CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL: Welcome to Milk Street's My Family Recipe.
We help home cooks rediscover and recreate lost family recipes.
- My grandmother Margaret's was the absolute best.
- Don't put any pressure on us or anything!
CHRISTOPHER: We bring home cooks to our Boston studio...
I'm gonna stand back.
...where, along with our host and pastry chef Cheryl Day... - Isn't it great how food can take you back?
CHRISTOPHER: ...we teach them how to make their family recipe from scratch.
- You're gonna be able to bake this cake.
- I can do it.
CHRISTOPHER: Just the way it was made by, say, their grandmother.
- Beautiful!
- Grandma would not tolerate lumps.
CHRISTOPHER: Then we send them home to recreate that recipe for the toughest audience... - There it is.
CHRISTOPHER: ...their own family.
[laughing] CHRISTOPHER: Can our home cooks pull it off?
- Mom, that's really good.
- I think that's a yes.
CHRISTOPHER: Or will the recipe be lost forever?
Right here on Milk Street's My Family Recipe.
- That is delicious.
[upbeat music playing] Funding for this series was provided by the following.
Mowi Salmon comes ready to cook.
Ready to grill, ready to season, or pre-seasoned and ready to eat.
In an assortment of flavors for an assortment of people.
Mowi Salmon.
- I'm Karen, live here in Johns Creek, Georgia-- it's a small suburb right outside of Atlanta-- with my husband, Derek, and two kids, Naomi and Evan.
Naomi and I are the foodies, so I'm excited to teach and pass on to her some of our heritage recipes.
My grandmother was born and raised in the South, as was my grandfather.
Like many during the Great Migration, they migrated west.
I've been able to recreate most of Grandma Margaret's food, but the one that has really eluded me is her coconut cake.
She was not a fancy person, so when she made it, it was the special occasion.
I have a list of ingredients, but no real instruction.
I've tried it three or four times, and each time I tried it, it was heavy, it was dense in a not good way.
I don't have any instruction on her frosting, so I have no idea.
I think to understand African American culture, it begins in the kitchen.
That's certainly true of my family.
On my mom's side, some of my fondest memories growing up were in my grandmother's small galley kitchen filled with my grandmother, my mom, my aunts, hips buttin' into each other, cooking.
[flash whistling] Grandma Margaret's coconut cake was just magnificent.
It was about seven inches tall.
It was definitely four layers.
The frosting was nice and thick and had coconut between every layer.
Ah, just thinking about it, I can taste it.
This cake is iconic in African American culture.
It's a really important part of our family history.
This coconut cake recipe, that's part of who we are as a family.
Without it, there's a piece of our family history that's lost.
[upbeat music playing] KAREN: I'm gonna jump on a video conference call.
[video call chiming] CHERYL DAY: How are you?
- I'm great, I am so excited to meet you both.
- And we're excited to hear the story about your coconut layer cake.
KAREN: Well, the challenge is that I don't really have a recipe.
All I have is a list of ingredients.
- I know a little bit about coconut cakes.
- You think so?
- My grandmother Margaret's was the absolute best.
- No pressure.
- Yeah.
- [laughing] - Thanks for that.
- No pressure at all.
- Yeah, that's great.
- She didn't make it all the time.
My grandparents had nine kids.
She was masterful at stretching a little to make a lot.
With this coconut cake, it was no compromise.
It was always all fresh ingredients, including the coconut.
- So who are you most excited to share it with?
KAREN: My daughter Naomi.
She is-- Of our three kids, she is the cook.
So, um, I'm super excited to kind of pass this on to her specifically.
CHRISTOPHER: And how old is she?
- Fifteen.
- A teenager who's sensible?
Who wants to learn how to cook?
I don't know what is.
That doesn't make any sense to me at all.
That's great.
- And do you bake, Karen?
- I am not a baker.
CHERYL: Ah.
- I'm a great home cook.
- We're gonna make a baker out of you.
- That might be the bigger effort, but okay.
- You gotta get busy.
- I've gotta get busy.
- But you'll help, yeah.
- I'll help, yeah.
I'll be the sous-chef on this one.
CHERYL: So, Karen, give us a few days, and then we'll have you up to Boston, and, hopefully, we can teach you how to make this cake.
