Pure joy! 😋 This dark chocolate cake covered in coconut-marshmallow filling and topped with a creamy chocolate frosting is so moist, rich and delicious! If you love coconut and chocolate this is the cake for you! 🥥
We made this recipe as a sheet cake, but it is fabulous as a layer cake too. It will make a 3-layer in 8-inch pans, or a 2-layer in 9-inch pans. Either way, it’s so pretty when you cut into it to see the layering of chocolate cake and coconut fillings.
You can make this recipe as simple as you like. We used one of our favorite cocoa cake recipes for this dessert, which is also a very easy cake to make. But you can start with any chocolate cake you like, and if don’t like to bake cakes from scratch, just use your favorite chocolate cake mix! From there, the rest is super easy. Both the filling and frosting come together in just a few minutes.
I‘d be remiss if I didn’t mention that we found this amazing coconut-marshmallow filling on My Cake School. It’s so good, you can literally eat it by the spoonful … but don’t, be sure to save it for this delicious cake!
Some of our very favorite desserts combine chocolate and coconut! Among those are the Simply & Divinely Chocolate Cake, the Scrumptious Seven Layer Bars and our Cream of Coconut Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.
Almond Joy Chocolate Cake
Equipment
- 1 9×13-inch cake pan
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 4 oz. butter (1/2 cup or 1 stick)
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder Dutch process
- 1/2 cup buttermilk or milk with 1 tsp. vinegar added
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Coconut-Marshmallow Filling
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 5 cups sweetened flake coconut
- 1 bag mini marshmallows approximately 283 ounces
- 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract
Dark Chocolate Frosting
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup coconut milk or evaporated milk
- 4 oz. butter 1/2 cup or 1 stick
- 2 cups dark or bittersweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup sliced almonds, toasted
Instructions
Dark Chocolate Cake
- Grease or spray a 9×13 inch cake pan with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 400° F.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Set asid.
- Add butter, water, oil and cocoa powder to a small pot and heat until melted. Blend with a whisk. Pour over flour mixture and mix well.
- Add buttermilk, eggs and vanilla and whisk until thoroughly blended. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool cake completely before adding the frosting and filling.
Coconut-Marshmallow Filling
- Heat milk and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved, stirring often. Do not let the milk come to a boil.
- Once the sugar has dissolved, add the marshmallows, and continue to cook just until marshmallows begin to soften. Remove from heat, and continue to stir until all of the marshmallows are melted.
- Stir in the coconut and vanilla (or almond) extract. Allow to cool completely before covering the cake with this filling. The filling will thicken as it cools.
- This filling can be made several days ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to use.
Dark Chocolate Frosting
- Bring milk, sugar and butter to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from the heat and stir in the dark chocolate chips, whisking until the chips are melted and the mixture is smooth. Cool to room temperature.
Assembling the Cake
- Spread filling over the top of the chocolate cake, smoothing until it evenly covers the top of the cake. Pour the chocolate frosting over the top of the coconut filling and smooth to evenly cover the top.
- Evenly distribute the toasted sliced almonds over the top of the cake. Refrigerate cake for 30 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
