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This old-fashioned Vanilla Wafer Cake is tender, buttery, and full of coconut and pecans, with a whole box of crushed cookies standing in for flour. Six eggs give it body and richness, while the wafers make it tender in a way regular cake flour just doesn’t. You’re going to love the crisp Bundt-pan edges and the toasty, buttery aroma that fills the kitchen.
Why You’ll Love It
- No flour to measure — crushed vanilla wafers give this cake its structure.
- Rich and tender — six eggs create a buttery, satisfying crumb.
- Coconut and pecans — sweet coconut softens into the cake while pecans add crunch.
- Crisp Bundt-pan edges — the ridges bake up especially golden and delicious.
- Easy to take along — this cake travels well for dessert anywhere.
Ingredient Notes
Use the full 11-ounce box of Nilla Wafers. The cookie crumbs are the structure of this cake, so this is not the moment to use half a box you found in the pantry with two broken cookies and a mysterious lint situation. I’ve tried to make do with odds and ends before. It builds character, maybe, but not a proper cake.
The butter needs to be softened, not melted. Leave it out while you gather everything else, and it should be fine. If your kitchen is cold enough to hang meat, cut the butter into pieces and give it a little extra time.
Sweetened shredded coconut is what you want here. Unsweetened coconut would change the sweetness and texture, and I wouldn’t bother. Same with the pecans: roughly chopped is perfect. You want some little pieces and some bigger ones. I don’t measure chopped nuts with the seriousness of a surgeon; one cup, give or take a few that somehow end up in my mouth.
And yes, use all six eggs. Don’t start negotiating with the recipe. I tried to talk myself out of them, too.
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 (11-ounce) box Nilla Wafers
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 6 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 1 cup pecans, roughly chopped — I like a few larger pieces in there, but do what you like
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350°F and thoroughly grease a 10-inch Bundt pan. I mean thoroughly—get into every little ridge and crevice. There is nothing more irritating than flipping out a beautiful cake and discovering a whole section has decided to stay behind in the pan. Well, there are more irritating things, obviously, but in the kitchen this ranks right up there.
Pour the entire box of Nilla Wafers into a large zip-top bag and seal it well. Crush the cookies with a rolling pin or a wooden spoon until they are fine crumbs. I usually put the bag on a folded kitchen towel so it doesn’t skid around the counter. The first time I made this, I got a little too enthusiastic with the rolling pin and popped the bag open. Cookie crumbs everywhere. The dog was thrilled. I was less thrilled.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar together for 1 to 2 minutes, until the mixture looks lighter and a little fluffy. It won’t be dramatically fluffy like a buttercream, so don’t stand there waiting for a miracle. Just get it nicely combined.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing each one in fully before adding the next. This takes a few minutes, and yes, it feels like a lot of egg—but the batter will come together. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice if you need to. I always need to, because apparently I mix like I’m trying to escape the kitchen.
Add the milk and vanilla extract, then mix until smooth. The batter may look a little loose at this point, which is completely fine. It has not betrayed you. Not yet.
Fold in the crushed vanilla wafer crumbs, sweetened coconut, and chopped pecans until everything is fully incorporated. The batter becomes thick—very thick, actually—and you may need a sturdy spatula. My old yellow spatula finally split doing a batch of something like this. I still bought the same kind afterward because apparently I learn nothing.
Spoon the batter into the greased Bundt pan and smooth the top as best you can. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Once it bakes and gets flipped over, nobody will know whether you made a neat little swirl on top or just shoved it in there while the Wi-Fi was out.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. During the last 15 to 20 minutes, loosely cover the top with foil to keep it from getting too brown. Don’t skip checking on it—Bundt pans can brown more quickly than you expect. That said, the crispy edges are honestly one of the best parts, so we are preventing burning here, not chasing pale perfection.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife carefully around the edges to loosen it, then flip it out onto a serving plate. Let it cool all the way to room temperature before slicing. I know, I know. Warm cake is tempting. But this one settles beautifully as it cools, and the slices hold together much better once you give it a little patience.
Variations
For extra pecans, use a heaping cup and chop them less finely, and it’s good—more rustic, I suppose. If that word means anything anymore. A chipped mug gets called rustic now.
You can leave out the pecans if there’s an allergy issue, but I wouldn’t leave out both the pecans and coconut unless you have to. Those two ingredients give the cake its personality. Without them, it’s still a pleasant vanilla wafer cake, but it loses some of that old-fashioned, almost Southern-style richness.
I once thought I’d be clever and add a little cinnamon. It wasn’t awful, but it was not better. It made the cake taste confused, like it couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be a coffee cake or a holiday dessert. Sometimes plain is plain because it works. Annoying, but true.
Storage & Reheating
Keep the cake covered at room temperature for up to 3 days. A cake dome is lovely if you have one; I usually use a big overturned bowl because I own plenty of nice things and can never find the matching lid when I need it. Plastic wrap works, too, though it can soften those crisp outer edges a little.
For longer storage, wrap slices well and refrigerate them for a few more days. The cake is good cold, actually—dense and buttery, especially with coffee the next morning. If you want to warm a slice, give it just a few seconds in the microwave. Don’t overdo it or the coconut can get oddly chewy, and nobody needs that surprise before noon.
You can freeze individual slices wrapped tightly, then thaw them at room temperature. I’ve done that when I was trying to “save some for later,” only to find them gone from the freezer behind a bag of peas.
Final Notes
This cake reminds me of the kind of dessert that used to appear on dinner tables without a grand announcement. It would just be there, under a glass dome or on a plate with a slightly too-small piece of foil over it, waiting to be cut into after dinner. No drizzle, no fancy garnish, no little sprig of whatever is being put on cakes now.
Just cake.
And maybe that’s why I like it so much. It feels a little bit like making do, but in the best possible way—taking a box of cookies and turning it into something worth sitting down for. Something that makes the kitchen smell like butter and vanilla for a couple of hours, while the dishwasher hums and shoes get left in the hallway and the world keeps carrying on with all its foolishness.
Have a slice when it’s cooled. Or don’t wait quite that long.
Vanilla Wafer Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 (11-ounce) box Nilla Wafers
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 6 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 1 cup pecans roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and thoroughly grease a 10-inch Bundt pan, making sure to get into every ridge and crevice.
- Pour the entire box of Nilla Wafers into a large zip-top bag, seal it well, and crush the cookies with a rolling pin or wooden spoon until they are fine crumbs.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar together for 1 to 2 minutes, until the mixture looks lighter and a little fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing each one in fully before adding the next, and scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice as needed.
- Add the milk and vanilla extract, then mix until smooth; the batter may look a little loose at this point.
- Fold in the crushed vanilla wafer crumbs, sweetened shredded coconut, and chopped pecans until everything is fully incorporated and the batter is thick.
- Spoon the batter into the greased Bundt pan and smooth the top as best you can.
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, loosely covering the top with foil during the last 15 to 20 minutes to keep it from getting too brown.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, run a knife carefully around the edges to loosen it, flip it out onto a serving plate, and let it cool completely to room temperature before slicing.