Fruit Cocktail Cake..The Exhilaration of Christmas Shopping

"Miss Mildred was our Mother. Her in-laws called her "Millen," and all of them loved her as much as she loved them. She was the one who took us Christmas shopping and there was none of that sterile, preplanned, mind -made -up- ahead- of- time gift selection for her. We shopped! Some time in the week before Christmas she bundled us all into her square Chevrolet with quilts to wrap around our legs against the cold, and we careened merrily off to Atlanta. If it was bitterly cold, Pa Jim heated bricks on the hearth and gave all the children one as a foot warmer.

"Each of us clutched what money we had earned and our Christmas lists. We knew for who we were going to buy, and how much we could afford to spend, but had not the faintest idea what we were going to purchase. This added to the excitment, the frenzy, the urgency!"~ Excerpt...."Christmas Gift"

Fruit Cocktail Cake

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 t. baking soda

1 large can fruit cocktail

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

Sift together in a mixing bowl, the flour, sugar and soda. Pour the dry ingredients into the fruit cocktail and eggs. Mix well. Pour into a greased baking dish, 11" x 13" and bake for 30-45 minutes in a 300 degree F. oven.

Icing

1 cup coconut

1 stick of butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1 t. vanilla

Place all ingredients in a small saucepan. Boil two minutes. Pour over hot cake!
~Greenwood, MS.