High Altitude Pistachio Coconut Cake

Coconut cake is always such a treat, and when paired with pistachios, the salty-sweet combination is really wonderful. I don’t bake with pistachios all that often, so anything with pistachios seems extra special and indulgent. This high altitude Pistachio Coconut Cake has all the right notes of sweet and salty, creamy and crunchy, fluffy and tender cake perfection that I want in a layer cake. And the cream cheese buttercream is to die for.

Looking for more recipes like this one? You’ll love my classic coconut cake, orange pistachio cake, homemade pistachio ice cream.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

All the Best Flavors and Textures. If you don’t love a good combination of creamy, buttery, crunchy, salty and sweet in your desserts, then you’re seriously missing out. This cake has everything I want, with the rich, nutty salted pistachios playing against the sweet crunchy coconut and fluffy cake.

No Cake Decorating Skills. One of the best things about a coconut cake (besides how delicious it is), is that it requires absolutely zero cake decorating skills. Your buttercream doesn’t need to look smooth or perfect, because you’re just going to be covering the whole cake with coconut. The blanket of coconut looks gorgeous, and your guests will be so impressed, they won’t be able to wait to dig in.

Perfect for a Celebration. This is a special cake, and truly one of my favorites on my site. It’s one you’ll want to make over and over for birthdays and celebrations.

Tested for High Altitude. I develop and test all of my recipes at Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet, so other high altitude bakers can be assured of consistent, reliable results in their own home baking.

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

Ingredients

Cake

• Unsalted Butter + Cream Cheese. Adds richness, flavor and moisture. When creamed together with the sugar, it creates a light and fluffy cake crumb.
• Granulated Sugar. Sweetness and moisture.
• Eggs. Gives the cake structure.
• Coconut Extract. A little coconut extract just helps to boost the flavor of the coconut milk.
• Vanilla Extract. Use a good quality vanilla extract for the best flavor.
• Cake Flour. Flour gives a cake structure and strength. With a lower percentage of protein than all-purpose cake, cake flour is ideal for white cakes and coconut cakes, making a lighter, fluffier, more tender cake.
• Baking Powder. Leavens the cake and makes it rise.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness. I use coarse Kosher salt in all my baking.
• Coconut Milk. Use canned, unsweetened coconut milk from the ethnic food aisle, not the coconut milk that you can find in the dairy section. Canned coconut milk is high in fat, making a rich, flavorful, tender cake.
• Pistachios. Use salted, shelled pistachios to keep things easy.

Buttercream

• Cream Cheese + Butter. The cream cheese adds a tangy richness to the buttercream that you will just love.
• Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the buttercream.
• Meringue Powder. Adds stability and improves the texture of the buttercream.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness and enhances the flavor of the pistachios.
• Vanilla + Coconut Extracts. Flavor.
• Pistachios. Use salted, shelled pistachios to keep things easy. If you have pistachio butter, you can also use a tablespoon of that instead of the chopped pistachios.
• Coconut. Rather than the generic sweetened shredded coconut, buy a bag of unsweetened coconut flakes. You’ll love the pure coconut flavor and the crunch.

Instructions

Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350.  Line three 8-inch cake pans with a circle of parchment paper on the bottom of the pans, and spray the paper with non-stick spray.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, butter and sugar for five minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition.  Beat in the extracts.

• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.  With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the coconut milk, starting and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing just until moistened (you can use your mixer or just a whisk, at this point).

• Add the chopped pistachios, using a spatula to gently stir them in.

• Divide the batter between the pans.  Bake for about 30-35 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean, or with moist crumbs clinging to it.  Set the pans on a wire rack, covered loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.

Buttercream

• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter for several minutes until smooth.  With the mixer on low, slowly add the powdered sugar, mixing until combined.
• Add the pistachios, salt, meringue powder, vanilla and coconut extract.  Whip the buttercream on medium speed for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally, until very light and fluffy.

• Fill and stack the cooled cake layers, then frost all over with a thin crumb coat.  Refrigerate the cake for 20-30 minutes (keeping the rest of the buttercream covered), then frost with a final layer of buttercream.

• Press the coconut flakes all over the top and sides of the cake.
• If you have any leftover buttercream, fit a piping bag with tip 1M, fill with the buttercream, and pipe a few rosettes on top of the cake.

