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Danish Dream Cake – Easy Coconut Caramel Cake – is a light, springy cake with decadent coconut caramel topping, is an easy, delicious dessert that is a crowd pleaser!
This easy Coconut Caramel Cake is so delicious – it’s like a dream! Based off a traditional Danish Cream Cake recipe as tasted on my travels to Copenhagen Denmark.
This post is sponsored by Princess Cruise Line. All opinions are my own.
Don’t want all the extras in a recipe post? We provide a skip to recipe button in the top left corner, as well as a clickable table of contents, just below, to help make this page easier to navigate.
At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe – my goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
I want each reader to walk away with a solid knowledge of each recipe, with all of the tips I’ve gathered from extensive testing of each recipe. I also answer questions my friends and family have asked about my recipes, to help everyone better understand the processes we use – and why!
I was recently in Copenhagen Denmark for the beginning of an epic trip of a lifetime – an 11 day cruise around the Baltic Sea with Princess Cruises.
Want to head to Copenhagen to try your own Danish Dream Cake?
Be sure to check out the amazing cruise lineup around the Baltic Princess offers!
We’re hitting Germany, Norway, Estonia, Russia, Finland, and Sweden – such a dream!
Copenhagen was one of my favorite stops though – the city is dotted with lovely streets full of pretty pastels and perfect cobblestones. It’s like a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale come to life – I can see why he was so inspired having lived in Copenhagen!
Table of contents
About Danish Dream Cake (Coconut Caramel Cake):
Denmark is FULL of amazingly delicious baked goods and pastries – but none more enjoyable with a nice cup of coffee as the Danish Dream Cake, in my opinion.
This light and springy sponge cake topped with a coconut caramel sauce is sweet – but not overly sweet – and is perfect as a coffee cake alternative when you’re looking for a unique treat!
Drømmekage Cake
The Danish name for this coconut caramel cake is drømmekage – which literally translates to “dream cake” – and is just a simple sponge cake that is “sealed” with a coconut caramel topping.
This cake is so simple, you probably already have all of the ingredients on hand – no trip to Denmark for exotic supplies needed.
Though really, why wouldn’t you want to head to Denmark to sample some of this delicious cake along one of Copenhagen’s fabulously beautiful canals?
I am ready to go back immediately – everything in Denmark (dream cake included) was an absolute dream. The food is spectacular, everyone is incredibly nice and warm, and the views are breathtaking.
And really – the pastries.
Everything I ate was incredible in Denmark…. I’m so glad this easy cake is a perfect way to get back in a Danish state of mind, at least for a moment!
Tips to a Perfect Coconut Caramel Cake Topping:
This light and airy sponge-like cake is a perfect treat on it’s own – but the coconut caramel topping on a Danish Dream Cake is to die for!
While the caramel topping can seem intimidating, it is super easy to make with a couple tips and tricks:
- Let caramel sauce get a lovely deep brown color.
- For the best caramel sauce, give it time to develop a nice deep brown color.
- Turn off heat when adding milk.
- To prevent your sauce from seizing up later, I find its best to turn heat off when adding milk (return to heat the second it’s mixed in.)
- Add milk slowly to prevent scalding.
- To prevent your milk from scalding, stir it in slowly and stir vigorously.
- Stir the caramel often to prevent burning.
- Don’t just let your caramel sit on the stove the whole time – or it will be a burnt sticky mess! Stir often to help encourage the sugar to break down and keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning.
- Don’t add coconut until caramel sauce is formed.
- To prevent the coconut’s sugar from burning, AND to keep the coconut’s flavor and texture, don’t add until the sauce is already caramelized and thick.
Check out my favorite highlights from my trip here:
You can see more from my Princess Cruise around Scandinavia here – please click the links below to see each spot we stopped at on our trip!
Saint Petersburg Russia; Ultimate Saint Petersburg Shore Excursion Guide
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Danish Dream Cake
Ingredients
- 250 g flour
- 250 g sugar
- 4 tbsp butter
- 3 eggs
- 2 dl milk
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla
For the topping:
- 8 tbsp butter
- ½ dl milk
- 200 g brown sugar
- 100 g coconut flakes, sweetened
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a small bowl, mix flour and baking powder.
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Melt butter in a small saucepan and remove from heat, adding milk in as you pull it off the stove.
- Add milk and butter to egg and sugar, whisk to incorporate fully.
- Add vanilla.
- Add flour and baking soda, and fold.
- Pour into parchment lined 9 x 13 baking pan or silicone cake pan.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- While cake is baking make the topping, melt butter in saucepan.
- Stir in milk and brown sugar and let boil about 1 minute.
- Remove from heat and stir in coconut.
- Remove cake from oven (it should be lightly browned and firmed up.)
- Pour topping over cake and return to oven to bake another 10 minutes.
- Let cool slightly and serve.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I have been using this recipe for a year and a half now, its the best thing ive eaten in my fuuckin life
haha, that’s awesome Billy! Glad you love it.
Hi, I’m in Australia and would like to know what you mean by 2 dl milk for cake and topping. I’ve checked at other recipes for the milk and the cake seems to have almost twice the amount of milk. Can you please let me know what the dl is and the difference between your cake and others cake. TIA.
2 dl is 2 deciliters, which is about 3.4 tablespoons or 2/10th of a cup. Does that make sense? Essentially about 4 spoonsful. Its basically just enough to help the coconut topping come into a crumble so it wont just all fall off when baking. Hope this helps!
Hi, thank you for giving the recipe in grams! However, I don’t know what a tbsp of butter weighs. Could you advise please?
And can I use unsweetened coconut instead? I don’t think I can get the sweetened variety here.
Lastly – is the cake baked fan-forced or top and bottom heat.
Thank you!
Evi
1 tbsp of butter is 14 grams, unsweetened coconut will work, it just wont be as sweet as it would be otherwise. Our ovens here are top and bottom heat and I have only used those in the past, let me know how yours turns out if you use your fan forced. Thanks for reading!
Getting ready to make Danish Dream Cake.
Instructions say to mix flour and baking soda, however baking soda is not listed in the ingredient list. Baking Powder is listed, and not used in the instructions.
Which should I use, 2tsp Powder or 2tsp Soda?
Thank you.
Its 2tsp of Baking Powder no baking soda. Thanks for letting me know, I will fix it in the recipe instructions.
Sooooo in love with Denmark ! Thank you for this one !
WOW this cake looks and sounds so delicious!