Food as Legacy: Finding Joy and Connection in Charmaine Wilkerson’s 'Black Cake'
A delicious reflection on how food and stories can preserve memories, connect us, and remind us of what truly matters. Keep learning, keep connecting!
[Editor’s note] Since Colleen built a cozy tasting room for meetings, experiences and coffee klatches in her commercial kitchen (which used to serve as my basement), I can speak to her unique ability to transmit hospitality while simultaneously having her guests learn new, interesting and useful ideas or concepts while they build these superb, happy and delicious memories in between gales of laughter and platters of chocolate bits and bobs. Her mixed knowledge and experiences from being and doing so many things in life (like dolphin trainer, public speaker, Executive dessert chef, personal caterer, adventure race organizer, teacher, Master Chocolatier and let’s not forget small business owner and entrepreneur!) has culminated in this perfect storm of sorts. So why this long preamble, dear readers? Just to let you know where Colleen is coming from and what I think she wants for you: lifelong learning, interesting experiences, laughter filled memories, and something tangible you can pass on to those lucky enough that you love. As always, thanks for reading and keep those comments coming and if you need to hear it: we luv ya!! :) [JMC]
Who would be another guest I’d love to have at a dinner party? Well, again I would do something a little different than just a dinner party, although along the same lines because if I ever have the chance to spend time with the author Charmaine Wilkerson I’d make sure to explore a deep dive into Black Cake - her book and then some actual cake, of course!
In 2022 when I got into Black Cake (Ballantine Press) which was her debut novel, I just fell in love with it - so much so that I listened to it as an audiobook and then immediately went and bought the tree version and then passed this gem around to all my friends and family! The book drew me in so fast and furious that I was sad when it ended and though I don’t get a lot of book hangovers - this gave me one in the most delicious way possible. (If you don’t know a book hangover is when you read a book and it is so good you don’t know how you’ll read another book, or it’s so good it wrecks you and you don’t know how you’ll read another book!)
Black Cake tells the story of a brother and sister (Byron and Benny) whose mother has passed away. In short, the book follows the mother’s story from living on an island (never specifically named but an awful lot like Jamaica) to moving to different countries and finally settling in the USA. It's a family story - a tragic and hopeful story of love and redemption, but also a story of food and its place in family. Specifically black cake, a tradition from the Caribbean with roots stemming in the island’s colonial past, especially British Christmas plum pudding with black cake as the version that the islanders developed using what was available to them.
We can’t choose what we inherit,
But we can choose who we become.
- Black Cake
On first reading I couldn’t help thinking about my time living in the Bahamas and the foods that were ingrained in life there like: chicken souse, fry fish, conch salad, Johnny cake, conch fritters and so many more. There’s such a food culture there yet I only participated in it on a surface level as this was well before my Food Explorer Origin story (video here on YouTube). Mind you, don’t get me wrong, I certainly enjoyed the different foods we ate although one in particular, Barracuda, was not something I indulged in - who needs to tempt fate! I learned right away when I got there to NOT eat it as it was very common to get ciguatera fish poisoning from it. While the usual bad things would happen with ciguatera fish poisoning (vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, etc.) the real danger and thing that scared me away was the neurological symptoms like tingling, itching, and numbness to your mouth, lips, throat, arms, and legs - no thanks! Though my Bahamian coworkers always happy for a “sick day” would gladly use this type of food poisoning as a way to get out of work!
