Debra DuPree Williams

Mama Vada’s Coconut Pound Cake

/ sandramervillehart

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.

Amazon

Merle Smith Williams’s Famous Southern Meatloaf

/ sandramervillehart

by Sandra Merville Hart

I was so excited that friend and fellow author Debra DuPree Williams shared a recipe from her debut novel, Grave Consequences, that I asked her if I could share another one from her novel. Happily, she agreed.

I’m always happy to find a new recipe for meatloaf. This is her family’s recipe.

Merle Smith Williams’s Famous Southern Meatloaf

1 ½ pounds ground beef (use more if you have a big family)

1 cup cracker crumbs or stale bread broken into pieces (these days, I use canned breadcrumbs)

1 onion, chopped

½ bell pepper, chopped (I use red ones but you may use any or all colors)

½ cup shredded carrots

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 ½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

½ can condensed tomato soup

Water if mixture seems too dry (add slowly, no more than ¼ cup at most)

 

Debra also included a tip from her dad: add 1 teaspoon baking powder to your meat mixture to keep it from drying out. This also works for hamburger patties. Thanks for the tip, Debra!

Combine all ingredients. Instead of using extra water, Sandra used extra tomato soup for enhanced flavor. Yum! Also, Sandra used Panko bread crumbs.

Form into a loaf and put it into a loaf pan.

Ingredients (for the topping)

½ cup ketchup

¼ cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp prepared mustard (the bright yellow kind)

Combine the above and spread over top of meatloaf.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Yields 8-10 servings.

Sandra’s note: my meatloaf needed an extra 10 minutes, so mine baked just under an hour.

Delicious! There’s a surprising sweet flavor until you remember about the brown sugar in the topping. The meat is moist and packed with vegetables. Shredded carrots are new ingredient for me to add to meatloaf and I liked it as an easy way to get an extra serving of vegetables.

My husband likes plain meats so I don’t often make meatloaf. I gobbled a couple of slices for supper one evening. Then it made a comforting sandwich for lunch 2 days before I froze the rest. That insures more meatloaf sandwiches in the future.

Thanks for allowing me to share this recipe with my Historical Nibbles family, Debra!

Sources

Williams, Debra DuPree. Grave Consequences, Firefly Southern Fiction, 2020.

Granny’s Tea Cakes

/ sandramervillehart

by Sandra Merville Hart

I was so excited that friend and fellow author Debra DuPree Williams shared a recipe from her debut novel, Grave Consequences, that I asked her if I could share another one from her novel. Happily, she agreed. This is her family’s recipe for her Granny’s Tea Cakes.

Southern tea cakes are more like a thick cookie than a cake. They probably were created in rural Southern kitchens from basic ingredients and passed down through the generations.

“Sis and I lamented that we don’t have any of our granny’s recipes,” Debra says. “I doubt she wrote down anything. They were all stored inside her mind and her heart.”

Granny’s Tea Cakes

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbs. buttermilk

¼ tsp baking soda

flour (Note: she didn’t include quantity. See below.)

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, buttermilk, then soda. Add flour and beat until it is of a consistency that can be rolled out. (Sandra used about 2 cups of flour.) Roll out on floured board and cut into small cakes. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

I used a glass as a “cake cutter” and baked them in a preheated oven for about 20 minutes. Depending on the individual size of the cakes, you may need more or less time.

These are deliciously soft, thick cookies that remind me of my own grandmother’s stack cakes. The tea cakes are a little plain so I dusted mine with powdered sugar. The next time I bake them, I’ll add cinnamon to the batter.

This basic recipe will be easy to modify to your family’s preferences.

Thanks for allowing me to share these tea cakes with my Historical Nibbles family, Debra!

Sources

Williams, Debra DuPree. Grave Consequences, Firefly Southern Fiction, 2020.

Shannon, Patricia. “What is a Southern Tea Cake Anyway?”, Southern Living, 2020/08/22 https://www.southernliving.com/desserts/cookies/southern-tea-cakes.

The Story of Rose Haven

/ sandramervillehart / 4 Comments

I am so excited that friend and fellow author, Debra DuPree Williams, is sharing a bit of background for her debut novel with us today. Welcome back, Debra!

By Debra DuPree Williams

One of the main characters in my debut novel, Grave Consequences, is Rose Haven, the estate of Miss Marge Mayhew. It is situated out in the countryside near the fictitious town of Loblolly, Alabama.

Rose Haven was built prior to 1819 when Alabama became a state. At that time, Rose Haven was a simple four-room square home. Over time, it became the estate it is in 1968, the year in which the novel takes place.

Many people pass through Rose Haven’s doors. Secrets were overheard here. Lives began and ended here. Hearts found their way home and hearts were broken within her walls.

In all those years, Rose Haven has housed her share of stories, family members, and a few mysteries along the way. One big mystery that develops in Grace Consequences is that of a long-lost grave. Add to that a murder mystery.

Rose Haven is patterned after a home called Rose Hill, built by my brother-in-law’s Great-grandfather, David Jefferson Foshee, born about 1864. This home is quite lovely and is still standing in Red Level, Alabama.

My sister and her husband have never been inside as it slipped out of family ownership many years ago. I’ve seen the grounds and it is in a very pretty setting. Of course, I’ve taken poetic license to change its size and its surroundings. But, in my mind, I always think of Rose Hill. Sitting there in all her glory, on the outskirts of lovely little Loblolly.

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.

Amazon

 

Grave Consequences by Debra DuPree Williams

/ sandramervillehart

Charlotte Graves is the new director of the local historical and genealogical society. She’s back in Loblolly after eight years but old hurts die hard. Or are murdered.

Before she knows what’s happening, Charlotte is arrested for the murder of Boopsie Sweets, a childhood enemy. Worse, she’s arrested by Roan Steele, the man who’d broken her heart back in high school.

There’s mystery afoot that only a genealogist can decipher!

Lovable, realistic characters invited me into a small Alabama town in the 1960s. Williams does a fantastic job giving an authentic feel with details such as music, clothing, decorations, and furniture. The characters seem to step off the page from an era 50 years ago.

Written in first person so the story drew me in immediately. I couldn’t put the book down!

The story is well-written with escalating tension that kept me turning pages. I’ll look for more books by this author. Recommend!

-Sandra Merville Hart

Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas