Editorial
Front Page - Friday, September 18, 2009
Kay's Cooking Corner
Kathy Joyner
This may be my last week to pinch hit for my sister and while it has truly been a lot of fun as well as a real learning experience for me, I’m sure you will be extremely happy to get Kay’s words of cooking knowledge back! I hope you have enjoyed reading my column the last two weeks and hopefully I have said something meaningful to at least one person on the topic of either Alzheimer’s or heart disease. And I sure hope you liked my recipes, too!
When I was thinking about what I wanted to do for this week, I had a couple of ideas in mind and, of course, I ran them by my husband, Charlie, to get his take on them. You know when you’ve been married for 39 years your husband’s (or wife’s) opinion all of a sudden means a lot to you. Now, we may not always want to admit that or want them to know that, but nonetheless, it’s true! Of course his opinion of my idea for this week wasn’t that great!
But the truth is, he has wanted me to put this one particular recipe in since the beginning and I just couldn’t because, well, it just didn’t go with the article! You know…like your shoes don’t go with your purse!
So, this week, being my last week to mess things up for Kay and all, seemed like a good time to finally listen to Charlie and put in the recipe he loves so much.
It’s really a scrumptious coconut cake recipe that I’ve been making for many, many years. I don’t even recall where I got the basic recipe from. I know I changed it a little to make it my own and I’ve since seen several recipes very similar to mine in other cookbooks. I wonder if those are as good.
Seriously though, I remember when we were living in Tennessee and Charlie announced that his boss, whom I had never met, was flying in for a meeting and Charlie had invited him to our home for dinner. Yikes! What do you prepare for the “Big Boss?” He’s flown all the way from Green Bay, Wis.! You sure don’t want him going back to the home office and telling all the other guys “Charlie’s wife sure can’t cook!”
I did find out that he wasn’t allergic to anything I was preparing (points for me) and also that he liked coconut cake. I took my time and made it the three days ahead of time (which I don’t always get to do) and served it on a beautiful crystal cake plate. I want you to know this man e-mailed me several times for my recipe (he kept losing it) and it is now a family tradition each Christmas at their home.
We still stay in communication with him, even though Charlie no longer works for this company, and he still to this day talks about this cake. So, it must be pretty good, right?
Try it for yourself. The cake is better the longer it can stay well-covered and refrigerated. But I’ll tell you, it’s hard to keep it around for too long! Do try to make it three days before you wish to serve it. I have made it the night before and it’s still delicious, but the longer it has to sit, the better. I do hope you enjoy. Thank you for allowing me to even pretend to fill in for my sister, and I wish God’s blessings on you all!
Three-Day Coconut Cake
1 package butter cake mix
1 3/4 cups sugar
16 oz. sour cream
12 oz. flaked coconut
9 oz. frozen whipped topping, defrosted
1 can Eagle Brand milk
Prepare cake mix according to package directions, making two 8 or 9 inch layers. When layers are completely cool, split in half (a long serrated knife does this job very well). While cake is cooling, combine sugar, sour cream and coconut, blending well; chill.
Before putting together cake, reserve 1 cup of sour cream mixture. Add the Eagle Brand Milk to the larger portion of the mixture and spread between layers of cake, making a layer cake four stacks high. Combine reserved 1 cup sour cream mixture with whipped topping blending until smooth. Spread on top and sides of cake.
Seal cake in an airtight container and refrigerate for three days before serving. This will keep many days longer, if it has the chance!
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