I give you...
PAULA DEEN'S COCONUT CAKE
Isn't this gorgeous? I've sworn for months and months I was going to make this cake. And I did. The truth is this cake is labor intensive. But...
It's so worth it.
One 18 1/4-ounce package yellow pudding cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
12 ounces shredded coconut
Preheat oven to 350*
Make cake by following directions on the package but substitute milk for the water. Divide and bake in three 9-inch round cake pans for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Then remove from pans.
Stir together sour cream, sugar and coconut. Spread between slightly warm layers, piercing each layer as you stack them. Store cake in container in refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. This allows cake to soak up moisture from the coconut.
On the third day, prepare icing for cake.
2 unbeaten egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons light corn syrup or 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/3 cup cold water
dash of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla (I use clear vanilla to keep the icing white)
Additional coconut to top icing (about 1/2 cup )
Place all ingredients except vanilla and additional coconut in top of a double boiler, but do not place over heat. Beat for one minute with an electric hand mixer.
Place over boiling water and cook, beating constantly, until frosting forms stiff peaks (about 7 minutes). Remove from boiling water.
Add vanilla and beat until it reaches spreading consistency (about 2 minutes).
Frost sides and then top of cake. Sprinkle with additional coconut.
Cover and store cake at room temperature.
The recipe for this amazing cake can be found on page 120 of The Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook. Not everyone has this cookbook so I decided to share.
Obviously, if you have the Internet, you can go to Paula's official website and find a lot of her recipes. But guess what. This one isn't there.
I'm also blessed to have a subscription to Cooking With Paula Deen because that's what Krissy gave me for Mother's Day. And I'm almost sure this cake recipe is actually her son Bobby's. I'm pretty sure he created this cake. I seem to remember seeing it in an earlier issue of the magazine.
At any rate, this cake is to die for. It takes some planning ahead of time, and I know most of you who are chasing kids around the house will look at this and say, yeah, right. Like I've got time for this.
Seriously, you can make this cake. You basically just bake a cake in three pans, spread some simple coconut/sugar/sour cream filling between the layers and stick it in the fridge for three days and forget about it.
Then you bring it out and make the 7-minute frosting. And when you hand your husband a slice of this, after a crazy day of taking good care of his kids AND doing his laundry, he's going to look at you like you're an angel who hung the moon.
I hung the moon so many years ago that Rob barely remembers it.
But you should have seen the gleam in his eye when I handed him this tonight.
It was so worth it.
UPDATE:
First of all, I had the wrong son. It's Paula's son Jamie who has published his recipe for coconut cake. His is a little different from the recipe in my cookbook (for one thing, he makes the cake from scratch). Here's Jamie's recipe.
Also, you might enjoy Paula's official web site, the official web site of her restaurant in Savannah, The Lady and Sons and her magazine's web site. You can sign up for a free email newsletter at her magazine site.
Just sharin' the love, y'all.
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47 comments:
I'm sooo happy you posted this recipe. This is what Eric is getting for Fathers day:) He loves coconut.
What you said Barb!!! Oh my word!
thanks for posting this..have a great day/evening
I laughed when I saw "and on the third day..." But the outcome looks sooooo good, I can almost taste it:)
Betty
WOW! I don't even like coconut, but that looks so delicious (and VERY lovely!!!!)
Blessings,
Karla
Oh my goodness, Barb! My mouth is watering just looking at your pictures of this amazing cake!
I could do this! I'm going to try it soon. :)
Do you have a good recipe for a triple-layer chocolate cake?
I love sour cream and 7-minute frosting! I am hungry again now that I read this and saw the delicious pictures.
I just got through making my pickles and took some pictures for the blog. I also went with Lamar and my MIL to see Jessica and Emmy today. I got some more pictures there, too.
I guess that tells you what the subjects of my next blog will be, LOL!
Now I've got to go repackage my family packs of meat in to meal size portions for the freezer stuff.
Excitin' times here at La Casa de Jennings, let me tell you!
In other news I'm supposed to keep Emmy this Saturday while Jessica works if she feels up to working. :-)
I've got to go back to that cake though...I sure wish you could send me a piece of it right about now. Even more I wish we could sit down together with a piece of your cake and some coffee and just visit, Barb.
Love you like a sis, Barb. :-)
Diane
That cake is BEAUTIFUL! I can almost taste it just looking at the picture!
When are you going to write your own cookbook--Cooking With Barb and Chelsea
Man, if I liked coconut ... or it wouldn't give me hives ... I'd be all over that puppy.
Que Sera Sera ...
That's seriously beautiful! Too bad coconut is one thing I do not like. It always looks pretty though.
Barb, you're murderizing my diet! ;)
How-eeeverrrr...If I make it on the weekend...mmmm...I like the father's day cake idea... ;)
Looks WONderful! :D
b
Wow, from a cake mix! Thank you for posting the recipe AND pics. :)
Barb,
I've been lurking for quite a while now, and I really enjoy your blog.
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I'll be making it soo. I just LOVE Paula Deen.This looks really good!
If I could use wheat in my kitchen I'd be all over that puppy. My.Goodness. That looks awesome. Maybe I could suggest that my mother make this.....
That cake is GORGEOUS! Too bad I couldn't eat it - I have a serious cocount allergy. You eat my share, okay?
It IS a beautiful cake! I can't eat coconut but it does look good.
Great job on it.
Oh boy does that look good!
Bee-ooo-ti-ful! Wow! wish I could make it...unfortunately it's hard (impossible) to get some of the ingredients here. Maybe when I'm in the U.S. sometime! *sigh* How's your little grandson?
