Thank you so much, Lieutenant Governor Stack, Speaker Terzai, President Skarnati, Leader Corman, Leader Costa, Leader Reid, Leader Dermotty, members of the General Assembly, and above all my fellow Pennsylvanians, oh also mom and dad back there, thank you very much. In January we gathered outside in the cold as I took the oath of office. Six weeks later I'm sorry to say that it's still pretty much just as cold as it was back then. So today I'd like to talk about something that we can control, our budget and the future of Pennsylvania. I'm grateful for the opportunity to discuss how we can ensure that Pennsylvania's future is as bright as our incredible past. As you know I campaigned on the idea that we need a new approach to governing Pennsylvania, one that challenges the status quo and takes on old problems in fundamentally new ways. And one of the old problems we need to put to rest is the idea that Democrats and Republicans cannot work together to solve Pennsylvania's problems. I believe we can. And that's why I've, thank you very much, and that's why I've made it a priority over the past six weeks to meet with just about every member of this body, both Democrats and Republicans. And I want to thank you all for sharing your ideas on the issues where we agree and especially on the issues where we don't agree. I learned as a business owner that you can disagree with people without being disagreeable and that on every issue if you're willing to talk there's a much better chance that you can find truths that both sides can share. As I said six weeks ago the people of Pennsylvania need leaders today who are willing to listen to each other, learn from each other, and work together to give all the people of this state a shot at a great life. That's the different kind of approach we need to take to move Pennsylvania forward. And that's why the proposal I'm unveiling today is a different kind of budget. It's a budget that reflects my conversations with many of you here today. It includes Democratic ideas, Republican ideas, and clearly ideas that exist beyond party lines. It's rooted in the values of fairness, inclusion, and common sense. It's a balanced budget and it eliminates our 2.3 billion dollar deficit. But above all, it recognizes that Pennsylvania will not improve until we rebuild the middle class. To give Pennsylvania the fresh start it needs to get back on track. The plan I'm unveiling today dramatically invests in schools that have been devastated by cuts to prepare our kids for middle class jobs. It cuts taxes to attract companies that will create jobs that pay middle class wages. It streamlines bureaucracy and cuts red tape to create a government that works. And it does so while cutting property taxes paid by the average homeowner by 50%. And reducing the total tax burden on average middle class families. These are some of the things I've talked about since I started running for governor almost two years ago. They boiled down to three big themes that I hope will define my time in office. First, schools that teach because for our children to succeed tomorrow every child must have access to a great education today. And teachers must have the resources they need to deliver a great education. Second, second jobs that pay because for our economy to begin humming again we need to be good partners with the private sector enabling it to grow and create good jobs that will strengthen our middle class families. And third, government that works because for our state to be great again we need a government that is more efficient less wasteful. One that restores faith in the fundamental notion that our democracy still works. We need a new approach. We need to question the decisions that got us where we are today. For example, why are we paying Wall Street managers hundreds of millions of dollars to manage our pension funds? That doesn't help our middle class. It doesn't help our seniors and it needs to change. Why is Pennsylvania ranked at the bottom in terms of job growth? Pennsylvania has the resources to create good jobs. We can do better. Too many teachers have been have left the classroom due to budget cuts. With us today is a teacher named Katie Beth Klinger over here. Katie along with her daughter. Now Katie was a teacher. Katie, thanks for being here. Katie was a teacher in the Reading School District where she saw the difference she was making in children's lives at a school district that was severely underfunded. But in 2011 she was part of a mass furlough. Since then she has not been able to return to permanent work. Katie just wants to help teach and help students who she saw making real progress before the education cuts. She is stuck with it. She has been a substitute at Reading School District and when people ask her why she doesn't change careers or seek a position in another school district, she says she can make a bigger difference in the city of Reading with the children who need help most. Katie is a single mother and the stress of not knowing whether she can count on a stable income from year to year has been weighing on her. We need more teachers like Katie in our schools. We need teachers like Katie who care to make sure that our students in Reading, in Philadelphia, in Lockhaven, in Tawanda can get the education they need to succeed in Pennsylvania. My budget puts teachers like Katie back in the classroom. It's just this simple. