With Mother’s Day quickly approaching, skip the flowers and show some love the Southern way. Bake a cake. Growing up in the South, summer was high cake season in my family; each holiday for me is associated with a corresponding cake. From May to July, I’ll be sharing three of those cake recipes in hopes that you’ll make them part of your summer celebrations. I know what you’re thinking: it’s still spring. Well, we didn’t have that in the South. There’s winter and there’s summer.

So for Mother’s Day, I give you my Grandma Jonnie’s sherry cake, a no-muss-no-fuss bundt cake spiked with nostalgic cream sherry and spotted with a generous dose of freshly ground nutmeg. The ingredients, like Jonnie, are unpretentious and comforting. One bite of this cake and I’m immediately transported to Grandma’s dining room table, surrounded by all of my eccentric Southern female elders, sipping iced tea and playing endless rounds of dominos (or what they called ’42’). Jonnie was a no-nonsense, old-fashioned belle who, in my opinion, made this cake specifically because it gave her an excuse to sip the leftover cream sherry, a vice she otherwise rarely indulged. To this day, I can’t taste nutmeg without thinking of her. According to her, this cake is practically a diet recipe…after all, there’s no frosting! Jonnie passed away a year ago, almost to the day, and I made the cake last night in her honor. And yes I tipped out some sherry for her. And by ‘tipped,’ I mean ‘sipped.’

Grandma Jonnie’s Sherry Cake

• 1 box of yellow cake (I prefer Betty Crocker’s Super Moist variety, and yes, I’ve tried all the others)
• 3.4 ounce box of instant vanilla pudding
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground nutmeg (please don’t use the pre-ground stuff)
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup cream sherry
• 4 eggs
• shortening (or butter) and flour for preparing pan

Syrup

• 1/2 cup cream sherry
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan (even if it’s non-stick), making sure to tap out the excess flour. Beat all of the cake ingredients in an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue mixing on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter evenly into the prepared bundt pan and place in lower third of oven. Bake for an hour, but start checking it at about 45 – 50 minutes. If an inserted toothpick comes out clean, it’s done. The cake will appear spongy, springing back from a gentle prod.

Let the cake cool slightly in the pan for 10-15 minutes. While the cake is cooling, prepare the syrup by bringing the sherry, water and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

With a toothpick, poke holes all over the cake. The more, the better. Finally, spoon the syrup evenly onto the cake–it seems like a lot, but the cake will absorb all of it and this will ensure a moist cake for days to come.

And as always, it’s even better with vanilla ice cream.