Louisiana Crunch Cake is a classic Southern cake that has graced cake domes in Louisiana home kitchens for many decades. Even if the name is new to your ears, it will probably taste familiar to you, because this nutty, golden cake straddles the line between three very popular desserts: a pound cake, a coconut cake, and a coffee cake. My version of the recipe is slightly different from the cake popularized and sold by Pennsylvania-based Entenmann’s. The widely distributed brand uses a coconut glaze to highlight the coconut flavor that’s a hallmark of crunch cakes. I prefer a plain sugar glaze—the type I remember from the crunch cake served to our congregation at church functions. Plus, there’s plenty of toasted coconut baked into the exterior of the cake.
Like pound cake, the crunch cake’s sponge is dense and rich, with a tight crumb. It contains a large number of eggs that act as the primary leavening agent, along with just a touch of baking powder. Coconut extract adds flavor and fragrance to the sponge; there’s toasty coconut in the cake’s crunchy coating, and even more speckling the glaze that’s drizzled on top.
Photo by Elizabeth Coetzee, Food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich
A tube pan or Bundt pan is ideal for this cake—the more surface area, the better. You’ll coat the pan with oil, and then sprinkle with granulated sugar and crumbled toasted coconut. It builds a crunchy coating that’s baked right onto the sponge. Unlike an upside down cake, the sugar doesn’t melt and caramelize, making a syrupy topping once the cake is removed. Here the sugar crystalizes, adding to the textural contrast.
A stand mixer is essential to crunch cake success. The batter is prepared by beating softened butter and cream cheese together until creamy, then adding the vanilla and coconut extracts and a steady stream of sugar. The paddle attachment of the mixer does the heavy lifting of creaming the butter and sugar together until the sugar dissolves, creating tiny pockets of air which help the cake maintain its structure when baked.
The six eggs add richness to the batter, but also trap air bubbles, helping keep the texture light and tender despite the tight crumb. You’ll turn the mixer speed down before adding the flour, then pour the batter into the coconut-lined pan and bake the cake low and slow. Use a cake tester (or a thin skewer) to confirm that it’s fully baked through. The cake tester should come out clean, and the crust at the top of the pan should be deep golden brown.
Once the cake has cooled on a rack, you’ll blanket the crunchy exterior with the glaze, and garnish with more toasted coconut. Many crunch cake recipes even add a sprinkling of toasted, chopped pecans to boost the crunchy, nutty garnish. Go ahead and try it, but I think the coconut here does a gorgeous job of adding both texture and flavor.