Baking advice: Leaving coconut out of cake recipe?

I am making a tropical layer cake for my 2yr old's birthday party. I'm combining a pina colada cake recipe with this: http://hotlyspiced.com/tropical-cake-with-coconut-cream-frosting/

For the cake itself, I want to make three layers, so was planning to increase the recipe by a third. If I leave out of the shredded coconut, is that going to mess up the batter? I know you need to balance wet and dry ingredients in a cake, but I was wondering if the coconut mattered, since it probably doesn't combine a whwholeolr lot with other things.

I was hoping to make the cake more fruity rather than coconutty. It's going to have a pineapple filling and lightly coconut flavored frosting. Since I have a rather picky audience, I would like to tone down the coconut if possible.

Thank you for your input, oh cooking experts o' the net.

bon appetit