The City to Busy to Bake.......

What brings a smile or a slight tear to anyone of a certain age who grew up in and around Atlanta the quickest? The Braves or Falcons?- Not even close. That pesky little fire back in '64 ?- not in the top five.. ( you know unless you have not watched the movie in a while). The Ted and Jane break up ?... please.

We are Southern, it's all about the food. The three things that will make the bluest blue hair perk right up is the mention of our gone but not forgotten, much beloved Rich's Department Store's Chicken Salad Amandine with Frozen Fruit Salad or this time of year, and really the best , Rich's Famous Coconut Cake.

The equally famous Pink Pig of late late boomers childhood tends to be the star attraction in folks edging towards their mid life crises psyches, and my pal Celia wrote about it on facebook today, which got me going down memory lane. ( And, lets face it, even at like seven I was close to being too big to fit in those damn little TINY cars...) So, for me the Atlanta Christmas was not all about that pig, but those green boxes, either solid green with the script R or covered in the little R's, and what was inside.

This is a serious MAD MEN type universe where white gloved ladies who lunched, did so at the Magnolia Room of Rich's. I was not at all familiar with the real one down town, mine was at Lennox Square. Third floor... I believe past ladies shoes. ( fitting ) Now, I would have much rather have had lunch at the S&S cafeteria or much later on down the road in the swinging late 70's, Cashin's... although that may have only been at Cumberland , the mind plays tricks, and all of them had County Seats to get those Levi Cords.BUT, back to today and the cake of legend!

RICH'S COCONUT CAKE

Hands on time: 20 minutes Total time: 1 hour and 30 minutes Serves: 16

Ingredients:
Rich's always did a three-layer cake, with two layers of coconut filling, but some home cooks don't have three pans of the same size, so two would work just fine.

RICH'S BAKESHOP YELLOW CAKE:
Shortening and flour for pans
2 1/4 cups cake flour (if you can't find cake flour, use White Lily brand all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon powdered milk
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup liquid milk (2 percent or whole)
3/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs

RICH'S BAKESHOP ICING:

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons powdered milk
1/2 cup water (for dissolving milk powder)

RICH'S COCONUT FILLING:

2 pounds frozen shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened --- recipe tested with unsweetened), divided
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Instructions:

TO MAKE THE YELLOW CAKE LAYERS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake pans by lightly greasing with shortening, then dusting with flour. In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside. In a small bowl or measuring cup, stir the powdered milk into the water and mix until dissolved. Combine the liquid milk with the powdered milk/water mixture and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the shortening and the sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add about half the flour mixture, beating until just incorporated, and then half the milk mixture, again beating until just incorporated. Repeat this step, adding the remaining flour with the remaining liquid, and beat until just smooth (about 1 minute). Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowls once or twice during the mixing. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans and bake for about 20 to 30 minutes. The cooking time will vary depending on how many cake pans you use and how full they are. The cake is done when it springs back when lightly pressed near the center with your finger. Allow the cake to cool for a few minutes in the pan, and then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely.

TO MAKE ICING:

In a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, combine the vegetable shortening, vanilla and salt and cream together until incorporated. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar until it forms a very thick consistency. Dissolve the powdered milk in the water and gradually add, just 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time, until the icing is a nice, spreadable consistency.

TO ASSEMBLE CAKE:

Make filling: In a large bowl, thaw the frozen coconut. Set aside. Take 1 1/2 cups of the coconut and place in a smaller bowl.
Combine the water and sugar and pour over this smaller bowl of coconut. This should be very moist but not soupy. Place one layer of the yellow cake on a cake plate and spread with icing. Spoon the moistened coconut over that. Place the next layer on top and spread with icing, spooning the moistened coconut over it. Continue this process until all your layers are filled; however, don't put the moist filling on the very top of the last layer, as it will be iced. Next, cover the entire cake with the icing. Make sure to use a thick coating of icing to eliminate any of the cake showing through. Take handfuls of the dry, thawed coconut and press the flakes into the icing. You may want to put a tray underneath to catch any coconut that falls as you do this. Continue pressing dry, flaky coconut all over the cake until it is completely covered. Chill for about 1 hour to set (it helps the coconut to stay), and then serve.
Notes:

Thawed frozen coconut really does make a difference for this easy cake. You can assemble the cake when the layers are still a little warm as the shortening-based frosting doesn't melt. While it's good after an hour, it's far better after a day.

• If I remembering correctly, and I could do a little googling and find this out, but let's just go with my memory, this recipe was lost..for quite sometime. The Atlanta paper ran a story on the cake, and someone who used to work at a Rich's bakery came up with ... a hand written sort of list of ingredients, to make 100 cakes, or something like that. Different bakers got together and worked with the amounts and such to come up with this recipe here OR this could be some Courtney drive induced flash back. Either way we have this.

Either way its an odd sort of cake for 2009, with all the shortening and the powered milk. Intrepid cake baker and uber mother poster child B.Day hinted on the same facebook that she was going to make this cake, I will keep ya'll updated if she does...