God gave a Loaf to every Bird —
But just a Crumb — to Me —
I dare not eat it — tho’ I starve —
My poignant luxury —
To own it — touch it —
Prove the feat — that made the Pellet mine —
Too happy — for my Sparrow’s chance —
For Ampler Coveting —
It might be Famine — all around —
I could not miss an Ear —
Such Plenty smiles upon my Board —
My Garner shows so fair —
I wonder how the Rich — may feel —
An Indiaman — An Earl —
I deem that I — with but a Crumb —
Am Sovereign of them all —
~ Emily Dickinson
Last week, I blogged about poet Emily Dickinson’s lesser known passion— cooking and baking. I was able to track down one of her actual recipes, a Coconut Cake– or, as Emily spelled it, Cocoanut Cake. Tomorrow (December 10) is Emily’s birthday, so I decided to celebrate the life of this brilliant American poet by baking her Coconut Cake.
Emily’s hand written recipe is being shown at The Poet’s House in New York City as part of their Emily Dickinson Exhibition, which runs through January 28, 2012. The exhibit is described as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a rare selection of original manuscripts, letters, fragments, rare books, archival materials and even a recipe for coconut cake belonging to Emily Dickinson.” I’m hoping to stop by and see the exhibit on my next trip to New York.
Here is a scan of the actual recipe (or, as recipes were called in Emily’s time, the “receipt”). It’s a bit hard to read, so I’ve transcribed it below.
Image courtesy of Poet’s House c/o President and Fellows of Harvard College
Emily Dickinson’s Cocoanut Cake
1 cup cocoanut
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoonful soda
1 teaspoonful cream of tartar
This makes one half the rule–
No baking instructions are given, but anybody with a basic understanding of baking techniques should have no trouble with this recipe. It’s a simple cake or “quick bread,” meaning it uses baking powder as a leavening agent. The mixture of cream of tartar and baking soda produces baking powder; you can combine the cream of tartar and soda as written, or simply substitute 1 1/2 tsp baking powder. I’ve written out detailed instructions for baking the cake below so you can try it yourself.
Regarding the phrase “one half the rule,” it would make sense that Emily would want a recipe in half-portion. A loaf-sized cake would be easier to wrap up and send than a full cake. Though Emily was reclusive and rarely left her home, she was known to send food gifts to friends and acquaintances. In Emily’s obituary, her brother’s wife and lifelong friend Susan Dickinson describes her sister-in-law’s fondness for sending out care packages:
Very few in the village knew Miss Emily personally, except among the older in habitants, although the fact of her seclusion and intellectual brilliancy was one of the familiar (Amherst) traditions. There are many homes among the classes into which her dainty treasures of fruit and flowers and almost ambrosial dishes for the sick and well were constantly sent, that will forever miss those dainty traces of her unselfish devotion…
The Dickinson Children, painted by Otis Allen Bullard ca 1840. From the Dickinson Room at Houghton Library, Harvard University. Emily is on the left– this is one of the few surviving images of the poet.
I made this recipe the old fashioned way, beating the butter by hand and using an antique flour sifter to get into the spirit of the project. I stopped short of grating the coconut by hand. Grating fresh coconut is time consuming, so I used dried grated coconut instead of fresh. If you want to take that shortcut too, soak the dried coconut in warm water until soft and drain well before integrating it into the batter. You can also use soft sweetened baker’s coconut, if you wish– this cake is not overly sweet, so the extra sweetness from the baker’s coconut wouldn’t hurt.
Next time I bake this, I’ll probably use a large loaf pan. The medium loaf pan (8 inches) compressed the cake batter a bit, which made it billow up on top. Not a big deal, though (in fact, the effect is kind of pretty). The texture is not light or airy, it’s more like a dense pound cake. Using cake flour instead of regular flour would lighten up the texture a bit. My favorite part of this cake is the lovely golden crust, which gives it enough structure for dunking in coffee or tea. You might want to bake one yourself and give it to a literary friend as a holiday gift!
Thank you to Stephen and Christina at Poet’s House for their help with this post.
Happy birthday, Emily Dickinson!
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Emily Dickinson's Coconut Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar + 1/2 tsp baking soda OR 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 cup shredded coconut
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and cream of tartar + baking soda OR baking powder. I used my antique sifter to get in the "Emily Dickinson" mood.
- In a medium mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together till the mixture is light and fluffy, and the sugar is well incorporated into the butter. I did this by hand, the old fashioned way, like Emily Dickinson would have. It took several minutes. You can do it much faster with an electric mixer.
- Mix in the eggs, then the milk.
- Add liquid ingredients to dry and stir till just incorporated. A thick batter will form. Do not overmix.Fold in the shredded coconut. If your shredded coconut is dry (not fresh), rehydrate it with a little warm water and drain well before mixing it into the batter. Again, don't overmix.
- Spread the batter into a small loaf pan.
- Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes on the middle rack of your oven till cooked through and golden brown around the edges. Test with a skewer or toothpick for doneness in a few places-- if the toothpick comes out clean (no wet batter sticking to it), it's done.
- The cake is not overly sweet, which was perfect for me (I don't like my desserts too sweet). If you want to sweeten it up, use a bit more sugar, or use sweetened coconut instead of regular coconut. Enjoy!
