Family dinners have always been an important part of my life. Family dinners with cake, especially, have always been an important part of my life. And the best dinners are those featuring oatmeal cake with coconut topping.
I remember as a kid my parents, brothers and I used to head over to my grandparents’ house for Sunday dinner after church. All my aunts, uncles and numerous cousins would gather to tell outrageous stories, build and fix things (my family is always building and fixing things) while my grandmother cooked a traditional Southern dinner and my grandfather escaped to the garden to tend his roses.
My grandmother’s dinners never had fewer than, say, 15 bowls and heaping plates on the table—fried chicken, collard greens, mashed potatoes and gravy, oniony cole slaw, lima beans, angel biscuits, salty Virginia ham, green beans. And the desserts. Oh, the desserts!
We would eat in shifts because there wasn’t enough room at the table for everyone. Afterwords, the women (no, never the men) would pitch in and clean the kitchen.
I remember one Sunday my Aunt Margaret had finished up in the kitchen and decided to mop and wax my grandmother’s floor. I watched on, chatting, as she put the finishing touches and finally managed to wax her way into a corner.
“Oh no! Here I am in this corner and the floor’s all wet. I guess I’ll just stand here until it’s dry,” she declared.
“No! You can just walk out and wax over your footsteps,” I said, my five-year-old self proud of coming up with the solution.
Of course, my Aunt Margaret was always the kidder and had let me come up with the solution. Still, it’s a fond memory—well, that and the cake.
My husband loves this cake so much he nearly dances when he realizes that I have made one. And he keeps saying—over and over again—”Have I mentioned how much I love this cake?”
Now, if this chocolate-loving gal says that she loves an oatmeal cake, you can take it to the bank that this is a good cake. And it’s one of those amazing cakes that only get better with time.
So make it now and make someone happy.
Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Topping
1 1/4 cup boiling water
1 cup old fashioned oats
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/3 cups flour
pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour boiling water over oats and let stand for 15 minutes. In a mixer, cream together butter, white and brown sugars. Add eggs. In a separate bowl, mix together baking soda, cinnamon, flour and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar, butter and egg mixture until well blended. Stir in the oatmeal/water mixture until well combined. Pour into a 9 x 13″ baking pan. (I use a Pyrex baking pan.) Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean. Top with topping after the cake cools for about 10 to 15 minutes.
Coconut Topping
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter (brought to room temperature)
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh grated coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 to 1/4 cup milk
Blend all the ingredients together until well mixed. Pour over warm (but not hot) cake and spread evenly.
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By the way, if you haven’t voted on a chicken name for The Chicken Formerly Known as Minnie Ruth, please do so now. I really don’t want to name this chicken Johnny.
Robin
Who needs to go out to dinner when you can make delicious home made pizza at home?
Especially when SOMEONE ELSE is making the pizza! See, at our house, pizza making is a family affair and both of my guys into the act topping their pizzas with their own personal concoctions. My sole contribution is the home made pizza dough that I make in the bread machine. Total time effort on my part? About 5 minutes.
After that, I sit back, relax and enjoy the show.
I’m not sure where I got the recipe, but it’s a total hit here.
Robin
Thanks to the happy twist of fate that I finally have some breathing room on my work calendar I was able to spend most of yesterday preparing for Harry’s birthday dinner. It’s yet another step toward my slow lifestyle.
And, as my friend Martha would say, “It’s a good thing.”
For his birthday cake, I made one of our family favorites, Italian Cream Cake. I first found this recipe years ago in Bon Appetite magazine. Since then, the recipe has morphed somewhat, but it essentially remains the magazine’s version. I tried valiantly to find the original in the Bon Appetite repository that is now at one of my favorite website, Epicurious, but I suppose this recipe was published before the invention of the Internet. (Don’t laugh. It’s entirely possible that I have recipes from the Stone Age.)
As an added bonus to being a superhero wife and all-around star party-maker for my hubbie, my house smells fabulous—better than those wanky candles you buy at the mall. And if you need to know what “wanky” is, visit Urban Dictionary where you can learn all sorts useful expressions such as “jackass o’clock” (time to be a jackass) or “e 40” (a Bay Area rapper).
This weekend, why not slow down and make a fabulous dessert—or how about make THIS fabulous dessert?
Italian Cream Cake
Ingredients:
¾ cup butter, softened
1 ¾ cups sugar
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ¾ cups cake flower
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup half and half
4 ounces flaked coconut
4 egg whites
1 recipe for cream cheese frosting (see below)
Additional coconut, as desired
Directions:
In a large mixer bowl beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat well. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Gradually add this mixture to the egg/butter mixture, alternating with the half and half. Stir in coconut.
In a small mixer bowl, beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Stir in about a third of the whites into the cake batter. Then gently fold in the remaining whites.
Pour the batter evenly into three buttered and floured 8” cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Do not overcook!
Cool for 10 minutes and then turn onto wire racks to finish cooling. When cooled, place the first layer on a cake plate and frost with the cream cheese frosting. Sprinkle on coconut and add the second layer and repeat, finishing the frosting all around. Pat coconut onto the crème cheese frosting for a decorative finish.
Store any leftover cake covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 or 4 days (if it lasts that long).
Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
12 ounces cream cheese
6 Tablespoons butter
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
6 cups sifted powdered sugar (maybe a bit less)
Directions:
In a mixer bowl beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until smooth.
Enjoy!
Robin
