Preacher Cake & Rebekah-Elizabeth Noelani's Birthday

Today is my granddaughter's birthday, Rebekah-Elizabeth Noelani...she is 19 years old.  Time goes by so quickly...I can still remember receiving a phone call from Denise telling me she had given birth to a girl.  And she said:  she is named after you with her first name hyphenated like yours is".  That was music to my ears. :)  Denise's middle name is Noelani.

She has moved to Auburn, AL to attend Auburn University this fall.  She completed one year at Enterprise Community College.  Auburn is about 100 miles from Enterprise so she'll be able to go home if and when she wants.  She is sharing an apartment with her best friend and 2 other girls.

So about this cake...I found the recipe on the "Just A Pinch Recipe Club" website.  I've been wanting to make it and decided today was the perfect day to make a cake.  It is so easy to put together and really Yummy!!

It was Gerry's idea to take a picture of the cake with a picture of Bekah in it.  This picture of her is taken off my phone.  See Gerry's hand holding my phone...:)

Here's the recipe as written then I'll tell you what I did different:
Preacher Cake
2 cups of sugar (I used 1 cup of sugar.  It was suggested to reduce amount of sugar otherwise the cake would be really sweet).
2 cups all purpose flour
2 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup nuts (walnuts, pecans)
1 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple, undrained

Frosting:
1 8 ounce pkg of cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 tsp salt (I left this out)
1/2 cup nuts (walnuts, pecans)
2 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Cake:  Combine dry ingredients, add remaining ingredients and mix by hand.  Bake in a 9 x 13 prepared dish (I guess oiled & floured...I didn't do this...didn't need it) at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes.  (Mine was done at 30 minutes, preheated oven first).

Frosting:  Mix all the ingredients well and spread on cooled cake in pan.

You will notice there is no milk or butter in the cake.

So here's what I did differently:
I didn't use the nuts in the cake or frosting since I can't eat them.  I added some golden raisins and coconut instead to the cake batter.  I didn't measure...just poured some of both in.  After Gerry mixed up the frosting, I added some coconut to that too.

The cake is very moist and the frosting is so good!