Nutrition
tried this recipe?
Let us know in the comments!
I made this with reduced sugar to half its good still,yummy, thanks ,,
So happy I found this recipe! Thank you for sharing it. I replaced sugar with honey and only used half a cup of honey, butter with canola oil and I used wholemeal flour. Love the baked coconut cake smell wafting in the kitchen! I’ve made this 4 times now in the past 1 month 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe I was looking for a recipe without the cream and frosting
Got yours Baked and enjoyed
As a newlywed , over 50 years ago, a very elderly lady kindly gave me several “basic” recipes for me to cook for my new husband, “to keep him happy and feeling loved”. A Coconut Cake recipe was my most often baked, she was right it did keep him happy. Over house moving, my recipes were lost. This recipe you posted is “it” or so close to my memory of that cake. A very big thankyou for this recipe. And the history of Emily Dickinson is so suited to my old recipe story, feeling very melancholy now. Thankyou
Enjoy Gail! I hope it’s close to what you remember.
This is absolutely delicious!
I used frozen, grated coconut, coconut oil in place of butter, and coconut milk instead of ordinary milk.
Would make it at the drop of a hat!
Made the cake. Fantastic, it was dry (reminded me of my mother’s) always had to have tea or coffee with it. I am making it again today, no recipe change, love it.
Thank you for the recipe and the wonderful information to go with it! The cake was easy to make and my family enjoyed it!
Hi Tori, I bake this cake yesterday, it was very simple and easy to make, my Family loved it. It’s like a tea time cake. We enjoyed it, thank you for the recipe and the details about it.
Nice to hear from you Coco, it’s been a while! Glad you enjoyed the cake. 🙂
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I feel like i must have done something wrong because my coconut cake ended up tasting exactly like corn bread! I followed the recipe precisely with the exception of not sifting the dry ingredients as I couldn’t find my sifter, and I even used a fresh coconut from a farmer’s market. (I live in California) don’t get me wrong – I love corn bread, but I was looking forward to a light and airy dessert treat so I was pretty disappointed with the outcome.
Hi Johanna– as the blog states, this is not a “cake”-like texture, it’s a quick bread. If you had read the blog before making the recipe you would have seen the following: “The texture is not light or airy, it’s more like a dense pound cake.” Sorry you didn’t enjoy it!
You show how way we made the recipe and you show it very clear and step by step. It’s looks like beautiful and delicious. I want to make it and enjoy next weekend. Thank you.
I was facinated by the history of this coconut cake and decided to make it today. The flavor was lovely but rather dry. I checked it after 50 minutes and it was quite loose so I went for 60 minutes – maybe I should have checked it after 55 minutes.? Does this cake naturally tend to be on the dry side? Tastewise, I used salted butter and sweetened coconut which is more to my personal liking and generally I undercook most cakes to attain xtra moistness. Do you think substituting sour cream in place of the milk would moisten this cake ? Thank you for sharing this recipe Tori, as it was nice stepping back in time.
Hi Lisa– yes, this cake is naturally a bit drier. It’s a historical recipe, so slightly different than a cake to suit modern tastes. Butter tends to create a drier crumb, so if you want to try it again I would do half butter, half canola oil (or some other baking oil). You could add a little sour cream to the batter as well, but I wouldn’t want to recommend an amount without testing. If you find a combination that works for you please report back!
Sounds like a good idea combining the butter with canola oil . I Wonder how it would work at 350 degrees but cooked for 30 to 40 minutes or until it is just about cooked through. When i have free time I will experiment and report back. Thank you Tori. Experimentation is not foreign to me , I am an artist! ?
Let me know how it goes!
This cake looks absolutely delicious! I do have a question before I try it …..I happen to have a bag of desiccated coconut and I really don’t know what to do with it…….It is unsweetened and finely ground. Could I use it, do you think? Would I still use the 1 cup? Would love to serve it to neighbors coming for coffee next week. Hope you can help me. Thank you for acquiring Emily’s recipe!
Hi Judy, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. Yes, this would be fine to use. If your coconut is dry (not fresh), rehydrate it with a little warm water and drain well before mixing it into the batter. You would still use the same amount. Hope this helps!
Could the word “Cocoanut” possibly mean cocoa rather than coconut?
Hi Dima, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. I don’t think so. “Cocoanut” is just a variant spelling of “coconut”.
Found this recipe today , had to try it, but had no milk put vanilla yogert , my my.. beautiful moist loaf.will make it again. Thanks
Hi Tori,
Amazing recipe, my cake is baking in the oven. But i tasted my cake batter and it is just yummmm.. My friend asked me to bake an Indian cake from goa, which has the similar ingredients but the process is way too long… and your recipe came while browsing… Thanks a ton…
I would also like to tell you, i tried your DATE HONEY NUT CAKE and that too was yummylicious… you are too good
take care.. and keep posting some more yummy recipes
I love your tablecloth! Adorable!
This is a wonderful loaf with a beautiful crumb. I used the powder instead of the soda & cream of tartar; substituted the milk with unsweetened coconut milk and added a bit of lemon zest. Definitely a recipe I’ll be returning to again and again! Thanks for the recipe Tori.
This bread is fabulous, and so easy to make. Thank-you for sharing? the recipe.