Mamoo's Soggy Coconut Cake recipe

Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel - September 23, 1979

1 scant cup Crisco
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 egg whites, beaten stiff

The scant cup of Crisco is important - it is a scant and not a full cup. Pile the Crisco up on the cup and level it off, then take a spatula and dig out a little rim of Crisco to make a scant cup.

Beat Crisco well with sugar and salt, making it very, very fluffy. Sift flour with baking powder; add about a third of this to the sugar mixture and mix it well. Add about 1/2 cup of milk; add little more flour, rest of the milk, ending with flour. Then add vanilla; mix well and fold in stiffly-beaten egg whites. Mix well and pour into two pans greased and floured (or three 8-inch round pans). Bake at 350 degrees F, until a straw (wooden pick) comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. Don't let cake brown. Turn out onto cake racks to cool.

Filling-Frosting:
Fresh coconut
2 1/2 cups coconut juice (add enough
    water to make the 2 1/2 cups)
3 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup white corn syrup
Pinch salt
3 or 4 egg whites

Combine coconut juice, sugar, syrup and salt in a pan. Put it on early to let the sugar start dissolving.

When ready to make icing, don't stir this up around the sides of the pan because the sugar granules will get back into the syrup as it cooks. Carefully stir from the bottom, turn the heat on and let it come to a slow boil. As the sugar dissolves, take a spoonful or two of the syrup and put it on the layers of the cake. Put the pan back on the stove,and let it cook a little more. Pour a few drops off the end of a spoon into a cup of cold water to see if you can gather the little sample around the finger; take another spoonful or two and put on the layers of the cake.

Beat 3 large egg whites or 4 small ones. As the syrup collects and makes an almost soft ball, slowly start to add a little bit of the syrup to the egg whites that have formed soft peaks. Then, beating constantly, when the syrup forms a nice soft ball, slowly add the syrup to the egg whites and beat, beat, beat, beat.

This should be a good fluffy-bodied egg white mixture. Let it get cold and add several handsful of freshly grated coconut.

This is used as both filling and icing. It may ooze and slide off the cake, but just keep spooning it up and piling it back on top. When ready to serve or when cake has as much filling and icing as it will hold, sprinkle the rest of the coconut on top and pat it around the side.

NOTE: You can shorten the process by using a white cake mix and making three layers. For the frosting-filling, spoon canned cream of coconut (in drink mix sections of supermarkets) over it and top with Seven-Minute Frosting. Keep spooning the icing back over the cake several times during the day.