- Thanks, it's great talking to you.
- Yeah, you too, thanks.
CHERYL: Thanks, Karen.
It's very typical to have just a list of ingredients.
- Well, some of the recipe just probably said: "make a cake."
- Right.
- They wouldn't tell you how to do it 'cause everyone knew how to do it, right?
- Exactly, but I'm really excited to-- to bring it back.
- And the best thing is I can get a piece, too.
- Will take some tries to get it right.
- Yes.
- Yes.
[gentle music playing] - You know, coconut cake is my favorite all-time cake.
It was also the premier cake of the South for many, many decades.
The American layered cake were really both a tradition and something used at special occasions.
If you remember To Kill a Mockingbird, there was something called Lane cake, which was prominently displayed in that book, made by Miss Maudie Atkinson, and she wasn't about to give up the recipe.
Coconut cake is Southern because coconut started showing up in southern ports, especially New Orleans.
Now, the first recipe for coconut cake we could come up with was from 1881 in a book called What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking.
This was one of the first books to feature an African American author, because so many of their recipes were published in books by other people.
Karen's memory is that her grandmother used grated, fresh coconut.
So that's what we'll do here.
That's because it has a nice flavor.
It's not too sweet.
So, let's go into the kitchen, do some development, and try to come up with a coconut cake that is exactly like the cake that Karen's grandmother made at home.
[upbeat music playing] - So, Karen Clay's coconut cake is a challenge we gladly accepted.
I knew the person to put on this recipe was Rose, our star baker.
- We have our baking soda, salt.
The only odd thing is five or six eggs.
I don't know why there's a difference there, but... - Yeah, we thought, why would you have a choice there?
And we realized, eggs... now, they are standardized.
But who knows what size eggs Karen's grandmother was using and where she got them?
Say Karen's grandmother got fresh eggs from her neighbor down the street.
That tells us that she was able to ascertain how much egg was needed to make it the proper texture.
So this takes a skilled baker.
We worked with large eggs and found that six eggs was too many.
- I don't think this is right.
- Kind of eggy and almost a little... spongey?
- Yeah, I prefer-- - This is definitely softer.
- I definitely prefer that.
So I say we go with the five.
- Yeah, agreed.
- Okay.
- So our next quandary was the icing.
Typically, coconut cake-- made with a buttercream.
I did part butter, part shortening because she thought maybe that's what she'd used.
And this one is all butter.
See what you think.
I know what I think, but let's see what you think, so this-- So this is the shortening.
It tastes like supermarket.
- Yeah, it's a little that grocery store birthday cake.
- Yeah, I don't-- - Very sweet.
- Definitely butter's better.
And here's the other thing, I know we don't usually do this, but I'd love to use salted butter.
- I concur.
- Because I feel like that would just tamp down the sweetness a little bit.
- It is a lot of sugar, and coconut is kind of naturally sweet, so it seems like it would work well.
ROSE: Well, let's try it.
- I think we've cracked this code.
WES: Karen's grandmother probably cooked from memory.
We wanted to perfect this recipe so it can be made over and over and over again for years to come.
More cake, please.
- All right.
Salted butter gave this icing a delicious flavor.
The final touch was the coconut.
Only fresh will do.
So we grated them, put a little in between the layers, and packed a little on the sides.
Karen's on her way from Atlanta to try this coconut cake.
We think we've cracked the code on this recipe.
Let's hope Karen agrees.
[bouncy music playing] - Karen, welcome to our kitchen.
We're so excited to have you.
- I'm excited to be here.
This is the day of reckoning.
We'll see how close Chris and Cheryl were able to come.
I don't really expect it to be spot-on, but, um, we'll see.
This recipe, it's not just about a cake that was great, but it is a way of how she, sort of, passed on the value of, while you may not have a lot, occasionally, you have to treat yourself to the best.
CHERYL: Well, I can tell you're getting emotional, - I know, I know.
- It's making me emotional.
- Don't make me-- [chuckles] - And I know how important this is to you.
So you're gonna be able to bake this cake.
- I can do it.
CHERYL: Okay.
- So my role here is to stand here and just look pretty.
- [laughing] - Is that my job?
- You do that very well.
- Oh, thank you.
- First, I have our cake flour here, and what we're gonna add to that is baking powder and baking soda.
