks
- Pumpkin Patch Cocktail by Wholistic Woman
Pastries
- Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie by This is How I Cook
- Butterscotch Pecan Pie by Fantastical Sharing of Recipes
- Perfect Plum Pie from Art of the Pie #Giveaway by Sunday Supper Movement
- Pumpkin Spice Mochi by Cricket’s Confections
- Purple Yam-Ube Blueberry Tart by Asian in America
- Swedish Apple Pie Cups with Date Caramel Sauce by Simple and Savory
Puddings and Creams
- Arroz Con Leche with Coconut and Cheese by Basic N Delicious
- Cranberry Apple Croissant Bread Pudding by The Freshman Cook
- Rauhreif – German Apple Dessert by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
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Laura’s Old-Fashioned Prune Cake
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I happen to have some coconut extract that has been waiting for this recipe! My coconut loving self thanks you!!!
I love cakes that are soaked in a syrup and insanely moist. Kudos to your for coming up with the recipe.
This sounds out of this world. It looks so incredibly moist!
Looks to be divine, Sue! Bravo to you for re-inventing your prune cake to make this coconut wonder =) #Yummy!