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Cocoanut Cake (II)
Mrs. Carson.
One cup butter, two cups white sugar, one cup milk, three coffee-cups sifted flour, whites of six eggs beaten light, three even teaspoons of Cook's Friend baking powder, one cocoanut grated; do not use the milk of nut; mix and bake in oven.
A large white butter cake leavened with baking powder, from the era when a coconut had to be cracked, drained and grated by hand. The original assumes you know the creaming method and gives no temperature or time.
- Coffee-cup vs. cupThe recipe switches units mid-list. Nineteenth-century cup measures were not standardised; a coffee-cup is usually reckoned somewhat larger than a teacup and at or a little above the modern 8-oz cup, so three coffee-cups of sifted flour may come to rather more than 3 cups. Judge by the batter: it should be thick enough to drop heavily from the spoon, and add flour only until it does.
- Cook's FriendA brand of baking powder made in Canada and sold from the later nineteenth century. Three teaspoons of modern baking powder can stand in, bearing in mind that modern double-acting powder behaves differently from the single-acting powders of the period; get the batter into the oven promptly.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives none. A moderate oven, around 350F, suits this kind of butter cake: roughly 25 to 30 minutes for layers, 50 to 60 minutes for a large loaf or tube pan; test with a skewer.
- Method the recipe omitsCream the butter and sugar until pale, add flour and milk alternately, then fold in the stiffly beaten whites last. Beating the whites into the batter rather than folding them costs you most of the lift.
- The coconutOne grated coconut yields roughly 3 to 4 cups of fresh shreds, or about 10 oz. Unsweetened dried shredded coconut works but is drier and thirstier; use about 2 cups and consider soaking it briefly in a little of the milk. Sweetened bagged flake will make the cake cloying.
- Why not the coconut waterThe liquid from the nut is thin, only mildly acidic and sours quickly at room temperature, and adds nothing useful to the batter; the instruction to leave it out is sound.
- Yield and pansThis is a large batter: two 9-inch layers plus a small extra, or one 10-inch tube pan. Traditionally finished with a boiled white icing and more grated coconut pressed onto the sides.
Coconut cake belongs to the second half of the nineteenth century, when whole coconuts had become a reliable if still slightly special item in northern markets. Recipes like this one, built on a white butter cake with the whites of six eggs, were showpieces: the pale crumb and snowy grated topping were the point. The named brand of baking powder is a period marker in itself. Cook's Friend was a Canadian product heavily advertised through the 1870s and 1880s, and its appearance here, alongside a contributor's name, is typical of the community cookbook, where women shared not just their proportions but their household loyalties. The Home Cook Book, compiled in Toronto in 1877 in aid of the Hospital for Sick Children, is generally regarded as the first Canadian fundraising cookbook of its kind.