Family Recipe Special: Memaw's Coconut Cake

by Emily Barnes

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My great-grandmother, Sarah Lucille Tart Lewis, used to make her coconut cake for every occasion she could. She made it for church events, family reunions, and birthdays.

She learned how to make it from her mother, my great great grandmother, when she was young. My great grandmother passed away in 2019, and even though I never tried her coconut cake because I was too picky, I miss her always talking about it. My parents both loved eating her coconut cake and would look forward to eating it at every family reunion. Below is the recipe that she used.

First, she would preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray the pans with butter. To make the cake, she used yellow cake mix, milk, and ½ cup of coconut shredding. To make the filling, she would use one cup of sour cream, 1 ½ cups of sugar, and 12 ounces of frozen shredded coconut. Lastly for the frosting she used, 2 eggs, 1 ½ cups of sugar, 2 teaspoons of corn syrup, a little bit of salt and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

My great-grandmother wrote her recipe in one of her many cookbooks. She loved baking desserts, but coconut cake was her favorite to make by far.