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A luscious triple layer chocolate cake with a coconut cream cheese filling covered with rich chocolate ganache and crowned with chocolate curls.
My daughter and I made this fabulous cake for my grandson’s first birthday. It’s a pretty fancy cake for a one year old, but for my other grandson’s first birthday we made some gorgeous Chocolate Cheesecake Cakes, so my daughter didn’t want her second son to look back and say why didn’t I get a fancy cake.
She invited over 40 friends and family to the party, so we made two 3 layer cakes with coconut cream cheese filling.
I baked the cake layers several days before the party and put them in the freezer. The layers are easier to work with if they’re frozen.
The day before the party, my daughter came over and we made the coconut cream cheese filling and assembled the cakes.
This cake isn’t hard to make, but it is time consuming, so if possible, I recommend making it over two days.
Three round cake pans won’t fit in my oven on the same rack. So I had to bake the layers in batches.
If you have three cake pans, check and see if they’ll all fit in your oven on the same rack. I don’t like to cook on different racks because cakes bake so differently depending on where they are in the oven, but if you have good luck doing that, you could make all three layers at the same time.
We actually made three cakes, one with ganache, one with a whipped ganache pictured in the back and a smash cake for the birthday boy.
I decorated the sides of the cakes by throwing some of the crushed chocolate curls on the sides of the cake while the ganache was still wet. If you let the ganache set before you add the chocolate, it won’t stick to the cake.
The cake was a hit at the party. In fact, my husband loved the filling so much he wants me to make a cake filled and iced with the coconut cream cheese frosting. Since my husband’s birthday is this month, I’ll be making that version soon.
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Triple Layer Chocolate Cake with a Coconut Cream Cheese Filling
Ingredients
Double Layer Chocolate Cake
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar*
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda*
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups hot water*
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Single Layer Chocolate cake
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cups sugar*
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder I used KA Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa
- 1 teaspoons baking soda*
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cups hot water*
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Chocolate Ganache
- 16 oz. milk chocolate finely chopped
- 1 cup heavy cream
Coconut Cream Cheese Filling
- 16 ounces 2 packages cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup coconut oil melted
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups confectioners' sugar
- 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut toasted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Spray two 9x2 inch round cake pans with non-stick cooking spray with flour.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large measuring cup, whisk together water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and whisk just until blended.
- Divide batter between pans. Bake 25 -35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cakes in the pans on a rack for 15 minutes, then invert them onto a wire rack. Leave cakes upside down (this flattens domed cakes) to cool completely.
- Prepare single layer as directed above using one 9x2 inch round cake pan.
- Chocolate Ganache
- Place chocolate in a glass bowl. Heat heavy cream over medium high heat just until it comes to a boil.
- Remove from heat and immediately pour cream over chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted. Cool until ganache is thickened and has a spreadable consistency. (I cooled mine in the fridge for about an hour stirring every 10 minutes.)
- Coconut Cream Cheese Filling
- Beat together cream cheese, coconut oil, sour cream, and vanilla until blended, scraping down bowl as needed. Beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Stir in cooled toasted coconut.
- Assembling cake
- When the cake layers are cool and ganache has thickened, evenly spread half of the filling on bottom layer, carefully stack the second layer on top of filling. Spread the remaining half of the filling on the second cake layer, then stack the third layer on top of the filling.
- Frost the top and sides of the cake with the chocolate ganache. Decorate with chocolate curls, optional Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- *I made the following high altitude adjustments: Decreased the sugar by 2 tablespoons, used 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda and 2 ¼ cup hot water.
More cake recipes you might like:
Black Forest Cheesecake Cake, Barbara Bakes
Cars Birthday Cake, Barbara Bakes
Chocolate Coffee Layer Cake, Completely Delicious
happy birthday! {naked cake}, I am Baker
Mocha Fudge Cake, Chocolate, Chocolate and More
Cathy at Wives with Knives
That is one fantastic looking birthday cake, Barbara. I love the combination of chocolate and coconut and will save this yummy recipe for our next family celebration.
Rocky Mountain Woman
perfect! how fun to bake with your daughter!
Amanda
This is perfection Barbara!!! AMAZING!!!
Kitchen Belleicious
oh my goodness.that is one heck of a chocolate cake. Fit for a king that is for sure! Love it
Ala
Oh MY–you’ve got some lucky little’uns running around the house with these fancy birthday cakes! I’m absolutely in love with that coconut filling 🙂
My Inner Chick
Tripe D: Delicious. Decadent. Deliriously amazing looking! xx
Carol at Wild Goose Tea
OMG!!!! What a FAB cake. I am lusting over the cream cheese coconut filling. OMG!!!!! It deserves at least
two of those. A grandson is worth the celebration—-way more FAB than the cake.
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef
Holy cow, Barbara, that’s gorgeous. Happy Birthday to the grandson and what a way to celebrate.
Btw. my birthday is coming up soon and well, just hinting. 🙂
Jessica @ Sweet Menu
Barbara, this cake is INCREDIBLE! I just love the beautiful layers and the luscious chocolate ganache. Oh and that coconut cream filling – be still my heart!!!
Susan
It says 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted; does this mean measure it and then melt it? I never bake, so I need help. This looks amazing and I’d like to try it. Thanks.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Susan – i’ve found thst coconut oil measures pretty much the same when it’s solid as when it’s melted. In warm westher the oil will be mostly liquid in my pantry. Thanks for the question and the compliment. Hope you enjoy it.
Carol
Happy Birthday to your grandson! Oh boy what a treat. I bet he loved his special cake too-did he “wear it” well? My 2 sure did at their first birthday parties..those were fun days.
All the cakes look delicious. Sounds like your husband is onto something with that filling….can’t wait to see what you create for him.
Melissa @ My Recent Favorite books
Your cakes always look so good!!! But, I think these are one of my favorites, because I love chocolate!
Happy Birthday to your Grandson!
Karen
Is there something else I can use besides cream cheese in the filling? I have become very tired of cream cheese in so many things. I wish people, who create these recipes, would try to use things they use to do in days when cream cheese was not available. It seems like they can not come up with a frosting/fillings that do not contain cream cheese. I like it just not in my frostings/fillings or in so many things now.
Thank you
Barbara Schieving
Sure, just make a traditional buttercream frosting and add toasted coconut and coconut extract. I’m not a buttercream fan but its more traditional I suppose.
Jana
It’s not that we can’t come up with something not containing cream cheese. It’s that we may choose not to. I personally love it.
Emily
This sounds like my kind of cake! YUM!
2 Sisters Recipes by anna and liz
WOW.. and what a cake Barbara! Fantastic and I just can’t wait to dive into one of these! Thanks for the recipe! Hope you have a blessed 2015!
Stephanie Gallegos
Barb,
It looks like you have out done yourself on this one! Yum
Annalise @ Completely Delicious
What a fabulous cake! Your grandsons are so lucky. 🙂
Jess Knight
This looks absolutely amazing! I love how thick the filling layer is. Can’t wait to try this, pinned!
Rosa
A beautiful cake! I bet it tastes heavenly.
Cheers,
Rosa
Rochelle @ Oh So Sweet Baker
This cake looks amazing. I love coconut cream cheese frosting. It’s such a great addition to add more flavour to a standard cream cheese