Wow, that cake looks good enough to eat! hehe It looks beautiful and I can just imagine how moist it is. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe with us, it's been duly copied and one day when I need to make a special cake, that will be the one:-) xox
I'll be right over, oh my goodness that looks so worth the price of a plane ticket =))) You do know you are evil teasing us like this. smmooooch!
I wish I could lick the screen, that picture looks delicious! Maybe next week when things slow down I'll make this and then hide it so I can eat a piece for breakfast every morning :o).
Matt knows I hung the moon, if I do anything else he'll doubt my humanity. lol.
Have a great day Barb, thanks for the recipe.
Looks delicious AND beautiful. It seems to even sparkle and shine!!
Sour cream and coconut in one cake?! Sounds like absolute heaven to me. There's gotta be a way to ship it to Canada, right??!!
You know, to celebrate my blogiversary, and all?
Just want to join in and sing your praises on this work of art! This looks mahvelous and I can only imagine how good it tastes. You're really sumpthin', Barb! You've outdone yourself.
That is so beautiful. Two things --
1. How DO you stay so slim????
2. May I come for coffee???
Labor-intensive? Around here...I call that "improbable!" But how beautiful to look at--how tempting it is to rethink the probabilities!
It is stunningly....beautiful...and I'm sure just yummy!
With my ADD nature....any recipe that calls for a three day process...could be forgotten by the distractions of life! You are amazing!
Diane
Well, I know that if I made it, it would NOT look that beautiful. I have not one artistic bone in my fingers. I can take a gorgeous craft that "anyone can do" and mess it up. Ask my sister or my friend JoAnn! So - I'm glad I don't like coconut, except in Mounds bars, so I"m not tempting to try and then be disgusted with myself for wasting all that time and stuff. It is GORGEOUS! Now I know you're going to make another one soon for Bev.
The cake looks amazing! I can't wait to try it. Thanks for posting the recipe (and pictures!).
do you know what you have done to me????
Im now starving LOL
the cake looks SO beautiful and yummmy
oK..I might be the only one rolling on the floor laughing, but does "hang a moon" have the same meaning south of the Canadian border?
To us it means pulling down your pants and showing off your hiney.
When nobody else has commented on it, I'm thinking I'm the only one who read it that way.
Anyhew, thanks for the laugh!
V.
Oh my goodness, V! NO! That's not what I meant by "hung the moon."
LOL
Down here, what you're referring to is called "mooning" someone. Has nothing to do with climbing up into the sky and actually hanging the moon.
I'd never, ever moon my husband. LOL
Barb, You so continually wow me with your stunning creations. Yes, I can follow a recipe. Yes, I make many yummy concoctions that keep my family well sated and begging for more.
Yes, I, too, love Paula Deen and all she does. I miss her most of all now that we've said "bye bye" to TV.
No, I cannot successfully make this cake. In addition, my family is not much for coconut. So, you're just going to have to invite me out for some and let me enjoy the making it process at your side.
I salute you, dear friend. You make it all look so easy and so delicious. Maybe some day . . .
You know that is a beautiful cake...I've never liked coconut cake but I've always thought they were pretty...I do remember a great grandpa that had one every Christmas set under a glass dome in the middle of the Christmas breakfast table...
:)
I am definitely going to have to make this yummy cake. I love coconut. Thanks bunches!
Swoooon.
Jim doesn't care for coconut, but this looks so good. Plus, you can't go wrong with Paula Deen. I may just have to make this one. I can always share with the neighbors.
Oh my word is right. It looks delicious. We have a family reunion later this month and I think I know what I am making now.
Hugs, Lyndy
That cake looks delish and so beautifully done!
Coconut is a special favorite here at our house, and if we weren't celebrating something very special other than Father's Day on the 17th, I might think about making this.
4th of July maybe!!
:)
I think I'll just have a slice of yours when I'm there - it'll be good enough to last me a year til I get around to making it myself. xoxoxo
Any chance of you just sending me a piece? bwg
I HATE coconut, but I might learn to like it on a cake like that. Wow, that looks good! I know Southern Mom would love it, so I may just have to make it for her sometime.
Yes, roly-poly is correctly spelled. :)
I'm a lurker, yes. I've so enjoyed reading about your recipes and your daughter's upcoming wedding and, well, you just have a very special way about you. My name is Amanda, and I'm also planning a wedding for this year (December, in Michigan). I've also been thinking about your family since your grandson's recent diagnosis. My finace is Type 1 diabetic, and I'm still learning. My very best to you and yours.
Amanda
It looks gorgeous! though I don't' eat coconut...:0... and my hubby still thinks I hung the moon...or that's what he tells me anyway...lol
That is gorgeous, and I don't even like coconut!
(Funny, I came over from bloglines to post that comment and it looks like half your comments say the exact same thing!)
Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. Still want you as my personal chef. Would consider relocation. LOL.
I am sooooo making this!! Can I be your neighbor??? ;)
Okay, once, just once, could you post something I can eat??? You know, something with no dairy, chocolate, or flavor of any kind! Just kidding, I did actually do the pan fries, I just had to use my own spices with no salt in them.
But the REAL reason, I came by was to let you know that if you missed it, you need to check the Food Network schedule for a replay of "All-Star Grill Fest: South Beach". Paula Deen and Giada just teamed up to make grilled bruschetta, and when Paula mentioned that SHE makes the best lasagna ever....Giada was a bit surprised that she would say that to the ITALIAN CHEF! But Paula stuck to her guns and insists she could take her on the lasagna!! It was hilarious! Paula will be cooking with someone else here in a little while.
I just thought you'd enjoy watching it and wanted to make sure you knew it was on. And since the Food Network repeats shows quite a bit, I know it will be on again so you can catch it if you missed it this time. :)
Oh my goodness! That looks like heaven! I am the only one in my family of 5 who likes coconut, so I don't think I could make it without changing a few dress sizes in the process.
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