Ingredients
- CAKE
- 2 Cups sugar
- 1/2 Cup vegetable shortening
- 1/2 Cup butter (1 stick)
- 5 eggs, separated
- 2 Cups flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 Cup buttermilk
- 1 tsp. PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
- 1 small can (8 oz.) shredded coconut (or 1 Cup if you have a bag of flakes)
- FROSTING
- 1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 Cup butter (1 stick)
- 1 tsp. PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
- 33/4 Cups powdered sugar (1 lb.)
- 1 Cup chopped nuts; pecans or walnuts are good
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour three 9-inch cake pans and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar, shortening and butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. In a separate bowl, mix the flour with the salt. In another bowl, mix the baking soda with the buttermilk. Add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk mixture to the creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Mix well. Stir in the VANILLA and coconut (Maggie also adds the nuts at this point but we thought they would look nice mixed in with the frosting). In a metal bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Pour the batter into the cake pans and bake at 350° for 25 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in the pans and then remove from the pans to cool thoroughly before frosting.
For the frosting: beat the cream cheese, butter, VANILLA and powdered sugar until smooth and light. Fold in the nuts and frost the cooled cake.
Prep. time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 25 minutes
Serves: 12-16