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's just it's just this simple to create jobs that pay schools that teach and government that works. We have to do things differently. That is what this budget achieves. Let's start with schools. Our commitment to education is historic. We are starting with education because in many ways education is at the heart of everything else we want to achieve. When I ran a business, finding talented people with a strong education was my highest priority. It's what made my company competitive in the marketplace. A great system of public education will help Pennsylvania attract new businesses, retain talent and grow the middle class. We need schools that help teach our kids the 21st century skills they need to compete and win against kids from China and India and Germany. Over the past four years, Pennsylvania took a step in the wrong direction by trying to balance our state budget on the backs of our schools. It left us with 25,000 educators out of work. It forced 75 percent of our school districts to cut academic programs. It forced 70 percent of our school districts to increase class sizes. It left 56 percent of Pennsylvania students with no access to a full-time librarian. And it forced too many schools to cut art and band to pay for reading and math. My fellow Pennsylvanians, this is not a formula for success. We can do a lot better. It's just as simple. Our state is never going to get stronger as long as we make our schools weaker. And that is why the very first thing my budget does is to restore the $1 billion in cuts to public education that occurred under the previous administration. This is not going to stop at simply reversing the cuts that have already taken place. We can't, because the way things were before is not good enough. For too long, we have not paid enough attention to the fact that Pennsylvania ranks near the bottom of the country in state investments in kindergarten through 12th grade education. We need to change that. This budget increases our investment in public schools at every grade level. It also recognizes that our responsibility to provide a great education does not begin at kindergarten, nor does it end with high school. That's why my budget also expands access to early childhood education by increasing the number of children in pre-K programs by 75 percent. That's why we're increasing funding to community colleges by $15 million. And that's why we're restoring 50 percent of the cuts to our state system of higher education. But those improvements come with a string attached. In return for these increases, today I am calling on our institutions of higher education to freeze tuition. And I expect them to answer that call. These investments in higher education and community colleges will help prepare our young people for jobs that pay. However, our budget doesn't just spend more on schools. It also includes accountability measures to make sure that this money is spent on classrooms and not on bureaucracy. But that is not the only thing that makes this budget's commitment to education history. For the first time in more than 40 years, we are proposing to increase the state's share of funding for public education to 50. 50 percent. Let me explain. Let me explain. Today, the state contributes just over 35 percent of the total cost of public education. That ranks us far below the national average. Worse than Alabama, worse than Mississippi, worse than West Virginia. As a result, here in Pennsylvania, more of the cost falls on local communities, largely in the form of property taxes that disproportionately burden lower income homeowners and seniors living on a fixed income. Furthermore, Pennsylvania is one of only three states that does not use a funding formula to distribute education dollars to local districts. That means poorer urban and rural districts are not getting the help they need. The gap in spending between rich districts and poor districts has, as a result, exploded. Now, a bipartisan commission is developing, I understand, a fair funding formula to no doubt correct that. And so will my budget. The funding formula we are proposing would provide more money to every school district, which will help alleviate the burden on local property owners. But our proposal will pay special attention to those places where challenges are the greatest. It will ensure that education funds are distributed in a matter that is efficient, equitable, and transparent. It will help take favoritism out of the process because if we know anything, we know that school funding should be a matter of need, not politics. Instead, it will tie funding to specific factors such as district size, poverty levels, and student makeup. It will incentivize school districts to develop innovative programs that improve student achievement and hold down costs. I look forward to the commission's proposal. Together, we'll get this right. If Pennsylvania is going to be one of the best places to get an education, we can no longer afford to be one of the worst in funding our schools. We need a historic commitment to education, and we're making it today. Now, I'm sure that all sounds great, and many of you are probably wondering, how are we going