I’m pulling out all the stops for this love-filled Vegan Raspberry Zinger Coconut Cake. Maybe it’s because in my pre-vegan and pre-vegetarian days I used to love Raspberry Zingers. It’s odd the things you give up when becoming a vegetarian. Most people think a little snack cake would be vegetarian, but these Hostess Zingers are made with animal shortening. That’s what you call a nice way of saying “lard.” I’ve decided I’m a better person for giving those up and now an even happier person for creating a vegan (and gluten-free) way of making the cake myself. I may be vegan, but that doesn’t mean my sweet tooth will be denied!
I didn’t set out to make a vegan dessert to rival my favorite childhood comfort food. What I wanted was to create an elegant cake for this month of romance and love.
One of the first recipes I posted was Coconut Cake, and it seemed a perfect choice to revisit. Once that decision was made, it really was only a matter of time before Raspberry Filling came to mind. I’m only human, you know!
In my book there are actually Eight Wonders of the World. The seven others, and Coconut Cake. That’s how much I love it! Of course, I don’t know if it can be technically considered a “wonder” when it disappears so quickly.
I made this version not only vegan, but gluten-free as well. That’s because I like my desserts with only the ingredients I really love. You can always substitute wheat flour if you’d like, but I can’t imagine you’d miss it if you didn’t.
Introducing, Vegan Raspberry Zinger Coconut Cake. It’s a lot like my favorite shampoo, best when repeated.
Vegan Raspberry Zinger Coconut Cake
Ingredients
For the Coconut Cake:
- 1 cup Earth Balance Coconut Spread or margarine if the coconut spread is not available
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups coconut milk 1 can
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon coconut flavoring
- 3 cups flour * I used 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup white rice flour, 1/2 cup coconut flour, and 1/2 cup tapioca starch
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the Raspberry Cashew Cream Filling:
- 1 cup raw cashews pre-soaked in water for 1 – 2 hours, and then rinsed and drained
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup agave nectar
- 1 tablespoon earth balance margarine
- 1 cup frozen (or fresh) raspberries
For the Pink Fluffy Coconut Frosting:
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup Earth Balance Coconut Spread
- 1 teaspoon coconut flavoring
- ¼ cup soymilk
- Topping: ½ cup flaked coconut
- Coloring. I used the tiniest bit of beet juice to give the icing a pink color. You could also add the juice from one or two raspberries to give it a pink hue.
Instructions
For the Coconut Cake:
- Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two (or three) 9-inch cake pans.
- Using an electric mixer, cream together coconut spread (or margarine), sugar, coconut milk, vinegar, vanilla, and coconut. Beat until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour (or flours if you’re using the gluten-free directions), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add flour to creamed mixture, beating until just mixed.
- Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4 inches above counter, then dropping it flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure a more level cake.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. Cool in pans for 5 to 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling racks.
- Once the cakes have cooled, place the bottom cake layer on a plate and top with Raspberry filling (recipe below). If you have prepared 3 cakes, then place the second cake on top of the raspberry filling and top it with additional raspberry filling. Top that with the final cake.
- You should have before you two (or threstacked cakes with raspberry filling in the middle layer(s). Ice the entire cake with Fluffy Coconut Frosting (recipe below), being careful not to tear the cake when spreading the frosting over it. I use a butter knife dipped in warm water to help the frosting spread more easily.
- Top with flaked coconut.
For the Raspberry Cashew Cream Filling:
- Place soaked cashews and 1/4 cup water in a a food processor. Pulse for several seconds and then add the agave nectar. Pulse until the cashews are relatively smooth. If you need to add a little more liquid, that’s fine.
- Next add the earth balance margarine and raspberries and pulse for a few more seconds, until the raspberry cream is relatively smooth. You can even add a little beet juice if you’d like the mixture to be a little more pink in color. Just be sure to add very small amounts at a time so the flavor doesn’t become too strong.
- Set aside.
For the Pink Fluffy Coconut Frosting:
- In a medium bowl, stir together the coconut spread and powdered sugar. Once the two are well incorporated you should have a powdery mixture in front of you.
- Add the coconut flavoring and stir to combine.
- Next add the soymilk, one tablespoon at a time until you reach a desired consistency. I like to be able to easily spread the frosting over the top of my cake so I usually use 3 tablespoons (1/4 cup) soymilk.
- Add either beet juice or raspberry juice for color and give it one last stir.
- Set aside until your cakes have completely cooled.
Notes
The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Have you ever had a day where you’ve indulged yourself in one of your favorite childhood treats and then felt disappointed that it wasn’t as good as you remembered? This is that process in reverse. You’ll take the time to prepare this cake, decorate it, put a slice on your plate and realize it tastes even better than any snack cake sold in a cardboard container. At least that’s the way it was for me. Although I had to have a piece or two (or three) to make sure I got it just right. That’s the kind of sacrifices I’m prepared to make for ya!
If you’re into coconut recipes, then you might want to consider these:
Marly’s Vegan Coconut Cake. Hey, that’s me!
