Holiday Cake

I thought this year that I might try to do something really special, and attempt to make Mammy's coconut cake for Christmas. Dad had sent me the recipe a few years ago and I quickly disregarded it due to the level of difficulty (i.e., number of ingredients, length of instructions). After 2 hours of searching unsuccessfully for the recipe, and reorganizing one eighth of one closet in the basement, I realized I could just call Dad to see if he could send me another copy. "Missy, that cake is a serious project. I think part of the recipe requires that you grow a coconut tree." Not intimidated. OK, a little.

I haven't gotten the recipe yet, but I don't think I will need it. I discovered my copy of The Mississippi Cookbook, copyright 1972. I also discovered the source of the Richey high cholesterol. It's not genetic. It's because people cooked recipes from The Mississippi Cookbook. Everything calls for multiple sticks of butter, or crisco, or some other kind of lard. I found 2 recipes for coconut cake in there, and judging by the number of ingredients of one of them, it's gotta come pretty close to Mammy's. For the icing, it calls for 1 large coconut, grated.

I found another cake recipe that sounds much more interesting, and easier to make. Some of the key ingredients for "Holiday Cake":

• 3 sticks of butter
• 2 cups of white sugar
• 2 and 1/4 cups light brown sugar
• 6 eggs
• 5 and 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp mace (what is that?)
• 3 and 1/2 cups pecans, chopped
• 2 cups bourbon whiskey

Now that sounds like a holiday cake. I can just hear it now-- "Boy, Mommy sure does love her holiday cake."