Football Widow

Snowflakes on the Football Field Coconut Cake Recipe

January 5, 2008 6:51 PM | 0 Comments

Over the holidays, my 8-year-old daughter Caroline and I baked one of the most incredible cakes in my repertoire, and to honor the College Football Games and Professional Football play-offs, I've anointed it with the above title: Snowflakes on the Football Field Coconut Cake. This recipe is another treasured one I inherited from the legendary baker Aunt Joan, pronounced in Deep Southern as two syllables - Jo-ON, who lives in Purvis, Mississippi. It's gorgeous, snowy and delectable.

This cake is my mother-in-law's favorite so I baked it for her 74th birthday, which is on Dec. 30. Fortunately, she took the last of the cake home today, which was a relief for me. I am a lightweight when it comes to expiration date tolerance. Anything over three days old is positively wretched in my opinion. She, on the other hand, is not squeamish and happily packed up the remains of the cake in a ziplock bag.

Snowflakes on the Football Field Coconut Cake
Credits to Aunt Joan

To make the cake:
1) In a large bowl cream together 1 cup butter & 2 cups sugar
2) In another bowl, sift together 3 cups cake flour (definitely use cake flour), 3t baking powder and 1/2t salt
3) Measure 1 cup whole milk in a measuring cup
4) Alternately add 2 & 3 to 1
5) Beat in 4 eggs, one at a time
6) Add 1t vanilla
7) Bake in 3 greased and floured pans at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes

To make the filling:
1) In a small saucepan, heat almost to a boil 3 T sugar, 3/4 cup milk, 1/4 stick butter and 1/4 c coconut (canned, flaked or fresh if you are feeling adventuresome and patient enough to tackle a coconut. If you saw Tom Hanks in Cast Away, you may think twice. He may have used a Fed Exed ice skate to puncture it, but I don't think he processed the flesh that way.)

2) Place the first layer of cake on your serving dish or cake stand, and poke small holes in it. Drizzle 1/3 of the filling, which will be very runny, over the cake layer. Then, place the next layer on the first and repeat the process until all three layers have been poked, drizzled and stacked up on each other.

To make the frosting:
Follow the Seven-minute Frosting recipe from Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006 to make this billowy and sweet cloud of frosting, I press coconut on the top and sides of the cake after frosting.

Bon appetite, and let me know how it worked for you!

The Sports Widow
(aka Nan Hall)