You make vegan look so good ; )
Oh wow! Raspberry cashew cream. You really know the way to a girl’s heart. I also have a bottle of concentrated cherry juice that I have been wanting to use as a dye, so I might attempt that with this frosting recipe!
Concentrated cherry would be MUCH better than beet sauce. What a great idea!
Could I half the recipe and make this in a 9×13 pan?
I think this recipe would work perfectly baked in a 9X13 pan, but I would use the full recipe. You could use the raspberry cream as the icing and forgo the pink frosting. Or maybe add another tablespoon of soy milk to the pink frosting to make it a little runnier and drizzle it over the top of the raspberry cream. Oh, that sounds so good! I may have to try that myself!
If you wanted just half a recipe, then I would use a square 9X9 baking dish.
Thank you so much!!! I can’t wait too give this recipe a try, it looks so good!
Raspberry and coconut. Wow. This is making my mouth water Marly!!!!
Beautiful! I will definitely need to try this soon. Raspberry and coconut sound like the perfect flavor combo.
I love both raspberry and coconut and this is an absolutely beautiful looking cake! I love the photos too!
Oh my gosh, Marly, this sounds soooo yummolicious! I’ve been looking for a good “vegan” cake recipe for my sons 29th birthday this Saturday … this is by far the best one I’ve seen. Very creative & well written recipe. And hey…I too, have always loved raspberry zingers…So, when I saw this recipe, it caught my attention. My son just became a Vegan recently, so he will be thrilled with this cake. I was baking raspberry cream cheese brownies today… he & his vegan friend stopped by & wanted some, but didn’t since it wasn’t a vegan recipe. I’m not yet vegan myself, but, after all the delicious recipes I’ve seen…I’m beginning to think I could do it…I stumbled upon your site when I was looking for a banana streusal muffin recipe & found yours. And discovered it was a vegan recipe too. Thank you Marky! And by the way, I like your name & I too have had a life long fascination with names & their meanings too! I also think of names for businesses! Well, off to bake some banana muffins & raspberry zinger cake tomorrow or Friday. I’ll let you know how they came out!
This cake sounds absolutely heavenly! Raspberries and lemon are so good together, but in a vegan cake with layers even better! It is so lovely as well :)! I would love a large slice :)!
This cake looks amazing Marly! I love coconut cake, but you took it to another level! Vegan and gluten free, means guilt free in my book!
My son has nut allergies. Any suggestions to replace the cashews in the rasperry cream filling?
Well, there are a few options you could consider. You could use the cream part from a can of coconut milk (not the watery substance at the bottom of the can). If soy is not an issue, you could use silken tofu whipped in a food processor to smooth it out or even commercial vegan cream cheese would work too. Let me know if you try one of these.
Raspberry Zingers were my favorite as a kid and teenager, now that I’m GF I can’t enjoy them like I used to, when I clicked on this recipe I did not realize it was GF and I about shouted out loud for joy, I cannot wait to make this recipe, thanks so much for sharing!!!!
MCB
How do you make it layered? do you get 3 pans the same size and distribute the batter between them?
Hi Rochelle. You’ve got it! Step #1 of the recipe indicates to prepare 3 round cake pans. For me that means using a paper towel to spread a thin layer of margarine or vegetable shortening around the inside of the pan and then lightly coating with some flour. Alternatively, you could spray the pan with vegetable spray. Then follow the rest of the steps and you’ll be instructed to pour the batter evenly between the three prepared pans. Once you bake the cakes, allow them to cool for about 7 – 10 minutes before inverting them onto a plate. Then once they’re completely cooled, they’re ready for some frosting!
Hope that helps!
My cakes fell apart when I flipped them over. Why?
Hi Marie. There’s many things that can contribute to a cake falling – the size of the pan, the oven temperature, etc. But if you’re saying the cakes fell apart after you removed them from the pan, it sounds like you may have done the same thing I do way too often – I have a tendency not to wait long enough before removing the from the pan. The cake needs to cool for at least 10 minutes first. When you’re waiting for a cake…10 minutes can seem like an eternity!
I made this cake yesterday for my birthday & it was wonderful!! Cake stuck to two of the pans (I greased & floured & waited 20 min to cool) & the icing was runny (maybe b/c of too much juice from the raspberries to make it pink) but it was so delicious!!! Brought 1/2 for my coworkers & it was devoured fast! I will definitely make this again!
I used this recipe to make cupcakes (and filled with the raspberry cream). Delicious! They had to cook for a really long time, but eventually cooked through. Making the cake today for Easter.
Hi Karen. So glad you liked it. And thanks for the feedback on the baking time. I will add a note to the recipe. Hope you like it in cake form too. Happy holiday weekend!
Raspberry Zingers were my favorite treat for many years. I am excited to try this recipe! I don’t like to use agave nectar. Do you have any idea how much sugar I would use in place of the agave? Thank you.
This looks delicious! Does floor such as all purpose or wheat work?
Hi Salina. Thanks! Yes, all-purpose flour would work fine in this recipe. If you want to use whole wheat, I would recommend using whole wheat pastry flour.