Coconut Carrot Cake Cheesecake.
This is really odd, but I am SO excited about this pretty little cake.

Let me explain, I was brought up to dislike things like carrot cake, cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, angel food cake, pineapple upside down cake… heck we never even had vanilla cake. Yes, basically any dessert that didn’t consist of chocolate wasn’t cooked in our kitchen. For the most part, I was actually OK with this. I mean, when it comes to desserts I will 99.5% of the time choose chocolate over anything fruity, cheesy, sugary, etc. But I think you guys already know all of this.
But guys, there is this thing called BRUNCH and um, mid afternoon snacks, and well, Easter. These are the times where fruity, cheesy things like carrot cakes and cheesecake come in for me. I know, technically they are dessert…shhh, I try to pretend that’s not the case, but cake for brunch… all the way!
So today we are talking about this glorious, delicious Coconut Carrot Cake Cheesecake.
Make it for dessert, have leftovers and then probably make it again in a couple of weeks for Easter. Whatever you want to do, just make it, mm, k?!?
Cool, now that we have got that out-of-the-way I feel I need to explain why I love this cake SO much.


When I set out to make this cake, I will be honest, I was not sure if it would make the cut, I was nervous. Not only was there zero chocolate, but I was about to put carrots in my cake, kind of weird. Surprisingly though, not even an hour into it, I knew this cake was going to be good. As I smelled it baking in the oven, I just knew.
It was all good things, and the thought of cheesecake on top of a coconutty carrot cake really started to excite me. I know, I know, I am totally weird, but hey, food excites me!
Anyway, the cake came out of the oven and yes, it totally had cracks on it, but guys it’s cool!! We are covering up those cracks with coconut whipped cream, and yes, that is PERFECTION.
So the carrot cake itself is pretty much your typical carrot cake, except that I bumped up the moist factor with greek yogurt and I also went heavy on the vanilla. Never enough vanilla in my opinion. I also added coconut, which if you do not like you can omit, but in my personal opinion it really adds something super special and very spring/Easter like to the cake… which I of course love! The carrot cake then gets topped off with a layer of cheesecake. Then just bake for an hour and DONE! Pretty super simple, and it’s awesome because like I said, if the top of your cake cracks a little, you get to cover it up with mass amounts of coconut cream.
YESSS.
Oh, and make sure you add some toasted coconut… and flowers, if you’re into that…clearly my flower power is in full force these days!!


And that’s your cake. Perfect for ringing in the quickly approaching spring and upcoming Easter.
Also, do you see the pretty swirls and layers of cake to cheesecake?? I can’t believe that happened!! I was so pumped! Oh and yes, it is delish!! I think if you were to give me a slice of carrot cake or cheesecake alone I might not be all that excited, but I am being completely honest when I say, I am SO excited about this cake. It’s sweet, coconutty, light and full of great flavors!!
Bottom line here: if you’re looking for a simple, fun, yummy and impressive dessert for Easter, or really anytime, this is SO your cake. No for real. This is your cake.
SIDE NOTE: Asher came over the other night and asked if I would buy the two of us tickets to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida over Easter. I mean, of course I am dying to go (fist pump for all the Harry Potter freaks out there), but seriously, why does that cute little girl beg for such expensive things?? She should really be talking to mom and dad about this, and then when she’s got them onboard she needs to continue on and convince them to buy me a ticket too! 🙂





Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Coconut Carrot Cake Cheesecake.
By halfbakedharvest
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: carrot, cheesecake, coconut
A glorious, delicious Coconut Carrot Cake Cheesecake.
Ingredients
Cheesecake Layer
- 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Carrot Cake Layer
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1 1/3 cups grated carrot
- 1/2 cup unsweetened or sweetened shredded coconut
Coconut Cream Topping
- 1 (14 ounce) can cold full-fat coconut milk*
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- toasted coconut for topping
Instructions
-
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and position a rack in the middle of the oven. Grease a 9 inch springform pan.
-
In a mixing bowl, beat together the cream and sugar until whipped. Add in one egg at time until the eggs are fully incorporated. Add the vanilla and beat once more until the mixture is smooth. Set the batter aside while you make the carrot cake batter.
-
In a mixing bowl, beat together the canola oil, greek yogurt, granulated sugar and brown sugar until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and again, beat until well combined. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, beating until fully incorporated. Stir in the grated carrots + coconut.
-
Working with the carrot cake batter, spread about 3/4 of the the batter into the prepared springform pan, spreading into one even layer. Now add half the the cheesecake batter by dolloping it over the carrot cake. Next add the remaining carrot cake batter, doing your best to carefully spread it over the cheesecake. Lastly, layer with the remaining half of the cheesecake batter. OK, now take the spring form pan and drop against the counter 3-4 times to help pop any air pockets in the cheesecake.
