Emily Dickinson’s Coconut Cake and Funerals

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How do I get from funerals to Emily Dickinson to coconut cake?

Emily Dickinson's coconut cake
A slice of Emily Dickinson’s coconut cake and served on my grandmother’s plate.

Reading about the sad family story of Edward Kaser, I noticed in the obituary for his 17-year-old son a thank you from the family for kindnesses of friends and family.  That, of course, would have included food brought in.  Ahh, I thought, surely there must be a recipe I could share for funeral food.

Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.  Emily Dickinson

Actually, a book on funeral food (Death Warmed Over: Funeral Food, Rituals, and Customs from Around the World) classifies Mennonite raisin pie as funeral food. That might come as a surprise to the Badertschers who baked grandma Badertscher’s raisin nut pie or the people who attended weddings with raisin pie.

And then I thought of Emily Dickinson, the poet who wrote so often of death and who was known in Amherst for her baking (surely by people who did not even know she wrote poetry).  I have tried Emily Dickinson’s coconut cake and am willing to bet that she toted that to funerals.

She died–this was the way she died;
And when her breath was done,
Took up her simple wardrobe
And started for the sun.
Her little figure at the gate
The angels must have spied,
Since I could never find her
Upon the mortal side.”  Emily Dickinson

The Cocoanut Cake Controversy

While researching Emily’s Black Cake, I came across an article about her Cocoanut Cake. It turned out that the spelling of coconut was not the only controversy the recipe stirred up.

When it comes to anything that Ms. Dickinson did, her avid fans will defend to the death their own points of view about what is right and what is not. They don’t stop with arguing about the meaning of her poems. Her cooking is up for comment, also.

I won’t go into the quibbles about the spelling. Suffice it to say that I am convinced that ‘cocoanut’ is merely an alternative spelling for coconut, since the cake contains coconut, and historical records exist showing that the poetess/cook did purchase coconuts at the local grocery store in Amherst. So if you were hoping for chocolate–get over it.

The main controversy had to do with the adaptation of the recipe –at an NPR web site–into a modern version that is “an everything-free version of the cake (no gluten, dairy or fast sugar)”, using a bunch of ingredients not dreamed of in Emily’s small world. Okay, adapt. But PLEASE don’t keep calling it Emily’s cake!

And anyhow, the recipe used as a basis for the PBS blog experiment was Mrs. Carmichael’s cake, not Emily’s. It came in a letter from Emily’s friend, and was attributed as “Mrs. Carmichael’s”.

THE ORIGINAL

The other extant version of a coconut cake recipe in Emily’s handwriting is apparently Emily’s own– perhaps evolved from experiments with Mrs. Carmichael’s recipe– so this is the one I  tried.

Emily Dickinson Coconut Cake Recipe
Emily Dickinson Coconut Cake Recipe

I checked a few modern coconut cake versions and a 1976 edition of Joy of Cooking has a recipe for twice the amount  that lines up very closely to Emily’s cake, except that the “Joy” recipe has much less coconut and also less flour

An article at ToriAvey.com (Formerly History Kitchen) points out that when Emily wrote “half the rule,” she meant half a cake and concludes that since Emily gifted people with cakes, a loaf cake would be the easiest to make and take. I’m beginning to doubt that assumption as I indicate below. The other thing The History Kitchen elucidates is that the combination of soda and cream of tartar makes modern day baking powder, simplifying the “receipt” by one ingredient.

My Only Slightly Altered Version

With the help of the instructions from Tori Avey, I blended the two recipes, using 1 1/2 cups coconut. The batter seemed much too stiff (maybe because of the extra coconut, but I like the taste), and I upped the milk to 3/4 cup. I am also tempted to use canned coconut milk in place of dairy milk, but that wouldn’t be Emily Dickinson’s coconut cake, that would be mine.

It resulted in a delicious loaf of cake. Except that it did not bake evenly–too dry on the ends and too moist–almost gooey in the middle, when made as a loaf cake. This time I tried a flat pan, because I really believe that a whole cake (the rule) would be two layers, and Emily made just one layer.

Emily Dickinson's coconut cake
Emily Dickinson’s coconut cake in a nine inch pan.

The 9″ round cake came out delicious. Yes, it is a bit rounded on the top, which indicates that it should be in a slightly larger pan, but I don’t have a ten-inch pan, and a 9 x 13 would make a very thin piece of cake. Last time I frosted it and sprinkled it with coconut, but this time I’m leaving it plain. (A side of ice cream wouldn’t hurt.)

Dying is a wild night and a new road. Emily Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson’s Cocoanut Cake

One-layer or loaf cake from historic recipe.
Course Dessert
Keyword cake, Coconut, Emily Dickinson
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Servings 12
Author Vera Marie Badertscher

Ingredients

  • 2 cups All purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter room temperature
  • 4 eggs separated
  • 3/4 cup milk or coconut milk
  • 1 1/2 cup coconut flakes

Instructions

  • Heat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Line loaf pan or 9" round cake pan with parchment, or grease and sprinkle with flour.
  • In large bowl, cream butter and sugar, beating five minutes.
  • In separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Stir in coconut.
  • Stir egg yolks into butter-sugar mixture.
  • Beat milk into batter, alternately with dry ingredients.
  • Beat egg whites until frothy. They will hold a soft peak but not be stiff. Fold gently into the batter until no white streaks remain.
  • Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake shallower pan for 30-35 minutes. Or bake loaf pan for 45-55 minutes.
  • Frost with confectioner sugar and butter frosting and sprinkle with coconut browned in dry skillet. Or sprinkle with confectioners sugar just before serving. Or leave well enough alone.

Notes

Emily’s recipe calls for 1 cup of coconut, but I increased that to 1 1/2. She used 1/2 cup of milk and I used 3/4 because the batter was too stiff with the extra coconut.  Emiky calls for two eggs, but her friend, Mrs. Carmichael used six eggs. I split the difference and use four. I tell you all this so that you can go back to the original if you wish.
One thing I did not modernize was the leavening.  You can substitute 2 tsp. of baking powder for the soda and cream of tartar if you wish, because it is really the same thing.  Emily did not have baking powder available.
Of course, neither Mrs. Carmichael nor Emily pass on any directions on baking, so I gathered those by comparing this recipe to modern coconut cake recipes. 
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