From The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook: Coconut Cake

Ingredients

Cake

One 18 ¼-ounce package yellow pudding cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1 ½ cups sugar
12 ounces canned or frozen shredded coconut

Icing

2 unbeaten egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons light corn syrup, or ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1⁄3 cup cold water
Dash of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Additional coconut to top icing (about ½ cup)

Directions

Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make cake by following directions on package, substituting milk for water. Divide and bake in three 9-inch round cake pans for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Remove from pans. Stir together sour cream, sugar, and coconut. Spread between slightly warm cake 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.

Icing

Place all ingredients except vanilla and additional coconut in top of double boiler, but do not place over heat; beat 1 minute with 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 top and sides of cake; sprinkle with additional coconut. Cover and store at room temperature.

More About The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook

Paula Deen’s first and best-selling cookbook proves that true Southern cooking never goes out of style. Paula has added 25 recipes to her classic collection of down-home Southern family favorites, including Paula’s famous Chicken and Waffles, Oven-Fried Catfish, Savannah Sloppy Joes, and Sweet Blueberry Corn Bread. This friendly cookbook from The Lady & Sons, one of the most frequently visited restaurants in Savannah, comes filled with hundreds of quick and easy recipes perfect for home entertaining, family picnics, or Sunday dinners.

The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and your local bookstores!

Paula Deen - As a young girl growing up in Albany, Georgia, Paula Deen never dreamed she would become an American icon. As a young mother, Paula was living the American dream — married to her high school sweetheart and raising two adorable boys — when tragedy struck. Her parents died, her marriage failed and she began a prolonged battle with agoraphobia. With her boys in their teens and her family near homelessness, Paula took her last $200, reached deep inside her soul and started The Bag Lady, a home-based catering company that marked the start of Deen's professional cooking career. With sons Jamie and Bobby delivering lunch-and-love-in-a-bag, beginning in June 1989, Paula turned her life around by sharing what she knew best, traditional Southern cooking.