to pay for it? You might hear me try. Thank you very much. Thank you. You might hear me talking about education funding and assume that that means your taxes are going to go up, but in fact, my budget actually reduces the total tax burden on average middle-class homeowners by 13%. So how will we do it? We'll do it with tax reforms that are smart, pragmatic, and fair. We'll do it with changes that will help eliminate the deficit, protect the middle class, and set the table for robust private sector growth. It starts by doing what every other major gas producing state has already done. We're going to place a severance tax on the extraction of natural gas, and we are going to tie the revenues from the tax to funding for public education. Officially, our plan is known as the Pennsylvania Education Reinvestment Act. I'm proposing a 5% severance tax that is projected to generate more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The impact fee dollars will be preserved and will continue to support communities where drilling takes place, but under my plan, while local communities will continue to receive funding to address the impact of the drilling, the rest of these funds will be used to invest in public education. This is not about politics or ideology. It's simply common sense. Natural gas production is growing faster in Pennsylvania than anywhere else in the country, yet we are the only major producer of natural gas, the only producer of natural gas that does not ask drillers to pay their fair share or provide a return on our resources. The fact is consumers in Pennsylvania are already paying a severance tax every time they fill up their tanks with gasoline. Only they're paying it to states like Oklahoma, to Texas, to West Virginia, and every other state with a tax on oil and gas drilling. Why should those states get our money without Pennsylvania getting some of theirs in return? So this isn't a partisan idea. It's a recognition that Pennsylvanians are right now getting a bad deal. We deserve to be fairly compensated for the use of our resources. The benefits of this change don't end there either. By shifting the cost of public education away from local districts, we're also going to drastically reduce property taxes. Now this is something that Republican House majority leader Dave Reed has championed, and many Republicans have supported it from all over the state. Last July, Leader Reed introduced a bill to lower school property taxes, and our plans share common goals and similar approaches. So this truly is a bipartisan effort. Overall my budget will reduce average homeowners property taxes by 50 percent, putting more than $1,000 each year into their pockets. This will ease the burden on low-income and middle-class homeowners, and it will bring some much-needed relief to seniors living on fixed incomes, some of whom have been forced to leave homes they have lived in their entire lives simply because they cannot afford higher property taxes. In fact, under my plan many senior citizens will see their property taxes eliminated altogether. My plan raises the personal income tax to 3.7 percent. Again the same rate that Leader Reed proposed, but less of an increase than what some other legislators have proposed, and it will make up for the loss of revenue by increasing the sales tax from 6 to 6.6 percent, while broadening the base to include services that are currently not taxed because special interest groups have lobbied hard for special exemptions. This is a similar approach to House and Senate bills 76, which have been championed by many Republicans and many Democrats. These changes will allow us to make a historic commitment to our schools in a way that is fair, more equitable, and more sustainable. Let's talk about improving our economy. As a business owner, I know that the free market requires a constructive partner in government. That means our government should not try to do everything, but it cannot do nothing either. One thing it can do to create more economic opportunity is to make smart investments in public goods that are strategic, not episodic. We need to do a better job of connecting our transportation systems, starting with our three world-class ports in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Erie. This budget seeks to build on public-private investments created by Act 89 to turn our state into a world-class transportation hub to drive private sector growth. Another thing we must do is bring manufacturing jobs back to our state, and that's exactly what I plan to do. We've proposed the creation of a Made in Pennsylvania Cashback Jobs program for manufacturing companies that increase their annual taxable payroll by at least one million dollars to create solid middle-class jobs. They will receive cash payments of up to five percent of new taxable income the following year. And let's go one step further. In our grant and loan programs, we should give priority to Pennsylvania companies. We should, and we will. Now to grow our middle-class, our citizens must have access to the education and training that today's jobs require. That's why we're proposing to restore job training and apprenticeship programs at our community colleges. To help middle-class families, to help middle-class families make the transition to jobs in this new