Piña Colada Layer Cake

A pina colada in cake form, cherry on top and everything. Moist coconut cake layers with a pineapple filling tucked between, coconut rum cream cheese frosting, and toasted coconut around the sides.

What You’ll Need

For the cake

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (300 grams)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened. Use what you have. If it’s salted, drop the salt to ¼ teaspoon.
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 6 egg whites. You can use 4 whole eggs instead, but the cake will have a yellow tint rather than the classic white piña colada look.
• 1 cup full-fat coconut milk. Not cream of coconut, not coconut cream, the canned coconut milk near the Thai ingredients. Shake the can hard before opening.
• ¾ cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons coconut extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pineapple filling

• 1 ½ cups crushed pineapple
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch. Whisk it into the sugar before anything hits the heat, or you’ll get lumps.
• 3 tablespoons rum. Gold rum is what I used, but use whatever you like to drink.

Frosting

• 12 ounces cream cheese, softened. Block style, not the tub
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract
• 2 tablespoons rum

Garnish

• 1 ½ cups sweetened flaked coconut. You’re toasting this in a dry skillet, so stay with it and stir. It goes from pale to burnt in about 30 seconds!
• Maraschino cherries. Drain them really well on a paper towel, otherwise pink juice will bleed down your white frosting.

Equipment You’ll Need

• Three 8-inch round cake pans. Two won’t work! This is a three-layer cake and the bake times are calibrated for the thinner layers.
• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Fine-mesh strainer. For sifting the dry ingredients. A sifter works too.
• Piping bag with a large round tip. For the swirls on top. If you don’t pipe, just dollop and skip the cherry presentation.
• Offset spatula. Makes frosting the sides far easier than a regular knife.

Instructions

Make the pineapple filling first

Start with the filling because it needs time to cool. You don’t want to spread warm filling onto cake layers and watch your frosting melt into a sad puddle. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together in a 2-quart saucepan before you add the pineapple. Cornstarch lumps the second it hits hot liquid, so getting it dispersed in the dry sugar first is the whole trick.

Add the crushed pineapple, whisk it in, and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook it for 5-7 minutes, stirring pretty constantly, until it thickens up and looks glossy. Pull the pan off the heat, then add the rum and whisk it in. Scrape it into a bowl and let it cool on the counter for about 15 minutes before refrigerating. It’ll thicken more as it cools, so don’t panic if it seems loose when it’s hot.

Prep your pans and dry ingredients

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray three 8-inch round pans with cooking spray and line the bottoms with parchment circles. The parchment is non-negotiable for a layer cake — you don’t want to find out the hard way that one of your layers is welded to the pan.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Yes, you actually have to sift this one. It’s a tender white cake with egg whites doing a lot of the lifting, and lumps of baking powder will show up as little bitter spots in the finished cake.

Cream the butter and build the batter

In your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high for a full 3-4 minutes. You’re looking for pale, fluffy, and noticeably lighter in color — this is where the cake gets its lift, so don’t cut it short. Add the egg whites in two additions, mixing until each one is fully incorporated.

In a separate measuring cup, whisk together the coconut milk, sour cream, coconut extract, and vanilla.

Then add the dry and wet ingredients to the mixer in alternating additions: a third of the flour, half the milk mixture, another third of flour, the rest of the milk, then the last of the flour.

Mix on low and stop as soon as each addition disappears. Overmixing at this stage is how you end up with a tough, rubbery cake instead of a tender one.

Bake the layers

Divide the batter evenly between the three pans — about 2 cups or 480 grams each if you want to be precise about it. I find weighing the pans gets you much more even layers than eyeballing, and even layers stack a lot more neatly later.

Bake for 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool in the pans for 10-15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and invert them onto wire racks. They need a full 45-60 minutes to cool completely before you go near them with frosting. Warm cake plus cream cheese frosting is a disaster!

Toast the coconut

While the cakes cool, toast the coconut in a dry skillet over medium heat. Stir it pretty constantly and watch it like a hawk — coconut goes from white to golden to burnt in about thirty seconds. Pull it off as soon as most of it is light brown and it smells nutty.

Dump it onto a plate to cool so it doesn’t keep cooking from the pan’s residual heat.

Make the frosting

In the stand mixer with a clean paddle, cream the cream cheese and butter together on medium-high for about 2 minutes, scraping the bowl once. Both need to be properly softened. Your finger should leave an indent in the butter when you press it. Cold cream cheese gives you lumpy frosting that no amount of mixing will fix.

Add the powdered sugar and start on low so you don’t end up wearing it. Once it starts coming together, bump up to medium-high and mix until it’s smooth and thick. Add the vanilla, coconut extract, and rum, and mix on medium until everything’s incorporated.

Assemble the layers

Scoop 2-3 cups of frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Set your first cake layer on the stand and pipe a ring of frosting around the outer edge. This is your dam, and it’s what keeps the pineapple filling from oozing out the sides of the finished cake. Don’t skip it.

Spoon half the pineapple filling into the center and spread it just to the edge of the frosting ring. Add the second layer and repeat: ring of frosting, the rest of the filling, spread evenly. Place the third layer on top and frost the sides and top of the whole cake, holding back about 1 to 1½ cups of frosting for the swirls on top.

Coat with coconut and finish

Press the toasted coconut into the sides of the cake with your hand. Work over a sheet pan or a clean dish towel because half of it will end up on the counter no matter how careful you are. I dump a handful at a time and press it gently.

Pipe 8 swirls around the top edge of the cake with the reserved frosting and top each one with a maraschino cherry. Drain those cherries really well first. Even a drop of juice will bleed pink streaks down your white frosting.

Serve right away or refrigerate; if it’s been chilled, let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before slicing.

Storage Instructions

Leftover cake keeps in the fridge for up to 7 days. I store it under a cake dome or loosely tented with foil so the frosting doesn’t pick up other fridge smells. Pull slices out 30 minutes before serving — the cream cheese frosting tastes best when it’s not fridge-cold.

To freeze, pull off the cherries first (they get weepy), then wrap the whole cake or individual slices in a double layer of plastic wrap and then a layer of foil. Frozen, it keeps up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, still wrapped, then unwrap and bring to room temperature before serving.

One honest note: this cake is actually better on day 2 or 3 than it is the day you make it. The pineapple filling soaks into the layers and the whole thing gets more flavorful. Don’t be afraid to make it ahead.

Questions and Troubleshooting

Can I make this cake in advance?

Yes, and you should. Make it a day or two ahead so the pineapple filling has time to soak into the layers. The flavor and texture are both better on day two.

Can I leave out the rum?

You can. Replace it with pineapple juice in the filling and a splash of milk plus extra coconut extract in the frosting. It won’t be a piña colada anymore, but it’ll still be a very good coconut pineapple cake.

Can I use 4 whole eggs instead of 6 egg whites?

Yes, but the cake will have a yellow tint instead of staying bright white. Texture-wise, it’s basically the same.

My pineapple filling is lumpy. What happened?

The cornstarch hit something too hot. Always whisk the cornstarch into the cold sugar before adding the pineapple, and don’t add cornstarch to a hot pan — it seizes instantly.

Can I substitute regular milk for coconut milk?

You can, and the cake will still be good, but you’ll lose a noticeable amount of coconut flavor. If you go this route, bump the coconut extract up by another ½ teaspoon.

Do I have to toast the coconut?

Yes :). Untoasted coconut on the outside of a cake looks unfinished and tastes like nothing. Five minutes in a skillet, stirring the whole time, and you’re done.