Coconut Brown Sugar Skillet Cake
Simple, sweet, and oh-so-delicious, this Coconut Brown Sugar Skillet Cake is an easy-to-whip-up but equally impressive dessert that’s perfect this time of year. Served right in a cast iron skillet, it’s rustic enough for a barn party or you can dress it up as an elegant dessert.
If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you’ll know some of my most favorite desserts are skillet ones. I just love the simplicity and rustic nature of serving up sweets in a cast iron pan. I kept this cake simple but feel free to dress it up with confectioners’ sugar, fruit, or top it with any other garnish you want. You can be as creative or not with this! I do recommend serving with a dollop of whipped cream on top. 😉 Yum.
This is a unique recipe in that you start it on the stove with melting butter right in the skillet. After the butter is all melted, the next step is to sprinkle brown sugar over top and let that melt into the butter. Once you have the batter part all mixed together, you simply pour that on top of the butter/brown sugar mixture and the butter comes up the sides of the pan. It’s really different but fascinating as well. That’s the brown you see along the edges and top of the cake: delicious butter. The brown sugar mostly stays on the bottom of the skillet, making a caramel-y texture that’s pretty amazing. It reminds me of an upside-down cake, with that brown sugar syrup on the bottom. This cake needs no icing, and is definitely moist throughout with both coconut oil and a touch of applesauce to keep it that way.
This recipe uses a white cake mix for simplicity but feel free to do a from-scratch version if you don’t have a mix on hand. I also used both unsweetened coconut flakes and shredded coconut. Flakes are a bit larger that the shredded variety, but feel free to use what you have (or can find). My family loves coconut so this cake was a huge hit for them. 🙂
Tender, moist, with both a little crunch around the sides as well as a slightly syrupy bottom, this cake has it all! It’s sure to put a smile on your face.
Perfect for a fall day, serve up this skillet cake to your friends and family today!
- 8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter
- 2 Tbsp Golden Barrel Dark Brown Sugar
- 1 (15.25 oz) box white cake mix
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1/3 cup Golden Barrel Coconut Oil
- 6 oz unsweetened applesauce
- 4 large eggs
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In an 8" cast iron skillet, melt the butter over low-medium heat, then sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over top. Reduce heat to low and allow the sugar to melt into the butter. No need to stir, but don't let the butter get too hot.
- In a large bowl, combine cake mix, coconut flakes, shredded coconut, water, oil, applesauce, and eggs. Stir to combine.
- Pour the batter into the skillet. The butter/brown sugar mixture will come up the sides and onto the top of the batter.
- Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle of cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool. Serve warm with whipped cream. (You can also invert the cake after it's been cooling for 10 minutes onto a large plate.)
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I do not like coconut that much. But, icing I can’t stand. This was the best cake I’ve had in years, hands down.
Thank you for sharing it.