Usually, we would add a little salt, but today we're gonna use salted butter.
- Oh.
CHERYL: So I'm gonna have you add this right into the mixing bowl.
- Okay.
- And while you're doing that, I'm going to whisk all of these dry ingredients together.
KAREN: And then is the flour sifted?
- No, it's not sifted.
I just give it a really good whisk.
KAREN: You know, my grandmother and my mom always taught me sifting makes it lighter.
So I'm a little suspect, to be perfectly honest.
But Chris and Cheryl, they're the pros, so we'll see.
- Let's get this bowl going.
We're gonna just let that beat a little bit, and then we're gonna gradually add in the sugar.
So we're gonna cream this and get the rest of the sugar in.
You definitely want to aerate it and get it nice and light and fluffy.
- Can I mix this up while you're doing this?
- Sure.
Chris is gonna mix our buttermilk and our eggs and some vanilla.
- You can see the texture changing.
CHERYL: Right.
So now I'm gonna starting to add in the milk mixture alternately with the flour.
See my little tip?
- Your little scoon thing there?
- I love it for adding in ingredients.
You're going to do this three to five minutes, making sure that everything is getting incorporated.
And this is a beautiful batter, With the eggs and buttermilk.
KAREN: I tend to get impatient and let the mixer do the work, but that is not the right way to do it to get the right texture.
CHERYL: Doesn't that look good?
- I know.
- All right, I'm gonna give it a little scrape.
One thing that we did discover in our kitchen was she said five to six eggs.
We found six eggs was too much, and so we added five large eggs.
And then we decided to do buttermilk to give it something of that time.
- Could've saved that, right?
- Yeah.
- Well, that's the thing, some bakers will let you lick the bowl and some are "nah"-- It all goes in the cake pan.
- It depended, it depended on her mood.
[jazzy music playing] CHERYL: We greased the pans with butter, and there is parchment-- - Is this the belt and suspender baking outfit?
- Yes.
Yes.
CHERYL: Chris is scooping our batter just like you scoop muffins into a muffin tin.
So these are gonna go in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes.
- You want to tap it to get the air bubbles out.
- Oh.
- Now we're gonna focus on the frosting.
And we did take some liberties with the frosting.
We're gonna do a traditional American buttercream.
We're gonna use a lot of butter that he's gonna get nice and creamy.
And then we're gonna add confectioner's sugar, coconut milk, and some really good vanilla.
Gradually, Chris is gonna add our confectioner's sugar.
We did use salted butter.
So the cake and the frosting-- - Right.
- Salted butter.
- That little bit of salt is gonna take away the cloyingly sweet cake.
CHRISTOPHER: Yeah, the super sweet.
KAREN: I don't recall it being super sweet.
- So this is looking awesome.
Chris is gonna add the coconut milk and some really good pure vanilla.
Oh, that looks so beautiful.
See how light?
CHERYL: We have our cold cakes, and they are gorgeous.
KAREN: Wow.
About three quarters of a cup in between each layer.
Karen, I want you to get in here.
You're gonna do a couple of tablespoons of coconut.
So we're ready for the next layer.
- And then we'll do another, And you see how well that's staying together?
- Yeah, that's really nice.
- See, you've got plenty, so put as much as you want.
Next layer.
So you gotta put that up.
- Ah, this is looking really beautiful.
CHERYL: Isn't that gorgeous?
KAREN: Yes.
- Does it look tall enough?
- Yes, it may actually be a little bit taller.
- Oh, well, we worked on getting it tall.
The good thing about a coconut cake, too, is that you're going to cover imperfections, - Hide any imperfections that I'm sure I will have.
- Yes, this is a homespun Southern cake.
- Yeah.
- And it looks like love went into this cake.
KAREN: Yes, yes.
- And six sticks of butter.
[laughing] CHRISTOPHER: Too kind.
CHERYL: Oh, it's cutting beautifully.
- Wow, look at that.
- Perfect!
- Oh, my gosh, look at that.
Expert cutting.
CHERYL: Yes.
CHRISTOPHER: I'd like to point out this is a slice of cake that covers the whole plate.
- The entire plate.
- Yeah.
- And these are pretty hefty plates.
- This is a four-lane highway cake.
