From 1922:
Take 1 cocoanut (grated), 1 cupful sugar, 2 eggs, ¾ cupful milk, 2 cupfuls flour, 2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar, 1 teaspoonful carbonate of soda, ½ cupful butter, ½ teaspoonful vanilla. Mix butter and sugar, stir in eggs, then milk, and lastly flour; soda to be dissolved in a little boiling water, and cream of tartar to be mixed with flour. Divide the mixture into three floured sandwich tins, and bake in a quick oven. When cooked run a knife round the tins, but do not remove cake till cold.
Make an icing as follows: Whites of 2 eggs, 1 cupful icing sugar, vanilla to taste. Lay one cake on a flat dish, put on it a layer of icing, over which sprinkle thickly a third of the grated cocoanut, then another cake, and so on. When complete cover with icing and sprinkle well with cocoanut.