-
Place the cake in the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes, tenting the cake with foil about halfway through cooking to prevent the top from browning. Allow the cake to chill in the pan for about an hour, then transfer to the fridge to chill completely for at least a couple of hours.
-
To make the whipped coconut topping, tip the can of cold coconut milk upside down and pour out the coconut water (reserve for drinking!!). Scoop out the coconut cream and add it to a mixing bowl with the heavy cream. Using an electric mixer, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and whip until combined. Spread the whipped coconut cream over the cake. Return the cake to the fridge until ready to serve. Just before serving, top the cake with toasted coconut. Slice into wedges and SERVE!!

And now we eat cake…for breakfast, brunch, snack…maybe dessert? Whateves, lets just eat cake!
ooooh yes, that cheesecake swirl looks amazing!! and i love the flower on top- it’s such a pretty pale pink! aside from the cake, have you thought about waiting a little while (until april) and visiting the california universal studios? it’s going to be madness because everyone’s dying to see the new one, but it’s a little closer than florida (plus you get all the great socal food!!).
I will look into the new studio! Thank you!!
Yummo! But light or dark brown sugar? And how much heavy cream? Don’t see in topping ingredients.
HI! Very sorry about the heavy cream. I fixed the recipe so you are good to go. Oh and I used light brown sugar. Let me know if you have any questions and I hope you love the cake! 🙂
I love carrot cake, it’s my favourite cake in the whole world. Carrot and orange cake is a dream, carrot and chocolate cake… I won’t even tell you, you must try baking one yourself. I find that carrots in a cake help it become moister and larger but not so… caloric. Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I do think of them as healthier cakes ahahahah!
http://bloglairdutemps.blogspot.pt/
I absolutely agree! Glad you liked it Miranda!
I’m so happy you’ve broadened your horizons past chocolate on the dessert front! Not that I don’t adore chocolate, but this cake looks so good, Tieghan! It’s perfect!
Thank you so much Tori!
Allllll of my favourite things in one cake, I can’t believe it!
?? So happy you liked it!
When makeing the whipped coconut topping , you say to add the coconut cream in a bowl with the heavy cream, but I dont see heavy cream in the ingredients list.
HI! Very sorry about the heavy cream. I fixed the recipe so you are good to go. Let me know if you have any questions and I hope you love the cake! 🙂
This looks beyond! I have been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter a few times now, and I must say its so damn cool! I’m 29 and its magical, for your sister it would be off the charts! But…its very expensive. You need to bring lots of money because there is so much to do and buy? In one word Butterbeer! Id go for that alone!
AHH, I am so jealous! I need to make it to that one day… and of course bring Asher with me! Really hope you enjoyed!!
Good morning!!!I can’t wait to make this cake!!!! Yum yum!
Thanks!!!!
Hope you love it!! Thank you Sylvie!
I love all the cakes so why not combine two?! This is perfect for Easter/any excuse to bake! Yum!
I love when theres an excuse to bake! Hope you enjoy… Thanks Katrina!!
I love all things carrot cake Tiehgan – this looks delish! Love the addition of greek yogurt in the mix!
Thanks Kathy!!
I absolutely love the carrot-coconut cheesecake combination! Nice addition of yogurt, too. It seems like it would be a weird ingredient in cake but I always do the same thing with cream cheese and it just makes the cake taste “cakier.”
Glad you liked my little touch!! Thank you!
This is a really great recipe! I love it that it’s low in sugar too! Definitely making this beauty!!!
Thank you!! Hope you like it Deborah!
This is such a gorgeous and delicious cake!! I hated carrot cake growing up, but now I have such a soft spot for it. So good!
My brothers still wont touch it! I think its the name! Glad you liked it!
This looks amazing! I honestly want to dive into my computer right now and steal a piece! Love that you added a coconut frosting – I think that’s so unique and such a fun twist!
xx, Caitlin
Thank you Caitlin! I can’t get enough coconut frosting! I love it!
Hi! This sounds wonderful. I have the same question as a couple of people here. You mention heavy cream in the instructions for the coconut cream but it is not mentioned in the ingredients. Can you tell us what amount you used?
HI! Very sorry about the heavy cream. I fixed the recipe so you are good to go. Let me know if you have any questions and I hope you love the cake! 🙂
OMG, you have made all my dessert dreams come true!!! Thank you so much for this stunning creation 🙂
Your welcome Rachel! So happy to hear you liked it !! Means a lot!
