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Grandma's Coconut Icebox Cake
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Or should this be titled Holiday Garage Coconut Cake? Let me explain.
One Christmas we traveled to Lookout
Mountain, Georgia, to spend
the holidays with my in-laws. As
will invariably happen when you
are away from home with three
small children, an
ice storm hit the
mountain and we
lost power. We had
plans for some
great cooking—a
chocolate yule log cake, a pork
roast, and gingerbread cookies
for the children to decorate—but
instead, we listened to the crashing
of heavy ice-laden tree limbs
outside and ate sandwiches, cereal,
and, thank goodness, this coconut
cake. It stayed nice and chilled in
the frigid garage!
The recipe came to me from
Savannah cook and food writer
Damon Lee Fowler, who says his
grandmother MaMa made this
cake, and it was her specialty. It
tastes best if allowed to rest
at least three days in the
icebox (old wonderful word
for refrigerator), and it’s
superlative after five days,
but this requires willpower! I
recommend you bake it in the winter
and tote it along for insurance if
you’re planning to travel during an
ice storm!
Serves: 20
Preparation time:
5 to 7 minutes
Baking time: 27 to 29 minutes
Assembly time: 15 minutes
Cake:
Solid vegetable shortening for greasing
the pans
Flour for dusting the pans
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white
cake mix
1 1/3 cups water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, such as
canola, corn, safflower, soybean,
or sunflower
3 large eggs
Coconut frosting:
2 cups sugar
2 cups (16 ounces) sour cream
1 package (12 ounces, 3 1/2 cups) frozen
unsweetened grated coconut, thawed
1. Place a rack in the center of the oven
and preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously
grease two 9-inch round cake pans with
solid vegetable shortening, then dust with
flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the
pans aside.
2. Place the cake mix, water, oil, and
eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with
an electric
mixer on low speed for 1 minute.
Stop the machine and scrape down
the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Increase the mixer speed to medium
and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the
sides down again if needed. The batter
should look well blended. Divide the batter
between the prepared pans, smoothing
it out with the rubber spatula. Place
the pans in the oven side by side.
3. Bake the cakes until they are golden
brown and spring back when lightly
pressed with your finger, 27 to 29 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. Combine
the sugar, sour cream, and thawed coconut in a medium bowl. Let the mixture
rest in the refrigerator until the sugar
dissolves, 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
5. Remove the pans from the oven and
place them on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes.
Run a dinner knife around the edge
of each layer and invert each onto a rack,
then invert them again onto another rack
so that the cakes are right side up. Allow
them to cool completely, 30 minutes more.
6. When the sugar has dissolved in the
frosting, begin to assemble the cake. Carefully
slice the cake layers in half horizontally,
using a large, sharp serrated bread
knife or a long piece of unflavored dental
floss. You will have four layers. Place the
bottom half of a cake layer on a serving
platter, cut side up. Spread with some of
the coconut frosting. Top the bottom half
with the matching top of the layer, cut
side down. Spread with frosting. Next,
add the bottom half of the second layer,
cut side up, and spread with frosting. Top
the bottom half with the matching top of
the layer, cut side down. Spread the top
and sides of the entire cake with all of the
remaining coconut frosting, using clean,
smooth strokes. The frosting should be
nice and thick and not run off the sides.
7. Chill the cake, uncovered, until the
frosting is firm, 1 hour.
Note: Store this cake covered with waxed
paper taped down along the underside of
the platter to keep it snug. It will keep in
the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
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