Fruit Cocktail Cake with Coconut Caramel Icing

 My sister, Glenda, is a wonderful cook.  She's one of those naturally talented cooks who can throw ingredients together, say "oh, that old thing?" and end up with a masterpiece in home cooking.  

I, on the other hand, am cooking-challenged and have to work diligently to make something special.  I end up with food in my hair and Glenda ends up looking like Mrs. Cleaver.

That's why when I saw this recipe from Glenda in the family cookbook, I knew it was going to be good.  Fruit Cocktail Cake?  I don't think I would've made it had it just popped up in Pinterest.

The cake turned out really nicely, with a light spongy texture, and every once in awhile a bite of fruit would come through.  I think next time I would chop up a cup or so of pineapple and throw it in. That would take it to the next level.

The star of the cake, though, is that coconut caramel icing!  It's so simple to make, but comes out so rich and caramel-y, and is perfect for the not-so-sweet cake.  

It was hard not to lick up the remains from the icing pan.  Wonderful stuff.  As you can see, the cake didn't take long to disappear.  I made the cake on Monday afternoon and this is the pan on Tuesday morning:

If you don't prefer coconut (aka Bret), you can leave it out and you'd still have an outstanding icing.

Fruit Cocktail Cake with Coconut Caramel Icing may sound strange, but the combinations are great. I'm still looking for that 'cocktail' part, though.

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Fruit Cocktail Cake with Coconut Caramel Icing

Yield: 20

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Spongy soft barely sweet cake with a phenomenal coconut caramel icing.

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Ingredients

• Cake:
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ C sugar
• 1 (15-16 oz) can fruit cocktail (not drained)
• 2 C flour
• 1 teaspoon soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Icing:
• 1 C sugar
• ½ C butter
• ½ C evaporated milk or cream
• 1 (3 ½ oz.) can flaked coconut (about 1 ¼ C. loosely packed)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Beat eggs and sugar till lemon colored. Stir in the fruit cocktail, flour, soda, and salt and mix well. Spoon batter into a greased 9x13" pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. 
3. Prepare the icing five minutes before the cake is done by combining the sugar, butter and milk in a medium pan. Bring it to a boil over medium heat and boil about 4 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the coconut and mix well. Pour it evenly over the hot cake and let cool on a rack.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

Remember not to drain the fruit cocktail – it needs that liquid in the batter.

I used evaporated milk.

Start checking the cake at 30 minutes by the clean-toothpick method. Mine was done between 30-35 minutes. It will be fairly brown on top.

Although not called for in the recipe, after the cake was baked I poked small holes so the icing would go down into the cake a bit.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 20 Serving Size: 1 cake
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 233Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 34mgSodium: 122mgCarbohydrates: 40gFiber: 1gSugar: 30gProtein: 3g

Nutrition Values are Approximate