Not sure if you’re going to reply to the above questions that everybody else is asking or emailing us individually….but I would LOVE to make this but need to know how much heavy cream in the topping? THANK YOU!!! 🙂
HI! Very sorry about the heavy cream. I fixed the recipe so you are good to go. Let me know if you have any questions and I hope you love the cake! 🙂
The Easter bunny has found its new target. Well, I love a delicious carrot cake and the addition of Greek yogurt is such a good idea! I love any form of cake: cheesecake, carrot cake, zucchini cake, peanut butter cake and chocolate cake for the most part!
Ah I couldn’t agree more Cassie! But really anything ending in cake gets me excited ?
This looks amazing! While I love a good chocolate dessert, I must admit, vanilla, fruity desserts are where my heart lies.
Thank you Susan! I hope you get a chance to try it!
As always, this looks incredible. And so perfect to have carrot cake for Easter 😉
?? Hope you enjoy! Thank you Ellie!
I love the way the cheesecake has rippled through the carrot cake, so pretty! And I would like to stick my face into that cloud of coconut whipped cream on top…
Hannah, I was very tempted…. I had to get through photos first though! ?haha
Wow, very good post, complete. It seems to be very tasty. I’ll make this recipe.
I thought it was delicious! I hope you do too!!
This looks amazing! One of my favorite cakes is carrot but combined like you have it here with cheesecake sounds beyond sensational. I’m certain my family would love this.
By the way, I noticed you live in Summit County. We spend the summers there, and while I know if covers several areas none would be far from where you are. I’d love to see what you’ve done and where you cook. I’m so fascinated with all that you, your mom and dad have done to create your special place for creating all your masterpieces. I’m sure this sounds strange, but I’d love to meet you and hear your story. You can go to my site to check things out. I’m a wife, and mom with 2 grown kids and 2 labs. We live a normal life, I suppose, whatever normal is. Anyway, if you think that would be okay with you and your folks, and if you aren’t hours from where we are I’d love to have the chance to meet you. I’ve been inspired and impressed with all that you’ve done at such an early age. Please let me know, by emailing me. If you feel more comfortable not meeting up, I totally get it. Just thought it would be nice, especially if just minutes from each other. Let me know.
Hi Vicki!
Wow, thank you so much for your kind words, I so am flattered!! Let me know when you will be coming and I can certainly see if I will be around!! I am really busy with work, but if time allows I would love to meet you as well!
Thanks,
Tieghan!
Hi Tieghan I sent you a private comment through your comment link at the top of your page in response to your reply. Tried to send this as part of the thread but couldn’t get the reply to work.
Hmm, I am not seeing an email from you. Did you have a question? Sorry for the trouble!
This is beautiful and genius and everything.
Thank you soo much!
Hi Tieghan, I don’t see how much heavy cream to add to the frosting. Definitely making this over the weekend…. Yum!
Jeanette
Hi Jeanette!
sorry about that, I have fixed the recipe. Let me know if you have any other questions
I love carrot cake, this is my dream cheesecake! And so pretty too :).
They are the best! Thanks Laura!!
This carrot cake cheesecake looks so delicious and beautiful. I just love it!
Could you replace the canola oil with coconut to amplify the coconut taste?
Yes, that will be amazing!! 🙂
Hope you love the cake, thanks!
Coconut + carrot cake + cheesecake = bliss. Yes!
Love the flower on top 🙂
Thank you so much! Hope you are having a great week! 🙂
check out this cookbook –Mother Wonderfuls cheesecake recipes
(it is out of print but you can still get it on amazon used). I bought this about
20 years ago and have made many of the recipes–totally delish. As an aside,
cheesecakes wrapped properly store great in the freezer.
Thanks so much for the suggestion! 🙂
That looks absolutely delicious. I can’t wait until Easter to try this recipe.
Thank you so much! Hope you love the Cheesecake and have a great Easter!!
Hello!! This cake looks amazing, and I am so excited to try it for Easter brunch!!
However, I was wondering if I were to make the cake today (Saturday) if it would be okay overnight in the fridge for tomorrow?
Thanks!!
Hey Becky!
Yes, making the cake today and leaving it the fridge overnight will be great. Hope you love this and happy Easter!!
I made this two days before Easter for our celebration and everyone ADORED IT!!! MUST make the last topping on top. I made it “sugar free” using Coconut Sugar for the brown sugar and Ideal for the white sugar so everyone could enjoy it. 5 stars!!! This is the third recipe of yours that I have tried (I just found your amazing blog recently) and I have to tell you that you just knocked them all out of the park. Looking forward to trying many more.
Just made this for my friends birthday! I just have to say it is an AMAZING cake! my sister who HATES carrot cake loved it!!
Hey! I just made this for my BF’s birthday and it was amazing! The whipping topping is such a brilliant idea. I searched the internet for ‘coconut carrot cake’ and your stood out. Thanks for all the great recipes. Keep up the great work. I can’t wait until you have a cookbook!