economy. In Pennsylvania, we're also blessed with an abundance of natural resources, of course gas, timber, coal, sun, wind, fresh water, open spaces, agricultural land, beautiful scenery, and an opportune location that makes us the Keystone State. Not long ago, we were one of the top wind and solar producing states in the country, using the green economy to create jobs. But we took our eye off the ball and fell behind. To fulfill our potential, we must take full and responsible advantage of these resources. Right now, we export raw products, like timber, to other states and to other countries, who then use those raw materials to create higher value products, like kitchen cabinets. This doesn't make any sense to me. Why can't we make those high value products right here in Pennsylvania? That way, that way we'll have both the resources and the jobs those resources make possible. We'll train Pennsylvanians to work in the shale fields. Pennsylvanians will manufacture the steel pipe and the tanks to transport and hold the gas and the technologies to clean the water. And here's the additional opportunity. With shale gas, we can offer affordable energy and we can provide the feedstock necessary in advanced manufacturing businesses. Our natural resources, our well-trained and well-paid workforce, our growing businesses, that's what my plan enables us to achieve together. If we want to be a state where the next generation can envision a bright future, Pennsylvania has to offer a level playing field where entrepreneurs can be confident their risks will be fairly rewarded. Workers have to be fairly rewarded too. The companies and countries that are thriving in today's global economy are those that are committed to diversity, to inclusion, and to fairness. All of Pennsylvania's families deserve those same opportunities no matter what their race, their sexual orientation, where they started life or who they are. Our state has also long believed that hard work should be rewarded. Yet a full-time worker earning minimum wage today makes about $15,000 a year for a family with two kids as below the poverty line. And about 20% of Pennsylvanians live on that edge every day. I strongly believe that nobody who works full-time in Pennsylvania should be forced to live in poverty. And that's why I'm calling on this legislature to raise the state minimum wage to $10 and $0.10 an hour. Thank you. Now you all know, you all know the company I build has a profit-sharing plan. It's because I believe that my employees deserve to share in the benefits of their hard work but also it makes my company better. Paying good wages is not just the right thing to do, it's also the smart thing to do. That is how we're going to grow this economy. But that's not all. If we're going to lead in the 21st century, we cannot do it with a tax code that takes us back to some of the worst decisions of the last century. Now, cutting the property taxes I described earlier will help reduce the burden on businesses, making it more attractive to locate those businesses in some of our towns and cities. But there's much more we need to do, which brings me to the corporate net income tax. Today, the corporate net income tax is 9.99 percent, one of the highest in the country. I find that appalling. That is driving jobs out of our state. At the same time, loopholes in that tax code allow many companies to avoid paying the state income tax altogether. Because of these loopholes, more than 70 percent of companies that do business in Pennsylvania do not pay corporate net income taxes at all. That forces more of the burden onto small businesses and families all across our state. In other words, the problem is not only that our corporate net income tax is too high, the problem is also that we're not even seeing the revenues that tax is supposed to generate. It's the worst of both possible worlds. My budget will close the Delaware loophole and cut corporate net income tax rate by 40 percent in the first year and by 50 percent by 2018. That will take us from one of the highest in the country to one of the lowest in the country. And it will incentivize companies to come here and create good jobs in Pennsylvania. It'll do that while also ensuring that corporations pay their fair share. Here's another thing. For 17 years, we've talked about phasing out the capital stock and franchise tax. Now we're going to do it. As of January of next year, there will be no more capital stock and franchise tax in Pennsylvania. See, we can't agree on certain things. That's great. Okay, let's talk about healthcare. At a time when healthcare costs are placing a burden on every state government, we are also going to expand the Medicaid program by accepting the funds made available under the Affordable Care Act. Also, we will restore a small amount of funding for health and human services at the county level for our most vulnerable populations. It's not a lot of money, but it's important money. By consolidating some of the programs launched by the last administration, our Medicaid changes make the program better and save more. The changes that I am proposing today, however, are not just about raising money. They're also about making government work better and making it work for everyone. Since my first day in office, my administration has been committed