50 Woman Game-Changers - Edna Lewis (2024)

There is nothing like a beautiful cake and Edna Lewis's Famous Coconut Lane Cake is just that! This cakeattests to the rich tradition of Southern cooking and Ms. Lewis's place in preserving it.

This is a cake that is rich with eggs, butter and sugar, coconut, pecans, and chopped raisins - three layers of confection worthy of gracing a table at a garden party with big jugs of iced tea served on the side. Imade it to share with friends at a small weekend dinner party. Folks will certainly be 'wowed', don't you think?

As Edna became more well-known within NYC foodie culture, she drew the attention of Craig Claiborne (another Southern boy)and Judith Jones. When Ms. Lewis had the misfortune to break a leg that forced her to leave restaurant cooking for a recuperative period, Judith Jones urged her to use the time to document some ofthe most traditional and famous of her recipes and The Edna Lewis Cookbook was the product. Three more cookbooks followed over the years, as well as Edna's work with a group of Southern cooks and chefs - The Society for the Preservation and Revitalization of Southern Food was born. She worked in restaurants up and down the Eastern seaboard, gathering foodlore and traditional recipes along the way. Her cookbooks concentrated on traditional southern foods and the history behind the recipes. After years of work in the food industry, sheretired toDecatur, Georgia, where she passed away in her sleepin February of 2006. Her recipes and commentary on southern life and history are well documented and her place in the world of food is secure.

Hercake is not for the faint of heart. It is chock-a-block full of butter, sugar, and eggs. The butter and sugar must be whippedwith a bit of milk and vanilla until the mixture is smooth. A cake flour and baking powder mixture is then beat in with more milk and vanilla to make a thick batter.

Egg whites, whipped to a soft meringue, are folded in to lighten everything up. The final product isa light and airy sponge batter ... the cake bakes quickly- a mere 25 minutes or so ... and when it's done, three layers cool while a cooked icing is given a brisk whisk over boiling water ( I was afraid to do the egg yolks and sugar over direct heat).

While the egg yolks and sugar cooked up over a hot water bath, I took a minute or two break from whisking to finely chop pecans and golden raisins. Once the sugar crystals had melted and the egg and sugar mixture was thickened withmelted butter (an obscene amount!), the raisins, nuts, and coconut were turned into the thick icing with a hefty shot of bourbon and vanilla. The result - a lumpy sweet concoction! Letting it cool a bit helped with the icing, butit was still a messy affair of getting the icing to cling to the sides of the cake. I ended up slapping it into place and wrapping the cake with waxed paper to hold the icing in place until it cooled enough to firm up and hold itself in place.

Fortification while the icing firmed up ...

What a beautiful result ... Edna Lewis's Famous Coconut Lane Cake

Edna Lewis's Famous Coconut Lane Cake - printer friendly

Serves 8 to 10

Icing Ingredients:

Scant ½ c.

bourbon

Making the Cake:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 325° F and butter and flour three 9-inch cake pans. Place a round sheet of parchment paper in the bottom of each pan.
2. Mix the cake flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Mix the vanilla extract and milk in a measuring cup and set aside.
4. Beat the sugar and softened butter in a deep mixing bowl until creamy and thick. Add a bit of the milk and vanilla to soften the mixture.
5. Alternate flour mixture and milk mixture, beating between each addition to make a thick batter.
6. Separate the eggs and place the egg white in a clean metal bowl with the cream of tartar. Beat with very clean beaters until the meringue forms soft peaks.
7. Turn ⅓ of the meringue into the thick batter and stir it in to loosen the batter more.
8. Gently fold the rest of the meringue into the batter – JUST until the meringue is incorporated.
9. Turn the batter evenly into the three cake pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the centers bounce back when touched lightly . You can use a cake tester too for testing doneness.
10. Let the finished cakes rest for a few minutes. Then, run a knife around the edges and turn them out onto racks for cooling. Gently remove the parchment paper bottoms while the cakes are still warm.