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Over A Cup: Lola’s Fruit Cocktail Cake

Diane Prather

Lola’s Fruit Cocktail Cake

• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour

• 1-1/2 cups sugar

• 2 teaspoons soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 303 can fruit cocktail, plus juice

• 1/2 cup oil

• 2 eggs

Frosting ingredients:

• 1/2 cup canned milk

• 1 cube margarine

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 cup coconut

• 1 cup chopped nuts

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13-inch pan. Sift together the flour, soda, and salt. Add the sugar.

Then add the fruit cocktail (and its juice), oil, and eggs. Mix well. Pour into the baking pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until the cake tests done.

Meanwhile, make the frosting. Put the milk, sugar, and margarine in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Add the coconut, nuts, and vanilla.

Mix and spread over the hot cake.

— Recipe from the late Lola Downs

Lola’s Fruit Cocktail Cake

• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour

• 1-1/2 cups sugar

• 2 teaspoons soda



• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 303 can fruit cocktail, plus juice



• 1/2 cup oil

• 2 eggs

Frosting ingredients:

• 1/2 cup canned milk

• 1 cube margarine

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 cup coconut

• 1 cup chopped nuts

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13-inch pan. Sift together the flour, soda, and salt. Add the sugar.

Then add the fruit cocktail (and its juice), oil, and eggs. Mix well. Pour into the baking pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until the cake tests done.

Meanwhile, make the frosting. Put the milk, sugar, and margarine in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Add the coconut, nuts, and vanilla.

Mix and spread over the hot cake.

— Recipe from the late Lola Downs

This Thanksgiving morning, over a cup of coffee, I’m wondering how my “Tapioca Fruit Salad” will go over during Thanksgiving dinner. (We’re going to drive to our son and family’s home for dinner a little later today.)

The recipe for the salad was featured in last week’s column. Since my husband doesn’t care much for orange gelatin, I experimented with the recipe.

I brought the tapioca and juice to a boil as called for in the recipe but then dissolved peach gelatin in the mixture. When it cooled, I added drained, sliced peaches and mandarin oranges, also drained. (I used the fruit juice to mix the tapioca.)

I added the 8-ounce container of whipped topping and poured the salad into a 9×13-inch dish and put it in the refrigerator to set up. Later I took a spoonful of the salad from a corner of the dish so I could taste it.

I think it’s pretty good—maybe a little sweet.

This week I was going to feature our grandson Kenny’s soup recipe, but I haven’t taken the time to make it yet. When Kenny was over last week he told me more about the recipe, and he even figured the cost of the pots and pans needed to make it. (This is pretty important to a young college guy who is thinking about what he would need to live on his own.)

Anyway, I’ll put the recipe in next week’s column.

This week I’m repeating a recipe for “Fruit Cocktail Cake”. It was the recipe featured in the very first “Over a Cup of Coffee”. The recipe was given to me by Lola Downs, a dear friend we met when we lived at Timnath years ago. Lola has since passed away, but I think of her each time I bake this cake.

To make “Fruit Cocktail Cake”, you will need these ingredients: 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons of flour, 1-1/2 cups sugar, 2 teaspoons soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 303 can of fruit cocktail and its juice (this is a can of about 15 ounces), 1/2 cup oil, and 2 eggs. For the frosting you will need: 1/2 cup canned milk, 1 cube margarine, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup coconut, 1 cup chopped nuts, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13-inch pan.

Sift together the flour, soda, and salt. Add the sugar.

Add the fruit cocktail and juice, oil, and eggs. Mix well.

Pour into the baking pan (or dish). Bake for about 45 minutes or until the cake tests done.

While the cake bakes, mix up the frosting.

Place the milk, margarine, and sugar in a sauce pan. Mix and then boil for 3 minutes.

Then add the coconut, nuts, and vanilla. Mix and spread the frosting on the hot cake.

What are your favorite Christmas recipes? If you have recipes you’d like to share, send them to me at P.O. Box 415, Craig, CO, 81626, or call me at 824-8809.

Copyright Diane Prather, 2012


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