Celebrate Thrive Market’s First Birthday With Gluten-Free Coconut Cake

What better way to celebrate a birthday than with cake? To ring in Thrive Market’s first year, we created a dessert embodying one of our favorite flavors: coconut. Coconut oil, coconut milk, and shredded coconut all feature in this elegant white cake, while hidden raspberries add a pop of color inside the layers.

The Official Thrive Market Birthday Cake

Yield: One 8-inch cake
Active Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours

Coconut Cake

9 tablespoons coconut oil
3 cups oat flour
2 cups unbleached sugar
12 organic eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut

Coconut Frosting

4 14-ounce cans coconut milk, chilled overnight in the refrigerator
2 cups organic powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup raspberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line four 8-inch round molds with parchment paper and spray with non-stick spray. In a small saucepan, heat the coconut oil and keep hot.

Combine the flour in a small bowl with 6 tablespoons of the sugar. Whisk to incorporate. Place the rest of the sugar, the eggs, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk until the mixture has tripled in size and has become stiff. Gently fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture, one third at a time.

Pour the hot oil into a medium-sized bowl and fold 1/4 of batter into oil. When incorporated, fold this mixture back into the rest of the batter. Fold in shredded coconut.

Divide the batter between the cake molds, placing 3 cups of batter in each. Bake about 30 minutes in oven until golden brown. The tops will have puffed a bit, but will deflate slightly when cooled. Let cakes cool completely before removing from pans.

While the cakes cool, place the cleaned bowl of the stand mixer and whisk attachment in freezer for 15 minutes. Remove cans of coconut milk from fridge, remove top, and scoop out hardened coconut cream, leaving behind the separated liquid. Remove bowl from freezer and place thickened cream in bowl of mixer. Whip for 1 minute until thick and fluffy.

Whip in powdered sugar and vanilla. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to help thicken and harden—the frosting will be easier to spread this way.

To frost cake, place first layer of cake on cake stand and top with coconut frosting. Place about 12 raspberries around the inside edge on top the frosting. Top with additional layers and repeat. For the top layer, spread the rest of the frosting on the top and down the sides of the cake. An offset icing spatula works best. Smooth frosting around the sides of the cake and place it back in the fridge until ready to serve. 

Photo credit: Paul Delmont