Pineapple Coconut Cake Layers:4 Layers If you grew up reaching

If you grew up reaching for those candies in your grandmother's purse

The kind of banana pudding the ladies in my community would have set on the long table without saying a word

Dark chocolate layers topped with coconut-pecan frosting

because that's the standard around here — the standard the women on this block built

And the cake she came for was the German Chocolate

Pineapple Coconut Cake Layers:4 Layers If you grew up reachingCraving a pineapple coconut cake which was my choice for my birthday I taught myself how to bake. Most of our cakes come from cake I loved as a kid. This one's the original. The one I couldn't find anywhere else, so I had to learn how to make it myself. There were many, many bad cakes before this one. Let's tell the truth and shame the devil. Bright pineapple, real coconut, a cake that's tender without falling apart. Sweet, but it knows when to stop.