This Samoas Poke Cake inspired by Samoas Girl Scout Cookies is my new favorite! Totally irresistible!
Whoever invented in the Samoas (or Carmel deLites) Cookie for the Girl Scouts is an absolute genius. The combination of coconut, caramel, and chocolate is a mixture made from heaven. This is what makes this delicious Samoas Poke Cake such a winner.
How to Make Samoas Poke Cake
This is a brief overview of this delicious recipe. For the full recipe, see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Make the chocolate cake base. I used a cake mix here to make things easier, but we are swapping out some of what it calls for and replacing it with eggs, coconut milk, and vegetable oil.
- Poke holes and fill them. An essential part of any poke cake is the holes. Poke holes in the baked cake and then fill them with caramel topping.
- Let the cake cool.
- Top the cake. Finally top the cake with stabilized whipped cream (or cool whip), toasted coconut, and more caramel sauce.
Coconut Milk
For this recipe, you want to be sure to buy coconut milk. It really is just the liquid from the coconut combined with some of the flesh. It shouldn’t have anything else added to it.
Coconut cream, which is not what you want, has additional sugar added to it. It is perfect for my Pina Colada, but since we are making a cake here that already has sugar, we want to stick to coconut milk.
Stabilized Whipped Cream
Very often poke cakes will be topped with Cool Whip. It’s fast and convenient and makes a great topping for these simple cakes. However, if you would like to make your own, my recipe for stabilized whipped cream is perfect. It is sweetened whipped cream that has gelatin in it to keep it stable. This means it won’t start to melt all over your cake as the cake sits like traditional whipped cream will. It also will hold its shape if you decide to use it for other recipes and want to pipe it. It makes a great decoration for my key lime cheesecake.
Stabilized Whipped Cream
Toasted Coconut
The toasted coconut is one of my favorite parts of this recipe. It is so easy to make, and perfect to top so many different desserts. I also love keeping it on hand when we do an ice cream sundae bar!
How To Toast Coconut
More Easy Poke Cakes
If you make this delicious Samoas Cake or any of my other recipes, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
Samoas Poke Cake
Ingredients
- 13 ounces Chocolate Cake Mix I used Betty Crocker Super Moist Milk Chocolate
- 14 ounces coconut milk I used Thai Kitchen
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 12.25 oz caramel topping I used Smuckers
- 8 ounces stabilized whipped cream or cool whip
- toasted coconut
- more caramel for drizzling optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- Mix the cake mix, coconut milk, eggs, and vegetable oil together.13 ounces Chocolate Cake Mix, 14 ounces coconut milk, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 3 eggs
- Pour into 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 28 minutes or until a toothpick stuck two inches from the edge comes out with just a few crumbs.
- Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes, then poke small holes throughout the cake.
- Pour the caramel topping into the holes, making sure that you get some in each whole.12.25 oz caramel topping
- Refrigerate overnight.
- Top with cool whip, toasted coconut and additional caramel (or hot fudge).8 ounces stabilized whipped cream, toasted coconut, more caramel for drizzling
danie says
Thanks!
Christine says
This looks delicious! I have a silly question…what do you poke the holes with? And about how many holes? Thanks!
Christine
Hi Christine! I poke the holes with the end of a wooden spoon, and I usually make about six or seven rows of four. But it really doesn’t matter how many you make, so long as there is enough for whatever you are pouring into your cake has enough holes to permeate it.
Mary says
Great site!