Nearly every Friday night, The Sister-in-Law and her husband pick us up (they live just down the road from us) for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. We've been doing this for years. The hostess knows we like a booth, not a table. The waiters barely have to ask what we want. It's a great time for a gripe session about whatever drama is going on in the family. Nanny was the center of discussion this week.
The Sister-in-Law had been out of town this past week, so Friday morning, she walked up the hill to check on Nanny, who has been down with a cold or allergies or something for a month. When Sis got there, Nanny was on a ladder, trying to pry the back porch ceiling down with a crowbar. Sis nearly had a fit. Made her get down, gave her a talking-to about doing shit like that (especially when sick and home alone), and promised that we (the kids and grandkids) will replace the ceiling as soon as the weather cools down.
During the visit, Nanny invited Sis and the rest of us to a birthday dinner (for Sis) at her house Sunday evening. She said she had some ribs that needed cooking, and she would be making Sis a German chocolate birthday cake. Sis tried to talk her out of throwing this birthday dinner, but Nanny wasn't having it. At dinner, over a jumbo margarita, Sis said, "I even told her that I'm not fond of ribs OR german chocolate cake, anyway, and you know what she said? 'Well, everybody else likes them.' It's MY damned birthday dinner!"
We laughed about that, then started planning the meal. I said I had slaw in a bag to add to the fare. Sis said, "I DON'T LIKE SLAW, EITHER!" and I said, "Well, everybody else does," and we laughed again. I ended up promising to get her one of those good coconut cakes that a local grocery store sells so she wouldn't have to eat german chocolate cake. Her eyes lit up.
Saturday, when I went to get the coconut cake, I discovered that the local grocery store did not have one. SHIT! They had a bunch of other flavors, but not coconut. Since the birthday girl wants coconut cake, I'd have to make one. I don't make enough cakes to know exactly what goes in coconut frosting, so I bought one of everything that might be useful - eggs, whipped cream, butter, cream cheese . . . . On the way home from the grocery store, I wished I'd thought to buy coconut cream or coconut milk to go in the boxed white cake mix. As it turned out, I had a can of coconut milk in the pantry. No telling how long it's been there, but the can wasn't rusted and it smelled okay, so I put it in the white cake batter. It had a thick semi-solid layer of coconut oil on top, which I used that instead of the oil, and the milky liquid under it I used instead of the water. I have no clue how it will affect the texture of the cake, but who cares? Coconut cake is all about the frosting.
Sis' frosting is butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and coconut milk, with the coconut mixed in and more patted onto the cake after frosting. Now that I think about it, she probably prefers a fluffy frosting, something with Cool-Whip in it. And she might have preferred devil's food chocolate instead of white.
Ah, well....
Everybody else will like it. ;)
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