By Sheri Hopkins
Lifestyle Contributor
Hello everyone! Glad to be back, for those who don’t know, I have had COVID. I feel 100 percent better, but it got me down for about six days. Stay safe and be careful.
I know we all have a favorite cake that we always ask for on our birthdays. When I was a little girl, I was the odd kid. I always asked for coconut cake.
Momma always made me a coconut cake on July 25 for my special day. I still love coconut cake. But, I also love Italian Cream Cake. It is one of my favorites. I cheat and use a cake mix.
I just want to thank everyone for all the calls, prayers, food and concern during my illness. I can truly say I have the best friends, family and neighbors. Which reminded me of a story.
When Chuck and I lived in Owego, NY I had always heard New Yorkers were not friendly. Keep in mind I was a hick from Arkansas. I was out and about by myself one day checking out the town while Chuck was at work. I was driving around and headed down a street. Everyone was waving and honking. I thought boy, everyone is sure wrong about these New Yorkers not being friendly, this is such a friendly town! When I got to the end of the street, I noticed I was going down the wrong way of a one-way street. Hmmm, now I know why everyone was waving at me.
I still enjoyed my time in Owego and I have always managed to do crazy things.
The lady we rented from while there was very kind to me. She knew how homesick I was, so she was always so nice to me. One thing about New York back then is that they didn’t know what biscuits and gravy was. When I say that, I am not kidding. Not a restaurant in town had them. They looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for it.
This nice lady tried to make them for me. Bless is all I can say. Do you know how hard it is to eat something in front of someone that tastes awful? I tried to choke them down, but it was horrible.
Funny how I always remember stories about food, haha!
I hope you enjoy a good old ITALIAN CREAM CAKE:
1 yellow cake mix
1 small instant vanilla pudding
1 cup of water
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 cup of flaked coconut
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix the cake mix, pudding mix, water, oil, and eggs. Beat two minutes, fold in chopped nuts and coconut. Spray a 9×13 pan with nonstick spray and pour in batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
ICING:
3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
1 stick of soft butter
8 oz. cream cheese
1 tablespoon of vanilla
Mix ingredients well spread on cooled cake and sprinkle with crushed nuts.
