Elvis Cake Recipe – A Tribute to Joey Feek

This past week Joey Feek passed away after her battle with ovarian cancer. You might have been following their story or you might have never heard of her.  In honor of her today and what she stood for in this life, I wanted to share Joey Feek’s recipe for Elvis Cake with you.  It’s a beautiful cake that is sweet, easy to make and reminds me of something that you would find in a old church cookbook.  I grew up in a mostly southern house, my Polish heritage raised dad from Chicago being the exception. Dinner consisted of southern foods such as fried chicken with mashed potatoes, fried okra, boiled peanuts, icebox cakes and homemade biscuits. We’d go to my grandparents and spend hours running through fields of wildflowers, playing on an old red tractor and trying to stay out of the mud in the garden as we stole strawberries and tomatoes from the vine.  Dolly Parton was my hero, same as Joey. When I was 5 I was given my first tape for Christmas (for you youngun’s, that’s what we used to listen to music from) – it was a Dolly Parton tape. I played that tape over and over again until it finally broke.  Eventually things started to change. I went from playing in the red clay mud hills by our house to walking the golf course late at night with friends. Home cooking was no longer important as I finally had a  job and could afford to eat out with my friends. Country music started to change too. There was more electric guitars, less slow twang.  Slowly I stopped listening to it.  Then I moved to one of the largest cities in the United States where having a house on a 1/4th of an acre is a luxury that many can’t afford. No one here grows their own food because gardens just won’t fit into the back yards. Kids don’t spend hours exploring the wood and climbing on red clay hills because there just aren’t many to be found. It’s different.  But I need to share my story and legacy with my kids. Whether we go exploring through an urban park, surrounded by a subdivision or we grow tomatoes in buckets sitting in the driveway, I’ll do what I can. Joey Feek was the same. She did what she could to return to the old ways when family and what you did to serve your family came first.  Rather than become a popular country pop star, she held fast to the type of music that she wanted to sing – the old slow country style. She didn’t bow down to popular opinion but stayed true to who she was and who her God was.  Plus she loved hymns. I don’t know what it is but hymns sing directly to my soul. I can’t wait to buy their CD of Hymns that was just released. We shared a love hmyns, Dolly Parton and the fact that we both have boy names. She was an amazing woman that has an amazing legacy – including of how hard she worked to feed her family food that had soul and love baked into it.  She got it. She understood the power of God in her life and the power of family.  So today I want to share this recipe for Elvis Cake with you. It’s the recipe they used at Marcy Jo’s Restaurant but I have made a few changes to it. You can watch her and her sister prepare this recipe in this video on YouTube. Pineapple Elvis Cake Recipe adapted from Marcy Jo’s: Start by making the yellow cake found in the recipe below.  Once it’s cooled, take your first round cake and punch a lot of holes in it using a fork. Slowly spoon half of the pineapple mixture over the top of the first round, making sure to get some of the syrup as well. Do it slowly so the mixture will have some time to soak into the cake. Some will drip down the sides, which I think just makes it yummier.  Once that’s done spread half of the cream cheese frosting on top. Some of the pineapple will mix into the frosting, but don’t worry about it. I didn’t frost the sides of the cake. If you want to frost the sides than only use 1/3 of the frosting on this step so you will have enough left over for the sides. Repeat with the second later. Add it to the top of the first layer and poke holes in the top with a fork. Slowly poor the pineapple mixture over the top of the later and then place the remaining icing on top.  I found that if you place a giant blob of icing on tops and slowly just pull the icing out toward the edge, you get less pineapple mixed into it.  Finally sprinkle a layer of crushed nuts such as pecans or walnuts on the top. I smoothed the edges but left them un-iced, which made for a really pretty cake.  All you need to do now is get a knife and some plates.  It’s a great cake to share with friends as you talk about what is important to you in life.   *This post contains affiliate links*