Chocolate Coconut Poke Cake Recipe

This poke chocolate coconut cake with cake mix is amazing! The best coconut poke cake ever with toffee on top. Super moist and the best dessert to take to a potluck! You can even make this poke cake dairy free if need be.

Coconut Poke Cake Recipe

If you don’t know how to make a poke cake it is easy and made just like it says. You poke it after it comes out of the oven and then pour something sweet on top so it goes into those crevices and soaks into the cake. Oh yes it does! I used the tip of my pastry bag to create the holes which worked perfect, or a large straw does the trick.

Seriously, you can use homemade mix, or boxed. And you just can’t go wrong with coconut, as far as I am concerned anyway. For a quick throw together treat just use Devil’s Food boxed cake mix. If you wanted to switch around the flavors you can occasionally find coconut cake mix and then use chocolate frosting on the top.

No need to count calories on this one, just dig in and get ready for a bit of indulgence people! 😉 My friend I was talking to when brainstorming this idea is not a blogger. I figured she probably found it online somewhere. I searched and the base of what she had made was called better than sex cake, I modified it from there by adding coconut!

Chocolate Coconut Poke Cake

You can make slits too but making small holes is way better! You can see here what you get when the ooey gooeyness seeps into the cake, it’s all the way to the bottom and makes it the moistest cake you’ve ever had! Ideas for the top that work well would be sweetened condensed milk (most popular), chocolate sauce or caramel.

We use two of these to add to the YUM. Ingredients that work well on the top would be crushed nuts, chocolate chips, smashed candy bar or Heath toffee that you see here.

Better Than Sex Cake

This coconut poke cake is super easy to make and perfect to bring as a dessert to any potluck or make when people come over because seriously nobody could resist it!

Chocolate Coconut Poke Cake with Cake Mix

I mean you could make this from scratch, the base of the cake but this is a lot easier. It is likely that your guests would never know the difference either so save yourself some time this way. Just like our Chocolate cherry dump cake, it is super simple to throw together in a pinch.

Chocolate Coconut Cake

A can of condensed sweetened milk – can use condensed coconut milk if you need a dairy free poke cake recipe

• Chocolate cake mix – I like German chocolate or devil’s food cake mix
• Caramel sundae topping or this is How to Make Caramel with Condensed Milk
• Whipped topping – alternatively you could make chocolate flavor or cream cheese frosting
• Heath bars
• Sweetened shredded coconut – don’t use unsweetened coconut, it’s not as good
  • then make coconut muffins with some of it for breakfast
• Cake pan and wire rack to use when done is helpful
• Large bowl and medium bowl for mixing wet and dry ingredients if you’re using a homemade flour mixture for cake mix

Other chocolate cake recipes I know you’ll love too are our Instant Pot chocolate cake that is a winner if you wanna’ make a pressure cooker dessert in a smaller form. Coca-Cola chocolate cake is fun too made in an 8×8 pan.

Our better than sex bars and Smores poke cake is beyond ridiculous and amazing.

Chocolate Coconut Cake from Mix

Here’s a quick step by step but there is a printable recipe card at the bottom of the post too. According to the boxed cake mix you chose, mix ingredients necessary to make the batter. Pour into prepared pan that is 9×13″ in size.

1. Now bake your cake as directed on the box which will take approximately 40 minutes or so typically. When a toothpick is inserted in the center and comes out clean, remove.
2. Poke holes on the top. Use a thick straw or knife.
3. Pour sweetened condensed milk over the top making sure it makes it on top of the holes and down to the bottom of the pan / baking sheet. 
4. Pour jar of caramel on top of that, sprinkle half of your crushed Heath bars on the very top.
5. Put it in the fridge until cooled, about an hour.  Take out and spread whipped topping evenly across the pan and smooth, sprinkle remainder of Heath bar bits, followed by your coconut evenly across the top.
6. Put in fridge ideally for another 30-60 minutes. Serve!

If you want something a bit less sweet, give our coconut zucchini bread a whirl too.

It. Is. Amazing! Yes it is sweet so serve it with a glass of milk. This is now my kids’ favorite dessert, ok and my husband too. 😉 If you’ve never made a poke cake this is the general idea, and how we made the coconut tropical cake, link above.  This chocolate coconut cake is made similarly with just a few different ingredients.

How do you save cake overnight?

You can actually wrap a cake that hasn’t been frosted with plastic wrap and keep it on the countertop for up to 5 days! This will keep it moist. Storing in the fridge will dry it out even if wrapped tightly.

You’ll likely have the topping on this one already so the best method to keep it moist is to put cellophane over the top and gently touch the top to remove the air. Keep in the fridge and enjoy as soon as possible, next day is best. I mean, we rarely have anything left when we enjoy this one, but that is my two cents on that. 😉