to government reforms that increase efficiency, reduce waste, and eliminate cronyism and corruption. Our government should be transparent and fully accountable. Taxpayers deserve to know how every penny is spent. That's why one of my first acts was to issue executive orders forbidding employees of the executive branch from accepting gifts. The just say no thank you policy. I also signed an executive order banning no bid legal contracts that have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars. We also also established the governor's office of transformation, innovation, management, and efficiency to find ways to streamline management and better serve Pennsylvania citizens. The new office will focus on improving coordination between agencies, modernizing state government operations, and seeking out partnerships where appropriate with the private sector. Right now, our state agencies are giving incentives, and this is an example, to spend every dollar. If they don't spend their entire budget, their budget will likely be cut the next year. That's perverse. It's short-sighted, and it needs to change. Instead, we're going to give state agencies incentives to save money. We expect these efforts to generate up to 150 million dollars in immediate savings and hundreds of millions of dollars over the long term. And we're looking at even more reforms to make the government more responsible and responsive to the people it serves. For instance, we're going to modernize state-run liquor stores and make them more consumer-friendly. We are going to make the state and municipal pension systems stronger. Believe it or not, as I mentioned earlier, our state has been wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on Wall Street managers to handle state pension accounts. But studies have shown that simply investing this money in a safe conservative account would produce a similar return over the long term while eliminating these excessive management fees. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to stop excessive fees to Wall Street managers. We're going to improve retirement security for state workers. With these and other improvements, we're going to save taxpayers nearly 1.3 billion dollars over the next five years while creating savings of 10 billion dollars in the unfunded liability. Individually, these reforms aim to increase efficiency and eliminate wasteful spending. But taken together, they make big strides toward a larger goal, a government that works. Another part of government that works is restoring trust, and that's why I look forward to working with the legislature on other important reforms that will improve people's trust in government, things like campaign finance reform and redistricting reform. So this is a budget that respects and honors the great potential of this state and of our people. The ideas that I am proposing today represent a starting point, and we need to get started right away. Because today, Pennsylvania stands at a crossroads. We have a 2.3 billion dollar deficit. We have an education crisis and a sluggish economy. Our credit rating has been downgraded five times in a row, making us one of the least credit worthy states in the nation. And since the beginning of 2011, Pennsylvania has been near the bottom in the country in job creation. That's clearly not acceptable. Now I'm not here to assign blame or pretend that I have all the answers. The reality is times have changed, and ideas that may have worked in the past simply aren't working anymore. It's time to do something different and work together to get this state back on track. Our budget should be as bold and ambitious as Pennsylvania has been over the past 300 years. Today, I laid out my plan and I'm going to fight for it. And I recognize that some of you won't agree with all or parts of it. And I recognize that we're going to have a robust conversation. That's how our democracy works. But if you don't agree with my ideas, here's my request. Please come with your own ideas. It's not good enough just to say no and continue with the same old, same old. It's our responsibility to the people of Pennsylvania. That's our responsibility to the people of Pennsylvania. They may have voted for divided government, but they did not vote for gridlock or dysfunction. We have to find ways to deliver the solutions that we all promised. I want ambitious people, and I know we all do, ambitious people to see Pennsylvania as the best place to begin a career. I want them to have confidence that if they come here and take a risk, it will pay off. I ran for governor because I refuse to be part of the first generation of Pennsylvanians forced to tell their kids they need to go somewhere else to succeed. I know that we can get our state back on track because we still have all the qualities that make Pennsylvania so great. We still have the most innovative, resilient people anywhere. There is no reason why we can't have the best schools. There is no reason why we can't have the most dynamic economy. There is no reason why we can't have the strongest middle class. The idea of Pennsylvania is the idea that all things are possible, and if we work together, there is nothing we can't accomplish. Keep in mind we are the state that built America. Let us be the generation that rebuilds Pennsylvania. Thank you very much. May God bless the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.


