Celebrate the New Year with Cake!

FROM THE KITCHEN: COCONUT CAKE

A FAMILY FAVORITE RECIPE FROM TINA MEAD-RAMIREZ

Coconut Cake

©Tina Mead-Ramirez

Who doesn’t love a good Coconut Cake? I’ve found over the years, there are so many variations. There is 7 minute frosting, cream cheese frosting, toasted coconut, coconut in the cake or maybe you prefer coconut outside of the cake? You just need to like coconut to enjoy it any way!

My father’s side of the family is from Alabama and my mother’s side is from Arizona. The south meets the west, and that is how I love to cook and bake.

I was introduced to my first coconut cake from my southern heritage. My Great Aunts and Grandmother loved a good coconut cake, and theirs were always good! As I became an adult woman, I joined our family tribe of trading recipes and always on the hunt for a great recipe. I definitely developed my “love language” cooking and baking for the people I love.

My Paternal Grandparents had an Old Fashioned Fountain inside a drug store in Tucson, Arizona (my hometown). My grandmother, Imogene not only cooked for the public, she loved to cook and bake for her family. She always had a cake or dessert waiting for the family or a friend when they stopped for a visit. I started making a coconut cake about 20 years ago that my family fell in love with. My Grandmother said it reminded her of an old-fashioned coconut cake her grandmother used to make. That was it! I started making this cake for her birthday every year. My dad fell in love with this cake too. I have so many wonderful memories eating and sharing good food and cake together.

This Coconut Cake has become my family’s traditional coconut cake. It’s not the prettiest cake, but it is oh so good with a hot beverage! Enjoy a little piece of my family with yours and Happy New Year! With Love and good cake to share, Tina Mead-Ramirez

Cake:

1 cup unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

3 cups flour

4 eggs

1 ½ cups buttermilk

1 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp Vanilla

½ tsp salt

Filling/Topping:

3 cups sugar

1 ½ cups milk

1 ½ bags sweetened coconut

1 stick unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 3 cake pans and line bottoms with wax paper. Cream together butter, sugar, and eggs one at a time. Add salt and Vanilla. Stir baking soda into buttermilk. Add flour ½ cup alternately with buttermilk. Bake for 20 minutes or until done by testing with a tooth pick. Allow to cool in pans for 5 minutes. Remove cake from pans and allow to cool. While cake is baking, prepare to cook the filling/topping. Add milk, sugar, and coconut to a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat for 7 minutes or until the filling changes from white to an oyster color. Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla and stir until melted. Cool to lukewarm. Start assembly by placing 1 of the 3 layers of cake with filling and repeating. Save half of the filling for the top of the cake. Make sure you use a cake plate with a lip to catch all the yummy drippings! I will occasionally spoon the filling over the top of the cake as it drips down to the base of the cake plate.