Recipe: Emily Dickinson's Coconut Cake

Earlier today I was nosing around NPR's website, as is my wont, and I clicked on what promised to be a very interesting story: "A Coconut Cake from Emily Dickinson: Reclusive Poet, Passionate Baker". After all, I like coconut cake and old-timey things, and I recall thinking Emily Dickinson was an interesting lady when we studied her poetry in high school. The article turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, though, since the author altered the cake recipe until it was entirely unrecognizable in order to rid it of gluten, dairy, "fast sugar," and apparently authenticity as well.

Fortunately, one commenter provided a link to the real thing, complete with an image of the recipe in Emily's handwriting. The article was lovely, but lacked pictures or instructions. Emily's recipe, like many old recipes, was essentially just a list of ingredients. Even cookbooks wouldn't have had the full instructions back then; they just assumed you knew how to do it or you could figure it out on your own. I thought I'd give this recipe a try to see what the cake tasted like, and I've broken down the process step by step for the modern reader.

Ingredients:
1 cup coconut
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon [baking] soda mixed with 1 teaspoon cream of tartar*

* Substitution: baking powder

1. Put out all of your ingredients so they can come to room temperature (yes, it makes a difference). While that's happening, grease and flour the pan you'd like to use. I used an 8" x 8" Pyrex baking dish and sprayed it with Wilton Bake Easy, because I hate greasing and flouring things and I enjoy that product. Set your oven for 325 F.

2. Put your butter and your sugar in a big mixing bowl and start to cream them together. People often think this involves melting the butter, but it doesn't. Just smash the sugar and butter together until they're all nice and smooth.

3. Add your eggs and beat those in (stir vigorously) until well combined.


4. In a separate mixing bowl, stir together your flour (sift it if you want a fluffier cake) and leavening agent of choice. Baking powder wasn't marketed on a mass scale until the late 19th century, so in Emily Dickinson's day, baking powder wasn't an option. Her recipe has you combine baking soda and cream of tartar, which is essentially baking powder. You can do that if you want to be authentic, or you can honor legendary horror film star and foodie Vincent Price by using his grandfather's invention, modern double-acting baking powder (scant 2 teaspoons of it). I sure did.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir. The batter will be THICK. Add the milk and really stir everything to make sure it's smooth, with absolutely no lumps. Now add the coconut and stir to combine.

6. Scrape the batter into your prepared baking vessel, and try to even it out as best you can (again, it's THICK). Put it in the oven and immediately turn up the temperature to 350 F. The blast of heat will help it to rise. Bake it for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove and let cool before slicing.

7. Optional step: You could put frosting or a topping of some kind on the cake after it's cooled (turn it upside down first if you do), but I seriously hate frosting so I usually just tap some powdered sugar on top and call it a day.

The cake is very light in flavor, not greasy at all, with a texture definitely suitable for dipping in sherry (as Emily is said to have done). I will definitely make this one again. Yum!