Hey y'all, it's Timmy with Collard Valley Cooks. And this is where we cook like mama did. This is my mama's coconut cake. It's a fresh coconut cake with her snow white layers, has cream of coconut and coconut milk in it. Oh, is it going to be good? It's so juicy, you have to put it in a pot plate. Hey y'all, it's Timmy with Collard Valley Cooks. You can hear the birds singing this morning in my kitchen. We are using white lily flower and making my mama's recipe for white cake. We use all egg whites so that it's a pretty snow white cake. And we always make these layers for our fresh coconut cake for Christmas every year. We're going to get started with adding our shortening and butter. So we're going to start with a stick of butter, which is a half cup. So here's a half cup of shortening. Now we're going to add our sugar. It's a cup and three quarters. I reduce the sugar in my cakes lots of times because you put so much sugar on the outside of them, there's really no need for them to be super sweet. So we're going to use about a cup and three quarters. And we're going to get this mixed up and then we're going to add our egg whites. With all mixers, it's good to scrape it. In between. Now we're adding six egg whites. See how creamy that looks now? My mama would have called that a little bit frothy. Because we use white lily flower, it's nice and fluffy. It's a white winter wheat. There's no need for me to sift it. And since I'm not sifting, I go ahead and I put in my baking powder, my salt, and my soda into the cake at this point. So we're going to use two teaspoons of baking powder, half teaspoon of baking soda, and a half teaspoon of salt. We're going to get that mixed in good before we add our flour. We're going to use one and a half cups of buttermilk. This is whole buttermilk. I like it because it's nice and thick. Makes a really good cake. All right, we're going to be putting in two teaspoons of vanilla flavoring and then we'll be adding our buttermilk and our flour alternately. We'll be using two and a half cups of flour and one and one half cups of buttermilk and two teaspoons of vanilla extract. I have to tell y'all because when I turn this mixer on, you can't hear me. We're going to scrape the sides, get it mixed up about 30 more seconds. You want to mix a cake mix about two minutes and that's about it. Because that flour starts reacting with that baking powder, nothing reminds me of my mother more than cake batter. My mother catered weddings and she was a wonderful cake decorator.   This is her recipe for white layers and boy is it good. Now if you want to make a yellow layer and you want to use the yellows of the eggs, I have a different recipe for that cake that mama made. All right we're going to get these in our pans and I'm going to bake this in the oven at 325 degrees because I don't want it to get real brown. You want your white snow white fresh coconut cake to be beautiful and white on the inside. So you don't want to bake your cake and have it dark on the outside. You want it to be really pretty. All right today I'm going all out and greasing and flouring my pans instead of spraying them with baker's joy because it's Christmas and that's how mama done it. So that's how I'm going to do it today. I missed her. My mom passed away a couple years ago. She had dementia. Let's see about eight years before she passed away and she had an autoimmune disease and so I was sad to see her go but I know where she's at and that makes me very happy because I know she's with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ this Christmas. And every day we're going to take some shortening and grease these pans. Make sure you use your fingertips to get around them edges. Now I love these pans. They're Nordic wear and they do a really good job of browning the cake and it not get too dark or too you know you take a little bit of flour and sprinkle in one and then you let it go around the pan. So you're just going to pat it all around the bottom and then you're going to turn it on its side and let the flour go around the edge like that and beat it out good so that you don't have a lot of flour in the corners. Now my cake mixes that are in our first cookbook they all have about two and a half cups of flour that is too much batter for two eight inch layers. It would work for two nines it'll work in a sheet cake pan but if you're using rounds and you're using eight inches make sure you use at least three layers okay and I know for this too a lot of people make my pound cake it's wonderful but it makes a lot of cake batter and so if you've got a standard butt pan there's too much batter in it as well you have to use the 12 cup one just a heads up to keep in mind when you're using my recipes I give you lots of batter because I'm going to tell you these boxes just don't cut it anymore they keep reducing and reducing the amount of cake batter you get and so it's much better to use that white lily flour and make your own cake mixes all right so we're gonna use four today because I want this to be a nice tall showy cake and I'm going to put a heaping cup in each one once they all have this cup then I'll just try to give the rest in here equally a little bit a little bit a