High Altitude Lemon Coconut Hydrangea Cake

High altitude lemon coconut cake, with three fluffy layers of coconut milk cake filled with lemon curd, and frosted with lemon buttercream. For an easy but stunning hydrangea cake design for spring, the lemon buttercream is tinted a pretty blush color and piped in drop flowers all over the cake.

You might also love these high altitude recipes for malted milk Easter cake with speckled buttercream and a chocolate birds nest, carrot cake sheet cake with piped floral buttercream, and pastel party birthday cake with Lambeth piping.

This site contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  This means that I may make a small commission if you purchase a product using those links.  This in no way affects my opinion of those products and services.  All opinions expressed on this site are my own.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

So Pretty for Spring. The flavor of this lemon coconut cake and the pretty hydrangea flower decorating is perfect for any spring celebration, from Mother’s Day, to Easter, to a baby’s first birthday smash cake. This design would also be beautiful in a tiered wedding cake, and easy enough for anyone to decorate for a small DIY wedding.

Easy to Decorate. Whether you decide to cover your frosted cake with coconut, or decorate with the piped drop flowers, you’ll love how easy it is to make your cake beautiful, even if you don’t have any cake decorating experience.

High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Coconut Cake

• Cream Cheese + Butter. A combination of block cream cheese and unsalted butter adds flavor, fat, and a rich, creamy texture to the cake.
• Granulated Sugar. Sweetness and moisture.
• Eggs. Gives the cake structure and adds moisture.
• Coconut + Vanilla Extracts. Flavor.
• Cake Flour. With a lower percentage of protein than all purpose flour, cake flour makes a softer, fluffier cake.
• Baking Powder. Leavening agent.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Coconut. Use natural, unsweetened coconut flakes for the best coconut flavor and a little crunch. Be sure to pulse them a few times in a food processor, or the large flakes of coconut will tear the cake when you cut it.
• Coconut Milk. You’ll need full fat, unsweetened canned coconut milk for today’s recipe. The coconut milk from the dairy aisle will not produce the same result, since the fat content is much lower.

Lemon Buttercream

• Butter. Use unsalted butter, or omit the added salt in the recipe.
• Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the buttercream.
• Meringue Powder. Adds stability and improves the texture.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Vanilla + Lemon Extracts. Flavor.
• Lemon Curd. Some lemon curd in the buttercream and spread between the cake layers adds more lemon flavor to complement the sweet coconut cake.

Instructions

Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of three 6-inch cake pans with non stick baking spray.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, butter and sugar for 5 minutes on medium speed, scraping the bowl down several times, until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until smooth, then add the extracts.

• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Pulse the coconut a few times in a small food processor or ninja so that you don’t have any large coconut flakes, then add the coconut to the dry ingredients.
• Open the can of coconut milk, and if the cream and water has separated, stir it back together until smooth, before weighing out 7 ounces (half the can) for the cake.
• With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the coconut milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Use a spatula to scrape the bowl and make sure the batter is evenly mixed.

• Divide the cake batter between the three pans. Bake the cakes for about 25 minutes, until the tops spring back when gently touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Set the pans on a cooling rack, cover them loosely with a clean kitchen towel and cool completely before frosting.

Buttercream

• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
• With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder and the salt. The mixture will be clumpy.
• Add the lemon extract, vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of the lemon curd. Increase the speed to medium and whip the buttercream for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl several times, until very light and fluffy. Turn the speed down to stir, and mix for 1 more minute.
• Place one of the cake layers on a cake board and frost the top of the cake with the buttercream. Spread 1 tablespoon of lemon curd over the buttercream. Repeat with the second layer of cake, buttercream and lemon curd, then place the third cake layer on top. Frost all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream, and chill the cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before decorating.

Baker’s Note: If you won’t be decorating your cake with the drop flowers, frost the cake with a final coat of buttercream, then press unsweetened coconut flakes all over the buttercream. See my original coconut cake for inspiration.

Hydrangea Cake Decorating

• While the crumb coat is chilling, you can tint the rest of the buttercream to pipe the drop flowers. Divide the buttercream between three bowls. Keep 1/4 of the buttercream white. Use a few drops of “electric pink” gel food coloring to tint 1/4 of the buttercream a medium blush color, and 1/2 of the buttercream a pale blush color.
• Tip: Using three shades will give the flowers more variegation in color, so that the end result is much more natural and interesting than if you only use one shade.

Baker’s Note: If you pipe the flowers in even rows, your design will look similar to the one on this Almond Amaretto Cake, which, in my opinion, ended up looking too precise and unnatural. Piping the flowers randomly, as demonstrated in the photos below, will look much more natural.

• Fit a piping bag with tip 1M. Fill the piping bag with buttercream, alternating spoonfuls of the three colors, so that they blend together as you pipe the flowers.
• Start piping drop flowers all over the cake. Rather than piping even rows, you should pipe the flowers randomly, which will give your hydrangea cake a prettier, more natural look. Continue piping flowers until all the gaps are filled in and the cake is covered.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of coconut milk do you use?

I usually bake and cook with Thai Kitchen unsweetened coconut milk. It’s very thick, creamy and rich. I also just recently bought some organic canned coconut milk from my local Trader Joe’s, but have yet to try it in a cake. I like that it has fewer ingredients, and doesn’t contain the gums and thickeners that other brands have in their coconut milk. Do not use the coconut milk you’ll find on the dairy aisle at your grocery store, since the fat content is much lower, and will not produce the same result in the cake.

Can I use sweetened shredded coconut in the cake?

You can, but… it will add extra sweetness, and personally, I don’t like the chewy texture. Unsweetened flaked coconut is a much better product. Not only does it taste better, cleaner and more natural, but it looks so much prettier on a coconut cake, if you decide to cover the whole cake with coconut.

How should I store the leftover cake?

Store your lemon coconut cake in an airtight container or cake carrier at room temperature for up to 3 days.

You Might Also Like

Please check out my Amazon Shop for a curated collection of some of my favorite cake pans from trusted brands, baking tools, ingredients, pretty things and fashion finds. I recommend products that I buy and use every day!

Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!