Southern Style Easter Recipes

In the South, Easter Sunday is considered to be one of the most important holidays right up there along with Christmas.  On an Easter Sunday morning in the South, you will find churches filled to overflowing with everyone, from youngest to oldest, adorned in their finest new spring outfits. Typical Southern tradition is for ladies to wear a corsage of some sort, usually an orchid.  My grandmother would not have left the house on Easter Sunday without an orchid pinned to her collar.  My mother still won't.  Mind you, these orchids were never purchased at the local grocery store like you see now, but to be truly proper, they must come from the florist shop.  My mother will be sporting this corsage on Easter Sunday...I'm a modern-day Southern belle, so I won't be wearing one.  BUT....I do have a new outfit!! Any old excuse to buy a new dress and shoes, huh?  Why mess with tradition?  LOL!!

Easter dinner is always a family occasion usually celebrated right after church.  Ham is the traditional main course for Easter dinner, and no Southern girl worth her salt would dare serve Easter dinner without deviled eggs!!  

These MUST be served on a deviled egg tray.  I just counted mine today...I have SEVEN of them.  That's a lot of eggs right there!!!!  All true Southern belles have multiple deviled egg plates!

The remainder of the menu usually (at least at my house) consists of sweet potato casserole, macaroni and cheese, green bean bundles, broccoli casserole, Southern potato salad, rolls (with butter of course!), and the "house wine of the South", sweet tea.  Banana pudding (made with condensed milk), coconut cake, and carrot cake are must-haves on an Easter Sunday sideboard. 

Tomorrow I'll be sharing some of my favorite Easter recipes with you, but I'll go ahead and share my favorite coconut cake recipe before I sign off.  It's not a layer cake, but it is DIVINE and super easy to make!  I have not met a man yet who didn't L-O-V-E this cake.  One additional note, though....it's best served cold, and it's better on day two!

1 box yellow cake mix

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can cream of coconut

1 small bag of coconut

1 large container of Cool Whip

Mix cake according to directions on the box.  Bake following directions in a 9 x 13 pan.   When cake is removed from oven, immediately punch holes in the cake using  a fork or wooden spoon handle.  Mix condensed milk and cream of coconut in a medium bowl.  Pour this mixture over the cake and allow to cool.  Mix Cool Whip and coconut together.  Once the cake has cooled, spread the Cool Whip and coconut mixture over the cake.  Refrigerate until served. 

Sooooo delicious!!  See you tomorrow when I'll be whipping up all my special side dishes for Easter Sunday!