little bit and I always like to save a bite for me yes I eat my cake batter that's what reminds me of my mother goes so just spread it around in your pan good now mama always beat hers on the counter to get all the air bubbles out especially if you're using a hand mixer it puts more air in the cake batter so we're going to do that today my dog's may bark we had a few little bubbles that popped on the top there's one that's about to pop but you can do that everybody will have a different amount in there if you don't over beat your cake the less air will be in there also try to use a paddle if you've got a stand mixer are we going to get these in the oven now I do have my rack not in the center of the oven because of I like to video the timelines for you guys but if you're making these at home then um you would have a more centered but this oven does a wonderful job so I'm not worried about that it is a gas oven and the bag will get a little bit warmer than the front so they may get done quicker so don't overcook the ones on the back and let them get too dark if you do it like I'm doing it layers on the back are done and the ones on the front just need a couple more minutes it doesn't hurt to take a cake out quick and put it back in you can see it's already pulling away from the sides it's really done it's just not as dark as the other ones I won't go ahead and take them out if your cake is pulling away from the sides like you can see here then you know it's done and you can really tell the difference in the ones in the back from the ones in the front now when you make yours at home you can use two different racks or cook them at different times but today for time's sake I just cooked them all at one time on one rack for y'all now once these cool down about 10 minutes or so and they get cool to the not cool but cool enough that you can pick up the sides without getting burned it's still going to be warm we're going to flip them out on some parchment paper and we're going to go ahead and start mixing up our icing for this coconut cake we're out in the sunroom I'm going to flip these out out here and let them start cooling down because it is cooler in this room nice fluffy white cake okay we're going to be using cream of coconut now cream of coconut is not the same thing as coconut milk coconut milk is thin and watery cream of coconut has the fat of the coconut in it and it's creamy and most of the time when you open it it's got a layer of fat on the top so we're going to open this up this is a 15 ounce can and this recipe is actually in our first cookbook because this is a very common thing that I make every Christmas and I made this my first cookbook right around before Christmas the first year that I started the show this is it so we're going to follow the directions on there we're going to open this cream of coconut and we're going to put it in a bowl because I want the grease to be mixed up in in the cream of coconut too so you want to get it good and creamy and mix together good and I'm going to take my whisk and I'm just going to mix it really good together to get that fat in there and we're going to use three quarter cups of this in our icing and then the rest of it we're going to put in our fresh coconut this full pretty much just or close to full is three quarters of a cup and that's how much we're going to need in our icing seems like a lot don't but now I like my icing really thin for this and we're going to take the rest of this and we're going to put it in our coconut I'm about to show you what kind of coconut this is I'll just give me a second so get all of it out and into your coconut and now you're going to use about three quarter cups of lukewarm water and you're going to put in the coconut to don't use hot water because coconut sour is really easy and this is fresh coconut this cake has to be refrigerated I'm just rinsing out the rest of this cream of coconut make sure I get it all and we're going to pour this in here now we're using bird's eye fresh coconut you find it in the freezer section near the cool whip these are small packages so you need six of these there's six ounces to make a good coconut cake if you want to put plenty of coconut on it which I like now do not make sure that when you thaw these you put them in the refrigerator two or three days before you want to use them and do not thaw them in the microwave it'll cause the coconut to sour now we're going to take the coconut and we're going to mix up the water and the cream of coconut in it and this is really cold and it should be so I'm going to have to go back and forth and rinse my hands with hot water just so they don't freeze to death it's really not soupy enough for me I'm going to actually open up this coconut milk and pour a little bit in here this is a part of the recipe but you're getting an even better tip watching today no wait but this coconut's actually sweetened already um it tastes really good but it's just up to you whether or not you can taste your coconut see if it's sweetened and if it's not you can always add a little sugar water to it instead of just the plain water it's totally up to you all right we're going to make our buttercream we're going to start with a half stick of room temperature butter we're going to start with a half stick of butter that's at room