Important Links:
Listen to Jill McCorkle read her story, “Remembering the Cake” from the anthology, The Carolina Table—North Carolina Writers on Food:
Visit Jill McCorkle’s website:
Click here to purchase The Carolina Table—North Carolina Writers on Food (Eno Publishers):
Music for this episode is entitled “Oh Sugar,” by Fleece Mob. It’s available on Soundstripe.
Season Two, Episode 15 Show Notes
Shelling Peas With Novelist Jill McCorkle
Photo by Tom Rankin
Exploring Food Memories & Family
When author Jill McCorkle reaches back to her earliest memories, she is a toddler sitting in her grandmother’s kitchen sink taking a playful bath. She remembers the smell of good things baking in the oven, the carefully tended African violets that line the windowsill, the sound of her grandmother humming, and the sight of a bright red, polka dotted bowl on a nearby shelf. Growing up in Lumberton, North Carolina, young Jill always gravitated to the world of her kind, gentle, and wise grandmother.
The Recipe
The Annie Collins Pound Cake
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease pound cake pan (I usually cut a piece of wax paper to line bottom which is especially important if you ever do the blueberry version).
3 cups Swans Down cake flour (if you can’t find, a cookbook can give you conversion info)
3 cups sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup Crisco (YES! The secret ingredient—I buy the sticks.)
1 cup milk
5 eggs
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Put in mixer and mix—fold into cake pan. If you want to add blueberries, take ¾ to 1 cup of berries (pat dry after washing) and fold around top, lightly pressing into batter. I have also done it with raspberries.
Bake anywhere from an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes, depending on your oven. Fork-test it; the top should be brown with that wonderful crust it makes! You want it done but not overly dry—might take a little experimenting with your oven. Also, if you add berries, it will take longer and is a little harder to judge.
Otherwise, it is foolproof!
I would add, do not forget to lick bowl and mixer as well as scrape what will be on the centerpiece of pan after removing—best part!
Bio—
Jill McCorkle's career as a writer is the stuff of legend: her first two novels—The Cheer Leader and July 7th—were published on the same day in 1984, when she was in her mid-twenties. She has now published twelve novels and short story collections, most recently, the highly acclaimed novel, Hieroglyphics. And in early 2024, she will publish a new story collection, entitled, Old Crimes. She has received numerous awards and in 2018 was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. Jill’s work is also included in Eno Publishers’s anthology, The Carolina Table: North Carolina Writers on Food. She is a contributing author to Eno’s 27 Views of Hillsborough. She was featured on a previous episode of the “27 Views” podcast—Episode 5, “Hunting Down Stories With Jill McCorkle.”