Tried swapping butter for coconut oil in pound cake - total disaster

Linda Hunt · 2026-04-28T02:20:02.244475+00:00

Used a 1:1 swap in my go-to pound cake recipe. Came out greasy and flat, not fluffy at all. Anyone else run into this with fat substitutions?

max_jones5mo ago

Oh man, that sounds rough! I actually just watched a baking video the other day where the lady was talking about this exact thing. She said coconut oil is mostly solid fat but melts way faster than butter, so it just leaks out of the batter before the cake sets. Plus butter has water and milk solids that help with structure and fluffiness, and coconut oil is pure fat so you lose all that. She recommended only swapping up to like half the butter with coconut oil, and even then you gotta chill the oil first so it's solid when you mix it in. Might be worth trying with a little less next time or just sticking to butter for pound cake since it's so finicky.

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murray.cole5mo ago

Funny how shortcuts in the kitchen usually backfire, same as in life.

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jamierodriguez4mo ago

Honestly, the same thing happened to me with a lemon pound cake last spring. I did a 1:1 swap like you and ended up with this greasy, dense brick that barely rose. It was so disappointing because I thought coconut oil would be a healthier swap, but nope. Tbh, that person in the video you mentioned is totally right about the water and milk solids thing, butter really does the heavy lifting for structure. I tried it again later with half coconut oil and half butter, and even then the texture was just off, not as tender. Ngl, I've just given up and stick to butter for anything that needs to be fluffy now.

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