Cheryl Day grew up in Los Angeles. But her mother was from Alabama, and she made sure her youngest child stayed connected to the South.
At age 8, Day began to spend summers with her grandmother in Dothan, Alabama. It was a formative experience that awakened a love for all things Southern, especially the food: biscuits, cornbread and her grandmother Queen’s Famous Icebox Rolls; pecan and lemon meringue pies; plain pound cake and show-stopping layer cakes.
“That’s why I decided that this was a place that I wanted to call home,” says Day, 60, who with her husband, Griffith, opened Savannah’s Back in the Day Bakery in 2002. Twenty years and five cookbooks later, the self-taught bakers are icons of the Southern food world, known for creating gorgeous cupcakes, cookies, biscuits and breads — and for their vintage flair.
But by her own account, the menu has been “kind of all over the place,” what with Griffith’s artisan breads, the restaurant’s breakfast sandwiches, and their very pretty but perhaps somewhat generic party cakes and cupcakes.
Credit: Angie Mosier
Credit: Angie Mosier
For her first solo effort, “Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking” (Artisan, $40), Day’s goal was to tell the epic story of Southern baking. “I wanted it to be a book that people would look to for anything that they could possibly think of (in the regional canon).”
And she wanted to elevate the biscuit, to accord it the same lofty status as the French croissant.
As time passed and the deadline loomed, the project began to take a surprising, and deeply personal, twist.
When the pandemic forced Back in the Day to shut down temporarily in March 2020, Day found time to tie up loose ends on her book. Then came Black Lives Matter, a reckoning that caused her to take a fresh look at her family tree.
When Day’s mother, Janie Queen, died in 1984, she left behind a journal filled with “notes, letters, poetry, songs, and recipes,” family lore that inspired Day to open her bakery. But she was just 22 when she lost her mother, and she needed time to process the complex family legacy.
Though she’d always known that her great-great-grandmother, Hannah Queen Grubbs, was born a slave, it wasn’t until she took a deep dive into her mother’s papers that the significance of what she calls her “genetic code” sank in. Like Day, Hannah Queen Grubbs was a pastry cook, known for her buttermilk biscuits, sweet potato pies, lemon pound cakes, and coconut layer cakes.
Her ancestor’s tale is a powerful example of the incalculable influence Black cooks had on Southern cuisine.
As Day puts it in her book: “Most of the Southern recipes we know and love today were created by enslaved or formerly enslaved women who were cooks and bakers just like my great-great-grandmother.”
Credit: Angie Mosier
Credit: Angie Mosier
In the end, “Treasury” succeeds on multiple fronts.
With more than 200 recipes, it’s a remarkable resource. In its 400 pages, you will find instructions on how to make hush puppies and cheese straws; waffles and beignets; Chocolate Church Cake and Lemon Cheese Layer Cake; Peach Lattice Pie and Coconut Cream Pie — plus savory Oyster Pot Pies and Summer Tomato Pie, among many other dishes.
It’s also a poignant account of self-discovery and empowerment, of honoring the pain of the past, and the promise of the future. “I didn’t know,” Day said, “how I could write a book about Southern baking and not acknowledge where we came from, where we are going, and where we are.”
RECIPES
These three recipes are just a smidge of the riches you will find in Cheryl Day’s massive “Treasury of Southern Baking.” For this article, I tested five recipes: Skillet Cornbread; Jam Thumbprint Cookies (a great way to purge accumulated jars of leftover preserves); Sunday Pancakes (perfect for an intimate meal with a loved one); Fruit Pie Bars (a delightful opportunity to mix and match seasonal fruit) and Cold-Oven Pound Cake (a revelatory technique that yields an otherworldly brown, crispy crust).
Credit: Angie Mosier
Credit: Angie Mosier
Sunday Pancakes
The addition of whipped egg whites to buttery batter makes these pancakes fluffy and ethereal. Serve with butter and syrup.
— Adapted from “Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking” by Cheryl Day (Artisan Books, $40)
Credit: Angie Mosier
Credit: Angie Mosier
Fruit Pie Bars
These versatile bars are a good way to use any seasonal fruit on hand, from blueberries and raspberries to peaches and plums. (I tested the recipe with strawberries and blueberries.) Frozen berries also work nicely.
— Adapted from “Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking” by Cheryl Day (Artisan Books, $40)
Credit: Wendell Brock
Credit: Wendell Brock
Cold-Oven Pound Cake
Cheryl Day traces this recipe to the early 20th century, when cooks were replacing wood-fired ovens with gas flames. Putting the cake in a cold oven, then turning it on, allowed cooks a bit of respite from the heat. “This cake bakes slowly as the temperature of the oven rises, which allows more time for the leavening agents to lift the cake,” Day writes in her latest book. “It has a fine delicate crumb and develops a thin golden crust that is unlike that of any other cake.” It’s a fine base for strawberries and whipped cream.
— Adapted from “Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking” by Cheryl Day (Artisan Books, $40)
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