- She's first.
- Okay, I'm not-- I'm not waiting anymore.
- Here we are.
The moment of truth.
- Long time coming.
Mmm... CHRISTOPHER: So, what do you think?
- Oh, my gosh.
That's really divine.
- Yeah, that's the right word.
- Really, really divine.
- So, Karen, how important was it to recreate this recipe?
- Well...
I stopped because it was just really emotional, unexpectedly, right?
It's not just about the importance of passing on legacy through heritage recipes.
But I feel like, in recreating this, it really is bringing my grandmother's spirit to life.
And that means a lot to me because she passed, and so she-- they never knew her.
And she was such an integral part-- my, both of my grandparents-- but my grandmother was such an integral part on my formative years, that this is a way that I can bring her to my children.
So... - Absolutely, and they can pass it on.
- Yeah.
So it means everything.
- You'll be making it at home, and we'll be rooting for you.
- Thank you.
I really am looking forward.
CHERYL: You can do it.
- I'll do it.
[low, rhythmic music playing] - They made it look simple.
So I'm back.
I now have a complete recipe, not just a list of ingredients.
And now it's my turn to try my best to recreate this wonderful cake.
I'm excited to use some of the tips and techniques that I learned from Chris and Cheryl.
That's right, that's a lot of butter sticks.
That starts right out of the gate with how I treat the butter.
So the butter will be room temperature, not cheating and melting it with the microwave.
You know, it feels a little bit like middle school math, where it made total sense when the teacher was explaining it, and now I'm back home looking at a blank slate, and it's like, what comes first?
[dramatic music playing] Cakes have not ever been my specialty.
Okay.
So this is really taking me outside of my comfort zone.
Gotta make sure that I follow the steps of the recipe in order.
Put the flour in with the sugar... Wrong.
Ah!
Okay, no worries, no worries.
And I didn't do that.
I went ahead and got ahead of myself and accidentally mixed the sugar in with the flour.
Do I have to do that over?
Gotta start that process over, because I want to do it just like the recipe calls for.
[gentle music playing] - I've actually never, ever had an opportunity to taste this particular cake.
There have been other things that she's made that have come, you know, kind of through the recipe tree, and they've been absolutely out of this world.
So I'm expecting nothing different from this.
- It'll be good, but I'm not afraid to tell her if is-- if it's not good.
- She brought out the blue plates, too.
That's how you know she's not joking.
Mom has just been cooking up a storm in the kitchen.
I have very high expectations, to say the least.
I do like to cook a lot.
I'm more of a savory person over a sweet person.
My mother, I learned pretty much everything from her, so I would consider her, like, the original.
KAREN: Now that the cakes are in the oven, I'm gonna go ahead and prepare the frosting.
[whirring] Okay.
Using my hand mixer, it's a lot of work.
My arm is tired.
It takes some muscle and some heft.
[sighs] Can't believe my grandmother did this by hand.
Everything's coming together now.
The cakes are out of the oven.
They've cooled.
It's looking good.
Fill in some of these gaps.
Oh, my gosh, this frosting!
So creaming it, the way that they taught me... That was the game changer.
DEREK: My wife's side of the family, they're tremendous cooks.
KAREN: Time for the coconut.
- I've heard a lot about this cake.
It sounds very delicious.
I'm personally very excited to try it today.
- I'm excited, yeah.
- Very - And hungry.
[exciting music playing] KAREN: It's looking fantastic.
I'm proud to put this on the table and serve it to my family.
Now, taste-wise, yet to be seen.
Ta-da!
[laughing] [gentle music playing] It's been more than 30 years since I've had this cake.
I just think back on how special it was when she made this cake.
And now, fast-forward more than 30 years later, and serving it to my family for the first time.
They've never had it before.
I really-- I really hope it tastes great.
All right, everybody.
NAOMI: Oh, wow.
- The big moment.
- Ta-da!
NAOMI: Okay.
- That's-- - You weren't kidding, Mom.
FRANK: It's astounding.
- It's heavy.
- It looks heavy.
- You should put that down.
NAOMI: It's looking pretty good so far.
I'm saving judgment until I actually try it.
Pass that to dad.
- Oh, yeah.
- Mm... - Okay.
- All right, Naomi and Evan.
