Just in case you happened to sleep through the entire episode and ensuing news coverage, we felt an earthquake rumble our part of the world early Friday morning. You can read all about it in news reports, but did you know that such a thing as Earthquake Cake exists?
I knew about it and rifled through my recipe collection handed down from my mother-in-law trying to find it Friday night. My husband, John, remembers his grandmother making it when he was younger. His grandparents lived in Ridgely, Tenn., just down the road from Reelfoot Lake, which was formed by the giant quake of 1812. He described it as a cake that looked like it had fault lines running through it. I've always thought it was because the cake top cracks, just as a strong earthquake could do to the ground.
I finally discovered the recipe in the Lakeview Dining Room (Tiptonville, Tenn.) menu that we heisted after a family reunion last year. OK, so the menu is really a small tabloid-sized newspaper that they encourage you to take home. The back of the menu lists so-called famous Reelfoot Lake recipes such as macaroni with tomato sauce, baked bass and snowball peaches. Down in the left-hand corner is a recipe for Earthquake Cake.
Enjoy the recipe.
1 cup coconut
1 cup chopped nuts
Mix together and press into a 9-by-13 pan.
Then mix one box of chocolate cake mix as directed (varieties include Swiss, German Chocolate or Double Dutch)
Then, mix 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, one box of powdered sugar and 1 stick melted margarine together and then drop on top of the cake mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.
P.S. - I saw a version of Earthquake Cake online that called for sprinkling of chocolate chips on top. That would make this a very rich cake, but surely one that would please chocolate lovers.
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