The Family Table: A Labor of Love From a Farm Wife With ‘a Heart of Gold’

Readers share their treasured recipes

This chocolate and coconut cake was a fixture of the author's Fourth of July family picnics in northwest Iowa, where she grew up. Courtesy of Susan Schmid Burton

Submitted by Susan Schmid-Burton, Texas

My siblings and I collaborated on a family cookbook in 2010 and self-published it in 2011. It is our family history told in the language of food—our family recipes. I am submitting one of my entries to share with my fellow Epoch Times readers across this nation and the world. My Aunt Joann passed away in 2022, which makes this recipe all the more precious.

The author's late Aunt Joann (C) with her twin brothers, Gaylord and Galen, who were home on leave from the U.S. Navy. Courtesy of Susan Schmid Burton)

Here are my comments on the recipe from our family cookbook:

“From a dessert standpoint, this cake was the hallmark of our Fourth of July picnics at Great-Aunt Neva’s Iowa farm place. This annual Bobzien family gathering was sure to fall on one of the hottest, most humid corn-growing days of the summer, and after playing all day with my cousins, I worked up a ferocious appetite.

“Since I have a particular fondness for the combination of chocolate and coconut, Aunt Joann’s cake instantly became my favorite dessert, and I was always thankful she went out of her way each year to prepare this for her adoring family fans. Most farm wives wouldn’t and couldn’t take the trouble to make something requiring so much time, but Aunt Joann had and still has a heart of gold.

“This was one of the many gifts of love she distributed so generously to us every Fourth of July—the very thing that made those family reunions so memorable and priceless.”

A Fourth of July family picnic at the author's Great-Aunt Neva's farm in Iowa, circa 1980. Courtesy of Susan Schmid Burton

Aunt Joann Rozema’s Rippling Shadow Cake With 7-Minute Frosting

Makes one 9-inch, two-layer cake

• 1 1/2 cups shredded coconut (I use sweetened)
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 squares (2 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate or 1 1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate (preferred), melted
• 2 3/4 cups sifted flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup shortening
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 1/3 cups milk or water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 egg whites

To Finish

• 1/2 square (1/2 ounce) unsweetened chocolate, melted
• 1 teaspoon melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour two 9-inch round layer cake pans, at least 1 1/2-inch deep.

Combine the coconut and water. Stir in the melted chocolate. Reserve.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Gradually add the sugar to the shortening, creaming well. Add the milk and vanilla to the sugar/shortening mixture alternately with the dry ingredients, blending well after each addition, to create a creamed mixture.

Beat the egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Fold into batter.

Alternately spoon 1 tablespoon of the batter and a small teaspoon of the coconut/chocolate mixture at a time into the greased and floured cake pans. When complete, run through the batter with a knife to marble.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool and then assemble into a 2-layer cake, frosting with 7-Minute Frosting on top of each layer and on sides.

Spread on top of each layer and on the sides, assembling into a 2-layer cake.

To finish the cake: Combine the melted unsweetened chocolate and melted butter. Spoon this around the top edge of the frosted cake, allowing it to drip down the sides.

7-Minute Frosting

• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup
• 2 egg whites
• 5 tablespoons cold water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients except the vanilla in the top of a double boiler. Cook over rapidly boiling water, beating with an electric mixer or rotary beater until the mixture stands in peaks. Remove from heat.

Add the vanilla; blend thoroughly.

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Do you have a treasured family recipe that holds a special place in your family history, heritage, or traditions? We would be honored if you would share it with us.

Along with the recipe, tell us its story—who gave it to you, its journey through the generations, and the personal meanings and memories it carries. Is it a special occasion dish or an everyday family favorite? Does it connect you to your cultural heritage or to a certain loved one?

How have you kept the recipe alive, and why is it important to you to do so?

Send your recipe and comments, along with your full name, state, and contact information, to [email protected], or mail it to: Home, The Epoch Times, 229 W. 28th St., Floor 7, New York, NY 10001.