Flaky, moist, coconut cake with Italian meringue icing.
There’s nothing more beautiful and delicious than a coconut cake made with Italian meringue to make your special occasion more memorable. Luckily, I’ve never strayed too far from family’s southern traditions because making a coconut cake is an act of love but, it’s so worthwhile. It is also great with a lemon curd as a filling and it has a sugar glaze on each luscious layer. Italian meringue is similar to the Seven Minute icing on the old Southern favorite, The Lady Baltimore Cake made with brandy soaked raisins, candied cherries, figs, pecans or walnuts folded into streams of hot molten, boiled sugar poured into foamy egg whites beaten until it becomes billowy, and shiny reminiscent of marshmallow cream. The Lady Baltimore Cake was the cake Great Grandmama Emma would make whenever she visited. I can see her smiling talking about how much she loved the boiled sugar icing called The Seven Minute frosting. She warned me that if it was refrigerated it would turn brittle and hard like candy. I frowned and said, “oh, well why would you want to use it then?” Her response was simple, “I don’t mind…it’s like candy.” Her eyes twinkled as she spoke about it…I knew then that the boiled icing was special–you can hardly resist poking your finger in this shiny stuff that reminds you of gooey marshmallow cream. “Yummy!”
I love this cake because this is the cake of my childhood. My Grandmama Ruth would often purchase a similar type frozen cake (you may know the name of Pepperidge Farm coconut cake) which we’d devour every drop licking the icing from the top of the box. When I was having sugar cravings as a teenage girl it was this snack cake that satiated me. Every spring it was the coconut cake that Mama would make for us in the shape of a bunny with coconut flakes colored with blue or yellow food coloring for our Easter table. Those were special times as a child. A cake like this was always accompanied by ice cream. In fact, when I became a mother I tried to carry on the tradition of the coconut cake as a sign of spring and renewal because it was so significant to mark the beginning of spring. Today, my son still buys these cakes in a last moment craving. I’ll admit that when I was younger (before I’d perfected my skills to cook this level of cake) I occasionally bought the old standby but, it was never enough (never rising above the level of “snack cake”). But, during holidays nothing else will do but, the whole cake. This celebration cake easily becomes a beautiful centerpiece whether it’s Easter, Christmas or just your next Sunday dinner.
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