Editor’s Note: Every Christmas, there is always a fresh coconut cake on our family’s table. For years, my mom and grandmother would make these cakes together—sitting in my Granny’s basement on homemade stools, breaking up coconuts on the concrete floor. It was tradition that they make two at a time—one for the McGuire family Christmas dinner and one for my mom to share with my dad’s side of the family. My grandmother is no longer with us, but the tradition still stands. My mom still makes this cake every Christmas.
Below is the recipe my family has used for years, written from memory.
Ingredients
1 box white cake mix
1 fresh coconut (my mom jokes that you always have to go back to the store and buy another one because the first is always bad)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup water
2 egg whites
2 tsp. light corn syrup
1 tsp. clear vanilla flavoring
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
Directions
1. Prepare one white cake mix as directed and bake in two 9-inch round cake pans.
Let cool.
2. Grab a hammer and a penny nail. Poke a hole in the eyes of the coconut. Then flip it over and let the milk drain from it. Save the milk and set it aside. Always do a taste test before continuing because not all coconuts are good.
3. Once the coconut is drained, take that hammer and give the coconut a few good whacks in the middle to open it up. That’s when you see all the pretty white meat.
4. The hard part is getting the coconut out of the shell. You have to be persistent and work a paring knife between the coconut and the shell. You are almost there.
5. Now you have to cut away the brown layer of skin that is on the back of the coconut. Once all the meat is removed, you can either grate it or use a food processor to grind it into small flakes.
6. Take your cooled cake layers and poke holes in them with a toothpick.
7. Now drizzle the saved coconut milk over the cake layers until the tops are moist.
8. Make the icing by combining sugar, water, egg whites, light corn syrup, cream of tartar, and salt with an electric mixer for 30 seconds in a heat-proof bowl.
9. Set the bowl over (but not touching) simmering water and continue to mix with a mixer for 7 minutes, or until the mixture is stiff.
10. Remove from heat and add vanilla and mix for another 1 to 2 minutes.
11. Immediately ice the cake. Once the cake is iced, pat the shaved coconut onto the iced cake.
12. Refrigerate or freeze.
