Coconut Crumb Cake
GAWD. This coconut crumb cake is too easy to be this good. Too good to be this true. Too true to be this easy. Heya I jut brought things full circle there. Not that it made sense or anything, but eh, semantics.
Anyway.
This is a cake. A vanilla cake. A round, 9-inch vanilla cake. A fluffy, tender, soft, moist, rich, flavorful round vanilla cake. One that’s packed full of sweetened, shredded coconut. And topped with a crispy, crunchy, tasty coconut crumble.
And. As mentioned. In my beautifully rendered full-circle intro (this judgement is not up for discussion). This coconut crumb cake is so easy and snappy to make.
Like. One bowl. One spatula. Mix together the wet ingredients. Stir in the dry. Pour the batter into your pan. Squish together the crumble. Sprinkle it over the batter. And send that cake off to the oven to bake up into the wonderful coconut cake entity that it is.
Also. We’ve got double coconut action going down in this crumb cake. There’s shredded coconut inside the cake. Lots of it. And shredded coconut stirred into the crumble as well.
Both times, use sweetened coconut. Because you’ll want that extra sweetness. This ain’t a cloying cake.
And. Sweetened coconut has a chewy, almost sticky texture that unsweetened coconut don’t got. And we want that lovely chewy texture to complement our soft and moist and tender cake crumb.
The crumble has equal parts brown and white sugar. Usually, I’d opt for a mostly brown sugar crumble. But I wanted to stick with light and airy and crispy for this crumble rather than more dense and heavy and browned. Cuz this is a light and delicate and fluffy cake.
But I still wanted some of that brown sugar molasses goodness, obvs.
The coconut in the crumble gets all toasty and golden and crunchy and deep and delicious. So that’s another plus right there.
Soft and tender and moist and fluffy and delicate and sweet and vanilla-y and coconut-y with the perfect amount of heftiness. With a crispy, crunchy, toasty, tasty crumble.
Coconut crumb cake — I’ll be seeing you around. Very often. On my countertop.
Coconut Crumb Cake
Yield: 9’’ cake/8-10 servings
2/3 cup canola/vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups packed flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
Crumble:
3/4 cup packed flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-5 tablespoons canola/vegetable oil
1/3 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line the bottom of a 9" round pan and grease the sides.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, orange juice, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.
3. Pour the flour, baking powder, and salt over the wet ingredients and stir everything together until just combined. Stir in shredded coconut. Drop batter into the prepared pan and bang pan against the countertop a few times to remove air bubbles.
4. In a small bowl, mix together crumble until a wet, sandy mixture forms. Sprinkle evenly over batter.
5. Bake for 26-34 minutes, until cake springs back when touched and toothpick inserted into the center comes out just clean. Let cake cool before easing out of the pan.