Wow so happy you chose to make mine!
Thank you so much Amber! Happy birthday to your boyfriend!
Hey..I made this last weekend as a dessert for a dinner party. The menu included a thai seafood stew and this seemed like a perfect fit–the coconut tied them together. Anyway, I found the cake part to be a little dry, but that was probably me because I didn’t trust myself that it was done and put it back in for 3 minutes. Otherwise, it was delicious and the topping is a must. Ohhhh…I also decorated it with half strawberries (your cake gave me the idea) around the perimeter and then tossed on the toasted coconut. I think I might make it again for Easter.
Sounds like such a perfect time for this cake!! Hopefully it will come out a bit less dry for easter! So happy you liked it Jayme thank you!
Hello from Sydney, Australia!
I have just made this divine cake and it is currently just out of the oven and cooling, it does have big cracks in the top but I have chosen not to freak out as per your advice as the coconut cream will cover this.
I do have a question around the ounce measurements as these are not metrics I commonly use in Australia, I was a bit confused by how much cream cheese to use because of this confusion, in the end after a few calls to trusted girlfriends I settled with 500g (two blocks of philly cheese) and 1 can of coconut milk, does this work?
Also, I assumed coconut milk means coconut cream as you need the very thick concentrated cream for topping?
Hope this all makes sense and thanks so much for your wonderful blog, this will no doubt be the first of many fabulous recipes.
Holly x
So sorry for the confusion. It is 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese and 1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk. You can also use 1 can coconut cream as well. Please let me know if you have any other questions. Hope you love the cake!
For the topping I had to use coconut cream which did have the “thin milk liquid that needed to be drained” unlike the coconut canned milk.
I hope this turned out amazing for you!
My family loved this dessert! It is now THE Easter Dinner Dessert.
So amazing! Thank you Beth!
I am all about under baking. However, sometimes I chicken out and bake it for longer than I should. I wish I followed the time that you said because the cake ended up being a little dry. Still super delicious, obviously.
I am glad you still enjoyed this Ally! Thank you!
HI! Love love love this cake and so does everyone I have made it for!
Just a heads up for anyone who is gluten free, I swapped for gluten free all purpose flour and it worked really well (and non-GF people enjoyed it). I think the greek yogurt plus the moisture from the cheesecake layer prevented it from getting too grainy with the GF flour. Thank you!!
That is so amazing! Also, so glad this turned out so well with GF flour, Sasha! Thank you! xTieghan
In the second paragraph it says to mix the cream and sugar. Just want to check this means mix the cream cheese and sugar?
Hi Yolanda! Yes, it is the cream cheese and sugar for the cheesecake layer! I hope you love this recipe! Please let me know if there are any other questions I could answer! xTieghan
Beautiful photos! Made this today. Cheesecake part was tasty but the carrot cake part was dry. Overall needed more salt and maybe acid. Would add orange zest next time. Thanks!
Thank you Amy! Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with! xTieghan
Made this for Easter. Was okay – wanted it to be great. Seemed like it was missing something… salt? sour cream? Might try it again but add more salt and cook it a bit less. Carrot cake was dry. Beautiful photos!!
Hi Amy! I am sorry this did not turn out as expected! Please let me know if there are any other questions I can help you with! Otherwise, I hope this turns out better the next time! xTieghan
Hi Teighan! Soo…we are not fans of coconut in our cake…not crazy about the texture…is this something we can omit totally or perhaps sub more carrots? Your recipes have taken over my house during this quarantine time 🙂
Hi Kelly,
You can simply omit the coconut. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
Hi when do you take it out of the spring form pan? i always have trouble getting cheesecakes out.
Hey Haley,
After you have allowed the cake to chill in the fridge, you can then remove from the pan to add the whipped topping. I hope you love the recipe! xTieghan
Hi! I don’t have a spring form pan. Will a regular cake pan work?
Hey there,
Yes, that should work just fine for you. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
Can I make this the night before and bring it somewhere the next day? Will the cream topping hold up?
Thanks! I love your recipes.
Hey Carolyn,
I would just wait to add the cream topping until you are at your final destination. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
My whipped coconut topping didn’t thicken. I am not sure why! I’m going to have to stop at the store and pick up some whipped cream before serving the cake tonight.
Hey Sarah,
So sorry to hear this. Was there anything you may have adjusted in the recipe? Please let me know if I can help in anyway! xTieghan
Hi Teighan,
I only have an 8 inch springform, will that fit all the batter? Also, can I use coconut oil in place of the canola?
Hey Alisha,
The 8 inch pan should work just fine and yes coconut oil will also work. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan