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MAKES ONE 9 × 9 × 2-INCH CAKE

Of all the sweet potato recipes to come out of the South, this one—similar to but better than carrot cake—may be the most delicious. I admit to having an insatiable sweet tooth, as do too many other Southerners.

Cake

2½ cups sifted all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup corn oil or vegetable oil

4 large eggs

1½ cups coarsely grated raw sweet potato (about one 8-ounce potato)

¼ cup water

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans, black walnuts, or wild hickory nuts

Topping

½ cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

¼ teaspoon salt

One 12-ounce can evaporated milk

1 cup sweetened grated or flaked coconut

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Coat a 9 × 9 × 2-inch baking pan with nonstick oil-and-flour baking spray and set aside.

2. For the cake: Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt onto a large piece of wax paper and set aside.

3. Beat the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and oil in a large electric mixer bowl for 1 minute at medium speed or until well combined. Beat the eggs in one by one. By hand, mix in the sifted dry ingredients, grated sweet potatoes, water, and pecans.

4. Scoop the batter into the pan, spreading to the corners, then slide onto the middle oven shelf and bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the cake is springy to the touch, begins to pull from the sides of the pan, and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.

5. Remove the cake from the oven and cool right side up on a wire rack.

6. Meanwhile, prepare the topping: Whisk the sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a medium-size heavy saucepan. Add the milk, set over moderate heat, and cook, whisking constantly, for 3 to 4 minutes or until the mixture becomes thick and shiny. Set off the heat and mix in the coconut and vanilla. Spread at once over the cake, then cool for 10 minutes or until the topping is firm.

7. To serve, cut the cake into rectangles, but make them small; the cake’s unusually rich. Note: Refrigerate any leftovers.

ALABAMA TEA CAKES

MAKES ABOUT 8 DOZEN COOKIES (INCLUDING REROLLS)

Whenever I thumb through antiquarian southern cookbooks, I’m struck by the dearth of cookie recipes. The reason, I suspect, is that being so small and thin, cookies burned easily in unreliable ovens. Only with the arrival of thermostated ovens in the early twentieth century did cookies come into their own. There is, however, one old-fashioned cookie recipe that appears regularly in early cookbooks and that’s the tea cake. I have tea cake recipes from nearly every southern state but my favorite is this one given to me years ago by Miz Susie Rankin, a wise and witty Alabama farm woman who lived near the town of Demopolis. Miz Susie kept the dough for this 100-year-old recipe in her refrigerator, and any time she “wanted to do something nice for a child,” she’d pull out “a gob of dough” and bake some tea cakes.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in ½ cup buttermilk

5½ cups sifted all-purpose flour

1. Cream the butter, sugar, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt in a large electric mixer bowl for 2 to 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, then stir in the soda-buttermilk mixture. With the mixer at low speed, add the flour 1 cup at a time.

2. Divide the dough into four equal parts, flatten each into a large round disk on a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, then wrap and refrigerate for several hours or until stiff enough to roll. Or, if you prefer, label, date, and freeze the dough to use later. In a 0° F. freezer, it will keep well for about 3 months.

3. When ready to proceed, preheat the oven to 375° F. Spritz several baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

4. Working with