temperature we've got our three quarter cups of our cream of coconut and we're going to put this in here I'm going to save out just a little bit just to make sure that it's not going to be too runny we're going to use a couple of teaspoons of this vanilla or at least one and now we're going to turn this on and add powdered sugar we're going to be using around four cups of powdered sugar and you want this icing to be thin because it's just good on the cake that way I think it's better than it being thick with this coconut on there we're going to start adding our four cups of powdered sugar we're going to do a fresh coconut cake mine is soupy enough that I use something to catch the goodness okay I never just put it on a flat cake plate you can use a paper doily like you see here and then place your cake on top of it if you use a clear pie plate and it's still going to be pretty on the table so I just thought I'd tell you guys that because if you put this on a flat cake plate it's going to run the juices are going to run out of it and you don't want a sticky mess in the car or on the rides or wherever you're going or even in your refrigerator so we're going to start out with the pie plate this is just a standard nine inch anchor hawking pie plate and we're going to start with our first cake layer place it in the bottom and you can see how fresh this cake looks it is going to be divine and remember for every layer that you plan to do like if you're only going to do a two layer cake you're not going to need so much coconut but you can really pile it in between them okay so you're going to put your layer down you're going to use your buttercream and put a thin layer of buttercream and if you freeze your cake layers they'll be a lot easier to ice mine are very fresh I just made them this morning and they have not cooled down even all the way I mean they're cool but they're not cold so I can ice cake like that but I wouldn't suggest you do it if if you're not you know an experienced cake iser make sure you got it stacked on there in the middle and then you're going to take this beautiful coconut and put on top of it and you're going to do every layer that way this coconut's nice and moist and got plenty of juice in it and I really use a lot of coconut y'all I don't skimp this is my last one isn't that pretty already now to do this one I'm going to put plenty of icing on the top but then the icing is the easier it's going to be to to ice the cake as well so you can also make it a little bit thinner if you want to all right I just take the icing and I push it over the edge to do the sides as soon as you get this cake iced it needs to go in the refrigerator and this cake is best after it's set in the refrigerator for about two or three days even if it sits in there a week it's fine and better now this icing don't have to be thick because we're going to pile it on top with coconut just a little bit left so we're going to try to get it on the sides right let's fill this thing full coconut I'm going to get it nice and flat on the top get this little edge off of it all right it's about to be a beauty we're going to put our coconut on the top boy nothing was as popular at christmas time than this fresh coconut cake mama made now when I was a really young girl she would make seven minute icing and use seven minute icing but over the years I have tweaked it and tweaked it until this is just my favorite way of making this cake easiest way to do sides of a cake is to pick it up hold it over the bowl and I know you got to be strong to do it but it's the easiest way to do it and then take your coconut and you just got to mash it on there because it's wet and y'all can hear how wet it is by listening to it on my in between my hands turn it on and I had just enough you really won't at least let's see we had three yet you at least need two or three for the sides and one for in between the layers according to how many layers you're going to have so I'm usually safe and just use six that's my coconut cake now it's taller than that because it's down in this nine inch if you make this cake and with nine inch layers you can't put it in a pipe plate you're going to have to find something else to put it in are y'all ready we're going to cut this cake and it has not been refrigerated yet and it is so fresh we just made the cake a few minutes ago and put the scene together so when it falls to pieces don't be surprised I'm going to try my best to get a piece out of here without it just falling apart but I want you to see the layers I want you to see the coconut and see how it looks on a plate and of course it would be more solid looking after you refrigerate it it is so moist the knife just goes right down in there real quick that bottom layer is kind of stuck down in the in the pan so you didn't hardly see it and here's the good stuff that was left in the bottom y'all can see the layers and how good it looks we're gonna try this cake it's already delicious and it's not even soaked in the refrigerator yet whoa that's a good cake y'all I love my mama and I loved her cooking thanks for watching collard valley cooks where we cook like mama did and we use our white lily flower like mama did too bye y'all love ya boy nothing was as popular at christmas time than this fresh coconut cake all night