Reaching out and recreating sweet memories of Big Mama's pound cake - The Advocate

My dear aunt and uncle, Doris and Mack Greer, have lived as isolated throughout the pandemic as I have. So when I went home to visit my parents last fall in Forest, Mississippi, I didn’t hesitate to visit my aunt and uncle.

When I arrived at their home, it was, as always, neat as could be. Growing up, I recognized that their home had museum-level orderliness — with a place for everything and everything in its place (compared to, despite my mom’s best efforts, my family’s rather higgledy-piggledy style of living). As I was visiting, much to my delight, I noticed a pound cake, still in the Bundt pan, cooling on the counter.

Their home is across the road from my grandparents’ homesite, where I spent much of my childhood. I took one of their dogs and went outside for a walk to look for trees I had climbed and ditches I had jumped. When I came back in, Aunt Doris had flipped the pound cake and Uncle Mack was standing over the Bundt pan eating its crunchy clinging crumbs.

Hot-out-of-the-oven-Bundt-pan-crunchy-pound-cake crumbs are, in case you’ve missed this detail in life, one of the best things ever. Uncle Mack and I went to town almost fighting each other for prime morsels of deliciousness. It was the antidote to the isolation of the pandemic for the three of us. Uncle Mack and I could not stop giggling.

I remarked to Aunt Doris that the pound cake reminded me so much of my great-grandmother’s pound cake.

I grew up a block from my great-grandmother. We all called her Big Mama, and one of Big Mama’s specialties was homemade pound cake. She would call us when she was taking one out of the oven, and I would often ride my bike down, timing to perfection when she would be turning the cake out of the trusty, ancient Bundt cake pan.

Big Mama’s pound cake was a thing of beauty. I hadn’t had one to match it until I went to see Aunt Doris and uncle Mack and experienced the near-unparalleled joy of pound cake perfection.

I mentioned to Aunt Doris about Big Mama’s pound cake. She remembered it well — though I need to share that the two were not related. My aunt Doris is an aunt by marriage on my mother’s side of the family. Big Mama was my dad’s grandmother. Aunt Doris referred to Big Mama as Mrs. Henderson.

As Uncle Mack and I scavenged for pound cake crumbs, Aunt Doris gave me a few pointers on how to make my own pound cake. And then, our short visit was over and I headed home.

In December, I went back home to Mississippi. My husband and I ended up spending the night with my aunt and uncle. True to form, Aunt Doris had made her famous pound cake. Again, I commented how it took me back to my great-grandmother’s.

Aunt Doris said, “Well, Jan, you know, when Mrs. Henderson moved into the nursing home, they had a sale at her house. I bought her Bundt cake pan that day — the pan she used to make her pound cakes.”

I had not known that.

I was living out West when my great-grandmother moved into a nursing home. I hadn’t even realized my family had had a sale at her house.

Aunt Doris went on to say, “Jan, I have another Bundt pan now and your great-grandmother’s pan is really old. Would you want it?”

Would I want Big Mama’s Bundt cake pan?

What a gift.

What a generous thing.

Aunt Doris went on to explain exactly how to make the cake.

And last weekend, I did just that — using my great-grandmother’s Bundt pan.

Big Mama loved to share the food she prepared. She would call us whether she had made pound cake, tea cakes, apple pie or some other delicacy. I get that urge to share with others now more than ever before. So, as the cake was cooking, in the midst of the cold and freezing rain, in homage to Big Mama, I called my neighbors to ask if they would like some warm pound cake when it came out of the oven. They said to let them know when it was ready.

And so, I did.

I also called Aunt Doris as I was making the cake. She once again reminded me of a few tips to make the pound cake just right.

She is happy I am using the pan — and I’m confident Big Mama is too.

Sweetness all around.

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