I am thrilled that friend and fellow author, Debra DuPree Williams, is sharing one of her delicious Southern recipes from her debut novel. I couldn’t put it down! Welcome to Historical Nibbles, Debra!

By Debra DuPree Williams

One thing that will stand out to you as you read through my debut novel, Grave Consequences, is how often and how much the people within the pages eat. Set in rural south Alabama in 1968, the meals they share are typical of the meals I grew up eating.

From collard greens to fried corn to sliced red-ripe juicy tomatoes so well-known in that part of the great state of Alabama, the love of good home-cooked food is one thing we all share. Just writing this makes my mouth water.

I’m an unusual product of the south in that my Mama wasn’t a good cook. Well, she was, but she didn’t make everyday meals. She made party foods. Mama loved to entertain. Big time. I doubt there were two girls in all of Covington County, Alabama, who cut more crusts from little finger sandwiches than my sister and me. Every time we turned around our home was filled with ladies. Garden club ladies, Sunday School ladies, Altrusa Club ladies. And my teachers, both ladies and gentlemen.

Every Christmas, Mama made fruit cake. I hate fruitcake. Any kind. All that horrible candied fruit . . . and raisins. And she made Lane Cake. I hate Lane Cake. All those nasty little raisins.

But Mama made pound cake. The best, buttery-est, yummiest pound cakes. And she made a gorgeous bright-yellow cake called a Butter-Nut Cake. Y’all! It was sooo good. The frosting is to die for.

But, when my sister got married, she brought to our family her mother-in-law’s oh-so-delicious Coconut Pound Cake. In a scene from Grave Consequences, Charlotte fills plates with Granny’s (known as Miss Marge in the book) Tea Cakes and thick slices of Mama Vada’s Coconut Pound Cake. (She’s Aunt Vada in the book.)

This cake is so good, y’all, that my husband, who cannot stand the taste of coconut, loves it. Our sons, some of whom also hate coconut, love this cake. It’s that good.  Recipes for the Tea Cakes and the Coconut Pound Cake, along with other Southern delights, are in the back of Grave Consequences, but here’s a sneak peek just for you.

Here is the recipe.

Mama Vada’s Coconut Pound Cake

Do NOT preheat your oven!

1 cup butter, unsalted

2/3 cup Crisco (solid shortening)

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

3 cups flour (regular, all-purpose)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup whole milk

1 ½ tsp. coconut flavoring

1 cup flaked coconut

Cream together the sugar, butter, and shortening. Add the eggs, one at a time. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Add this to the creamed mixture, alternately with the milk and coconut flavoring. Stir in by hand, the flaked coconut. Bake in a tube pan at 325 degrees for 1 ½ hours. (I bake mine in a Bundt cake pan. Take out about a cup or so of the batter if you choose to use the Bundt pan, as this will be too much batter for that pan. Bake yourself a little cake as a treat for being so good to your family.)

PUT INTO A COLD OVEN! Don’t turn it on until after you put the cake inside.

Your home will fill with the aroma of this yummy cake. And it is gorgeous. The outside is flaky and crusty. The inside is moist and so good.

This recipe was given to our family by my sister’s mother-in-law, Vada Cross Foshee Grissett. I’ve made this so many times and it is always a hit.

No wonder Mama, Polly Graves, whipped one up for dessert at Rose Haven.

Back Cover Blurb

Sometimes finding the living is more difficult than searching for the dead. 

In 1968, twenty-six-year-old Charlotte Graves wrestles with more than just her decision to return to her hometown, Loblolly, Alabama—she is also fleeing a broken heart, colliding headlong into a second one, and about to stumble onto a deadly secret.

Now settled back in Loblolly, Charlotte is hired to oversee the Woodville County Historical Society, a job she was born for. But no sooner has she banged the gavel to bring order to the first meeting than she is accused of being incompetent to lead the group by her old nemesis, Boopsie Sweets. Later that night, she finds herself arrested by her old beau, the current deputy sheriff, Roan Steele, for killing Boopsie.

After being released on bail, Charlotte uses her skills as a genealogist to leap into the investigation. And when Charlotte goes digging up dirt, she unearths a long-kept family secret. Will it lead to Boopsie’s murderer … or to grave consequences for Charlotte and her family?

About Debra

Debra DuPree Williams is an award-winning author whose work has appeared in Yvonne Lehman’s Stupid Moments, Additional Christmas Moments, Selah Award finalist, Moments with Billy Graham, and Michelle Medlock Adams’s Love and Care for the One and Only You, expanded edition, in addition to other publications. When she isn’t busy writing, you will likely find Debbie chasing an elusive ancestor, either through online sources or in rural graveyards. Debbie is a classically-trained lyric coloratura soprano whose first love is Southern Gospel. She’s been married forever to the best man on earth, is the mother of four sons, mother-in-law of one extraordinary daughter-of-her-heart, and DD to the two most intelligent, talented, and beautiful young ladies ever. Debbie and her husband live in the majestic mountains of North Carolina.

Connect with Debra on her blog.

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