- All right, ready?
- You guys should be first.
KAREN: Be honest.
- Okay, I'll give it-- - Me first.
[upbeat music playing] - Yeah.
- I don't know what hers tastes like.
- Mom, that's really good.
– KAREN: Yeah?
– EVAN: Yeah!
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
NAOMI: It was amazing.
You can just, like, honestly taste the time that went into it, and it did not disappoint.
- Hey, can you hand me a fork?
'Cause I need to taste it myself now.
Oh, wow!
EVAN: Oh, yeah.
Okay.
I'll be honest.
That is the best I've made.
– EVAN: Yeah.
– NAOMI: Wow.
- That just took me back to being a little six, seven-year-old girl in my grandma's kitchen in San Dimas, California.
This is Grandma Margaret's cake.
NAOMI: 'Cause you know me, Mom.
I'm not, like, an icing person.
- Right.
- I always scrape it off cakes.
- Right, right, you do.
- So this is, like, really good.
- No, this is dead spot-on.
This is awesome.
- All right!
This cake is a really important part of our family history.
I feel very strongly to how important it is that recipes are a part of family legacy, and it's important for a legacy to be passed on.
My hope is that this cake is one of those things that connects them to their past and brings that legacy all the way forward so that they can feel a connection to relatives they never met.
NAOMI: Now when I, like, hear them talking about Grandma Margaret and all of her other great recipes, I can kind of tie it to this cake with, "Oh, yeah.
I tried her coconut cake, and it was really good."
So now I have that kind of memory.
I'm the person that my mom's gonna hand all the family recipes down to.
So it's kind of a big pressure, but, you know, gotta learn how to cook all of those recipes and keep them in the family.
KAREN: Through this whole journey, just reflecting back on how much my grandmother meant to me.
I miss her.
Um...
I miss her a lot.
I have felt her spirit with me in my kitchen, and, um... Tears are coming, but they're happy.
[chuckles] It-- it feels good.
Thanks for being my guinea pigs.
- Of course.
- I appreciate it, yeah.
- To Grandma Margaret, right?
- To Grandma Margaret.
That's a great toast.
- To Grandma Margaret.
- Can we just have a moment to appreciate the perfection?
- It's beautiful, isn't it?
So this is confectioners' sugar.
A little bit different; it's got a little bit of butter in this recipe.
- I've never heard of that before.
- Yeah, it's almost-- well, you'll see, the texture is going to be a little different than probably what you're used to.
I do need some zest, half-half-quarter teaspoon, and then we'll finish it with orange juice.
The world's tiniest whisk, which I love.
All right, so that is our glaze.
And you can see it's a little bit thicker, but still brush-able.
I should really let you do this because I think this would be such a fun thing to do with your kids, but so you're just brushing it on.
I know you've made the cakes where you kind of do like a drizzle, and it kind of sets in the cake.
Like a lemon drizzle.
But this one, I think it's just that butter.
I mean, how bad can butter be?
So, Chris, if you could just put this last little bit on.
Art project.
(chuckles) Perfectly imperfect.
- Perfectly imperfect, that's me.
- And it's going to be delicious.
So we'll let this rest for about 15 minutes, and you'll see, it'll just kind of set up a little bit, and then we'll slice it and enjoy it.
So you ready for some cake?
(chuckles) - That's my favorite thing you ever say, "Are you ready for some cake?"
And the answer always is, yes... - Slice it up.
- ...I am.
- Yum.
That looks delicious, and that's yours.
- Mm.
- Yum.
- I love almond flavor.
- Mm-hmm.
- And it goes really well with the citrus.
- Perfect for any time of day, but really a delicious coffee cake.
- I think it's better at breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and then late night.
- (laughs) - Perfect for those occasions.
- Mm-hmm.
- So that's the three-citrus almond cake from Cheryl Day.
Not hard to make.
- Not hard to make at all.
- But absolutely delicious.
Recipes and episodes from this season of Milk Street are available at MilkStreetTV.com/MFR Access our content any time to change the way you cook.
Funding for this series was provided by the following.
Mowi Salmon comes ready to cook.
Ready to grill, ready to season, or pre-seasoned and ready to eat.
In an assortment of flavors for an assortment of people.
Mowi Salmon.
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