Coconut cake has its fans and its detractors; if you’re not fond of coconut, this cake is not for you. Many people love it though, but there are numerous variations of the cake and you’ll find recipes that will really change the way the cake tastes.

The base of any good coconut cake is a white or yellow layer cake. White is typically preferred because the light color of the cake has great visual appeal when paired with grated coconut. You can use either a box mix or make your own. In either case, many people recommend that you add coconut milk or cream of coconut instead of liquids like water or milk. Many recipes also recommend that you add some shredded coconut to the cake batter.

Sometimes the coconut cake is called a poke cake. After you’ve baked the layers, you poke holes in the cake and pour coconut milk or cream of coconut over the poked layers. This will transfer coconut flavor throughout the cake and will make it particularly moist.

How you frost a coconut cake will also depend on recipes. One fairly traditional recipe for frosting is to make seven minute frosting, a combination of whipped egg whites and heated corn syrup or sugar and water. This makes a high fluffy frosting to which you will add coconut just before frosting. Some people don’t add the coconut to the frosting, but instead sprinkle it all around the frosted cake, pressing into the side. Seven-minute frosting is sticky and will easily hold most of the shredded coconut in place.

Another type of frosting that some people prefer on coconut cake is cream cheese based frosting. This is denser than seven-minute types of frosting and imparts more of a slightly sour taste, which can be an excellent contrast with sweet cake and coconut flakes. Some recipes for the cake use a sour cream based cake, which helps to provide more of this contrast.

Coconut cake is typically made as at least a two-layer cake, and some people like to use a contrasting filling instead of the frosting as filling. You can fill the center with things like lemon filling, or raspberry or strawberry jam. When the cake is iced and filled with only one frosting, some people like to add chocolate sauce or raspberry on each serving plate to add additional flavor. You can then dip each forkful of fluffy cake into the sauce, which makes for a decadent dessert.