Sometimes recipes don't turn out like they are supposed to. . .not even close to how they are supposed to. Take a couple of days ago for instance. I was planning on making a coconut cake and it didn't rise at all. I followed the directions, didn't leave out any ingredients, and it still didn't rise. Well, I wanted to salvage it somehow, so I immediately thought of a cake roll. (That's how flat the cake was!) It tasted great but it wasn't the prettiest dessert I've ever made! That got me thinking that I should make a coconut cake roll that was actually meant to be a coconut cake roll!
I wanted a spring version of the favorite fall pumpkin roll that used light flavors. So, I added in some lemon extract to the coconut and coconut extract in the cake. The result was a light coconut lemon flavor that blended with the cream cheese filling perfectly. Toasted coconut is added to the filling to give it even more coconut flavor. If you close your eyes and take a bite, you can almost imagine that you are someplace warm!
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Notes: Make sure to liberally cover your towel with powdered sugar to prevent your cake from sticking. Do not over bake the cake as it will become somewhat chewy. Also, feel free to add more coconut or lemon extract to the filling. I wanted to keep the flavors light, so I just used vanilla extract in the filling.
Coconut Lemon Cake Roll
Serves: 8
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 3 eggs
- ¾ C sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 1 tsp coconut extract
- ¾ C all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ C sweetened shredded coconut, packed
For the Filling
- 8 oz ⅓ of the fat cream cheese
- ¼ C butter, softened
- 1½ C confectioner's sugar, sifted
- ½ C sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Line a 15x10 jelly roll pan with parchment or wax paper. Lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat eggs until foamy, about 3-4 minutes. Beat in sugar, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and coconut extract until blended.
- Add in flour, baking powder, and salt and beat until just combined. Stir in coconut. (If you do not want large pieces of coconut in your cake, put the coconut in a food processor and pulse until fine.)
- Pour batter into prepared jelly roll pan.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges just start to turn golden brown.
- While cake is baking, sprinkle a clean towel liberally with powdered sugar. Turn out warm cake onto prepared towel. Starting at the narrow end, roll up cake and towel. Cool on wire rack.
- While cake is cooling, start to prepare filling. Beat together cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add in confectioner's sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth.
- Stir in toasted coconut.
- Once cool, unroll cake. Spread filling over the top. Reroll cake and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until ready to serve.
- Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar before serving.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator.
This recipe is linked with Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Time to Sparkle, Weekend Potluck.
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This looks great!!! I love me some coconut!
Gorgeous cake roll, it came out perfectly! I love the flavors, def a spring favorite 🙂
I love it!!! SO pretty Jessica. Lemon + coconut is the best ever!
This is gorgeous and I’m sure amazingly delicious! What a great idea!
I love roll cakes, they’re so visually stunning yet surprisingly easy to pull off. This is a great flavor combo – perfect for spring!
Two of my favorite things rolled up in a cake roll – I’m in heaven!
this is the prettiest cake roll i’ve ever seen. and I love the flavors together, Jessica! Suddenly my turkey sandwich is no longer appetizing for lunch… 🙂
Don’t you love it when you can salvage a mistake and make it into something delicious! Love these two flavors so I bet they taste great together! Have a great Easter weekend Jessica 🙂
A beautiful dessert and the flavors sound wonderful! So perfect for warmer spring weather, which has yet to arrive in my area but should any day now (fingers crossed!) 🙂
Jessica, this is definitely a success! If the other recipe HAD turned out we would’ve missed out on this roll! This is lovely! I love coconut and lemon.
YUMMY! I love anything LEMON, I made Lemon Blossom Cupcakes today, love the smell while they are baking! This is going on my to bake list, thanks for sharing!
I love that you turned a recipe fail into a recipe win! This lemon roll looks absolutely beautiful. And the combination of lemon and coconut it perfect for spring. Way to think outside of the box and create a fantastic recipe!
Oh yum, this looks delicious, Jessica! I can definitely see myself enjoying this one day!
I love cake rolls. Lemon and coconut sound like a wonderful combination.
mmm, i’m always scared to make cake rolls, but i really wanna try one. this looks awesome!
What a gorgeous cake roll! I am terrified of making these; I’m quite uncoordinated lol. But coconut and lemon sounds divine and perfect for the spring weather which is HOPEFULLY coming my way soon. 😀
I love cake rolls and this one sounds divine! Lemon and coconut can never go wrong!
It’s so cute!
This is utterly light, fluffy and beautiful!! You aced this dessert. 🙂
Is there enough room up in there for me?! Roll me up in there- I’m goin in!
Jessica! Oh my, this is gorgeous! I just want to take a bite, oh heck, I want the whole slice, maybe two!
This looks amazing! I must make it!
I REALLY want to make this–got a fresh coconut ground by the friendly folk at the local market–but I realized when I came back here to get the recipe that I can’t fit that size pan in my little oven over here. What kind of modifications would I need to make this into a round layer cake based on the consistency? Do you think it would work? Is the filling thick enough to use as icing, or do I need to modify that as well. Also, could the zest of one lemon would sub okay for the lemon extract? I don’t think I can get that here. I don’t have coconut extract either, but I think we can make do without it since the fresh coconut has so much flavor–gotta love living in the tropics and having cheap fresh coconut always available.
I’m not sure how the cake layer would work as a round cake. It is somewhat dense with all of the coconut in it. I know that the filling is thick enough to use as an icing, and you could definitely get by using lemon zest or fresh lemon juice in place of the lemon extract. Here is a recipe for a lemon cake that is made in a round pan and uses fresh lemon juice: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2013/03/easy-lemon-cake-with-marshmallow-frosting-toasted-coconut/ You could add some fresh coconut to it and see how that turns out. Her recipes are usually really good. Hope that helps!
Thanks! I’ll mess around with it and see what I get.
I just made this for my dad as a thank you for changing the oil in my car, it turned out perfect! I can’t wait to hear what he thinks of it. I love your recipes!
Yay! So glad to hear it! 🙂
Have put the cakeroll together several hours before serving? Does the filling add moisture to the cakeroll if made too far in advance?
I am so sorry for taking this long to get back to you! I just fished your comment out of my spam folder. I have no idea how it got there! I have only assembled this cake a couple of hours before serving, but it turned out fine.