Let them eat cake.

One Christmas Mama made seven layer cakes from scratch to take to Granddaddy’s. Seven! It may have been the year when she had just gotten her first mix master. Not a fancy Kitchenaid mixer; I’m talking about a hand-held mixer, people.

She made a coconut cake with 7-Minute Frosting, a caramel cake, and a chocolate cake topped with pecan halves. Those must have been my favs.

And Mama could make a fresh peach cobbler that would knock your socks off. Must have come from plenty of practice since we lived in Peach County, Georgia. Hmmm…just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

But pies, never! I’m pretty sure I never saw Mama with a rolling pin in her hand. She said they were just too hard. 

Now, folks, I gotta tell you that Mama wasn’t lazy or stupid. Quite the opposite, and when she put her mind to anything, well, Katie bar the door!

I never knew what the deal was with pies, but since Mama couldn’t or wouldn’t try making them, then I didn’t learn growing up. And it wasn’t because Daddy didn’t like pies. Three things everybody in my Southern childhood world loved to eat was coconut cake, peach cobbler, and pecan pie.

When my brother graduated from high school, Mama’s sister, Betty, came for a visit. One afternoon, knowing how pie-deprived we were, she made a coconut cream pie and a chocolate cream pie from scratch. And using recipes in Mama’s Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. 

It was like a whole new world right there at my fingertips!

Then along came Tom. He wouldn’t touch peach cobbler or pecan pie with a ten-foot pole. (Most likely because he was born up north.) But Tom loves coconut cream pie.

All of a sudden something I just knew would be too big of a challenge for me (because it evidently was for Mama) became a task to be conquered. And conquer it I did!