I think dolphin training in the Caribbean for 3 years plus having also been a competitive swimmer growing up (and now still a mermaid LOL) are just a few of reasons why this book pulled me in so passionately in 2022. But just now, when I started researching the origins of black cake, I soon realized I needed to do another entire article on it in order to share this passion. The cake’s history is fascinating and once I started connecting the proverbial food dots I realized that the tradition around this type of cake can be found across many cultures, not just British and Caribbean! I’ll need to gather all those thoughts though because it’s a winding, twisty road to pull it all together - maybe in a future article or even book of my own … :)
Ok, where was I? So, if I could spend a day with Charmaine here’s what I would want to do - obviously make some black cake! But during that organized jumbling of ingredients I’d be honoured to be able to dive into her first memories of this dessert - who made it for her the first time she tried it? Is it a family favourite that shows up at all holidays and celebrations and does one occasion shine more than the rest for her? And, is she the type that has the fruits soaking all year long, just in case a special occasion pops up? One of the things about a cake like this is that it can get better as it ages and the fruits are sometimes soaked in rum for a year! I would also like to explore her writing process and find out how the story came to be. Are these characters ones that set up shop in her head and demanded their story be told or was this something so personal that she’d had to spend time planning it for a while? Has her writing the book changed or altered her connection with black cake or the people with which she shares it (the book)? What have been some high points and low points of readers’ reactions and would she change the story if she were to write it again? So many questions…
By the way, Hulu did a season based on the book (HARPO Productions) and yes they did change a few things but, the things they changed made sense for the tv screen, as sometimes things need to be arranged so that the viewer can follow along. I thought it was incredibly well done even though I am normally very critical of books being made into movies, etc because then they wind up falling flat or being so completely off base with their adaptation that it just makes me hella angry!! Still, I’d really love to know what Charmaine thinks of the adaptation so we’d talk about that too. I also loved that they did it as a series - there’s no way everything from the book could have been put into a single movie.
For me especially, watching the swimming scenes alone had my mind reminiscing and swimming along and really made me miss being out in the open ocean. As I said, I like to think I’m part mermaid and the open ocean has always been definitely one of my happy places. Even though I haven’t been back to the Bahamas in years, I can still clearly remember so many exhilarating things about living there including the feeling of being underwater; just me and the dolphins I worked with. I remember it being so quiet and being weightless while slipstreaming along beside them. There’s nothing in the world that quite compares to it and sometimes, even though it’s been decades since I was there, I will wake up from a dream and wonder where am I? Wasn’t I just in the ocean with Robala, or Cayla, or Bimini, or Stripe? Weren’t we just hanging out at the weird space in the water column where you are still buoyant but just a few feet deeper and your weight starts to sink you and then it’s just like falling - that’s usually when I wake up, holding my breath because I was just there underwater and the surface was far, far away.
But back to a day with Charmaine - after we made some black cake I would love to share it with some of my most favourite people. So, instead of a dinner party, a “coffee and Black Cake book club, author appreciation and discussion” would, in my opinion, be most appreciated. Of course, I have so many incredible people in my bookish world (including you, dear readers!) and my foodie world that it would be hard to pick just a handful of people but I can definitely see an afternoon of laughing, eating, drinking hot bevvies, and of course diving deep into this story. I imagine we would all have so many questions for Charmaine that our book club, black cake and coffee session would have to go late into the night.
Most of all dear readers, I love when authors like Charmaine are thoughtful about including food in their books and the reminders this can provide us with. Here, the history of this cake, what it meant to the author, and having an actual recipe once again reminded me of the recipes lost from my grandpa (last article) and how I wished that they had been written down and preserved for future generations to enjoy. Maybe the time has come for us to search around for our own black cake and somehow preserve a link that creates a permanent memory with a tangible artifact to reach out to others; it doesn’t have to be a whole book, maybe just a baking session and a recipe. Who do you know who shares food and deserves recognition and would appreciate the love? Get your list started now - why not?
Oh, Fun Fact - The hardcover version of the book doesn’t have the Black Cake recipe but the trade paperback does - just a pro tip if you’re wanting to see it. There’s actually a few more authors that I think have done an incredible job including food in some special way in their writing (can you think of any?) and that’s why my next dinner arrangement with someone would be… Ahhhh - you’ll have to wait and see! But, I can say it would be an actual dinner party!
Now dear readers, if you could have some cherished time with a favourite author who would it be? Past or present, let us know so we can all nerd out on your choices.