Cake Making Tips

This cake recipe is based on one of my pound cake recipes, so it is a little more dense, with a really tender, fluffy crumb and rich flavor. The cake itself is made with cream cheese as well as butter, and the texture is velvety and soft. I made this pistachio coconut cake using the traditional creaming method, where the butter/cream cheese are first creamed together with the sugar, and then the dry ingredients are added gently, alternating with the liquid.

Room Temperature Ingredients.

This cake contains cream cheese and butter, which need to be creamed together with sugar until light and fluffy, and this is not possible with cold butter and cream cheese. Also, be sure to take your eggs out of the refrigerator about an hour before you plan to make your cake. Having room temperature ingredients helps everything emulsify better as you mix the batter.

Cake Flour.

I like to use cake flour in pound cakes, white cakes, yellow cakes, lemon cakes, etc. It gives them such a light and fluffy crumb that I just love. All-purpose flour is better suited for chocolate cakes, carrot cakes, spice cakes, coffee cakes, etc.

Measure your Flour Correctly.

The correct way to measure flour is to first aerate and fluff it up in the bag or canister with a spoon, then spoon it into your measuring cup. Lastly, use something flat (like a butter knife) to sweep the excess off the top. This will ensure that you are not packing too much flour into your measuring cup, which will lead to a dense, dry cake.

Sift the Dry Ingredients.

It’s always a good practice to sift your flour to make sure it’s fluffy and free of lumps. If it’s lumpy when you add your wet ingredients, it won’t mix correctly, and you may end up over-mixing your cake trying to get the lumps out. What I do is place a fine mesh sieve over a bowl, and measure my flour directly into the sieve, along with my other dry ingredients. Then I use a spoon to swirl it around until it falls through the sieve and into the bowl.

Canned Coconut Milk

I use canned coconut milk in my pistachio coconut cake. You need to use canned, full-fat, unsweetened coconut milk, not the coconut milk you would buy in the dairy section. Canned coconut milk is incredibly creamy and rich, and gives cakes a really beautiful texture and soft crumb. If your milk has separated into water and cream, just whisk it together well before adding it to your cake batter.

Chopped Pistachios

Shelled pistachios can be a bit spendy, so you can certainly buy them in the shell and crack them yourself. You’ll need to make sure they’re finely chopped (about the size of grains of rice or a little bigger is ideal). The flavor of the pistachios really comes through in the baked cake, more strongly than the coconut, so there’s no doubt that this is a pistachio cake. The salty, crunchy pistachios in the soft, fluffy cake is just wonderful.

Cream Cheese Buttercream

Cream cheese buttercream is one of the most delicious frostings to slather onto a cake, but it’s not quite as easy to make as buttercream, since it tends to be softer and more slippery. If you haven’t read my Guide to Perfect American Buttercream, I encourage you to read it. It’s a goldmine of information with my best tips, practices, recipes and flavor variations for American buttercream.

My cream cheese buttercream recipe in this post will ensure that you’ll have a cream cheese buttercream that’s soft, creamy, but also stable enough to hold its shape and not slide off your cake. I fold more chopped pistachios right into the buttercream, and then finish the cake by covering it with coconut.

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 use full fat unsweetened canned coconut milk for baking and cooking, which is thick, rich, creamy and high in fat. The cartons of refrigerated coconut milk on the dairy aisle are not a suitable replacement.

How to I adjust this recipe for a smaller cake?

For a smaller cake, cut the recipe in half, and bake the cake batter in three 6-inch pans. They will take about 25 minutes to bake.

Can I use 9-inch pans instead of 8-inch pans?

If you don’t have three 8-inch pans, you can bake the cake batter in two 9-inch pans instead.

Can I use sweetened coconut on the cake instead of natural unsweetened coconut?

If it’s all you can find, then it’s perfectly fine. But I urge you to try unsweetened coconut flakes. It’s a completely different texture that’s clean, crunchy and delicious, not like the chewy, overly sweet shredded coconut.

Does this cake need to be refrigerated?

While this cake is best served at room temperature, with the cream cheese frosting I do advise refrigerating the leftovers overnight, then letting it come to room temperature again before serving.

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