From the chocolatey Mississippi Mud to the elegant Lady Baltimore, the South is known for its cakes and cake baking here, Nancie McDermott says, has changed little since the Colonial era.

Born and raised in the North Carolina piedmont, she grew up watching her grandmother mix milk from the family dairy, fresh eggs from the coop, home-churned butter from the crock and sugar from the crock in a red-rimmed, white enamel bowl which doubled as a dishpan. As a 9- or 10-year-old, little Nancie began baking cakes.

After three years in Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer, she began writing about Thai food. She has written for Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Cook's Illustrated, FoodArts and newspapers like The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times. McDermott moved to Southern California and has been a frequent guest television chef.

After having two daughters and returning to North Carolina six years ago, she began cooking Southern food more often. With birthday parties, school festivals, covered dish suppers family reunions and church dinners now at the forefront, Nancie McDermott has had more cakes to bake.

Food writer and cooking teacher McDermott of Chapel Hill, N.C. has just published her sixth cookbook, "Southern Cakes: Sweet and Irresistible Recipes for Everyday Celebrations." Just as wonderful as her entire chapters on chocolate and coconut cakes, her jam cakes, jelly rolls, pineapple upside-downs, humble pear bread and peanut cakes, not to mention Eudora Welty's own bourbon-soaked white fruitcake, are the growl-producing cake photos by Cooking Light senior photographer Becky Luigart-Stayner of Birmingham, Ala.

McDermott's Baking 101 section explains the basics -- buying the right equipment, mixing the perfect batter, finishing touches and the how-to's of storing a cake to keep it moist.

In preparing pans, she recommends rubbing softened butter over the interior of the pan and then adding about 1 tablespoon flour, rotating the pan to scatter it over the entire surface. Then invert it and rap the pan's edge on the counter to knock loose the excess. To be sure it doesn't stick, press a circle of wax paper in the pan bottom.

Before using eggs or butter, take them out of refrigerator for 1 hour. (If they're cold and you're ready to start, cut butter up and leave it out for 15 minutes, and set eggs in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes.) Separating eggs and whites is easiest when eggs are cold, but let whites reach warm temperature before beating.

As you cream butter and sugar with a mixer, scrape them into the well of the bowl often. As soon as the dry and wet ingredients are combined, take care to move them right on from bowl to oven because dry begins the rising process as soon as it is wet. She prefers a wooden spoon for combining the two, and warns that it should be worked gently and for less than a minute each time dry is added, which is usually by thirds. Then put in oven as soon as possible.

Begin checking the cake at the minimum length given, and be ready with pot holders and a clear spot when it is a pleasing golden brown if a light cake or solid, dry and substantial if dark.

Here are two of her fine Southern cake recipes.

A specialty of McDermott's stepmother, Virginia, the following caramel cake is spread with a brown-sugar fudge as quickly as it cools. If the icing sets up too quickly while being spread, and evaporated milk must be added as below, it will be harder but still delicious.

Gigi's Fabulous Caramel Cake

SERVES 8 TO 10

Yellow Cake

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter

1 cup milk

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2-3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Gigi's Caramel Icing

1 (1-pound) box (about 2-2/3 cups) light brown sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

7 tablespoons evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

TO MAKE THE CAKE, heat the oven to 325 F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Combine the butter and milk in a small saucepan, and cook over low heat until the butter melts. Stir well and let cool to room temperature.

MEANWHILE, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, and stir with a fork to mix well. IN a large bowl, combine the eggs and sugar, and beat well at high speed, scraping down the bowl often, until light yellow, smooth and thick.

STIR THE FLOUR MIXTURE into the egg mixture, mixing only until the flour disappears. Add the cooled milk mixture and the vanilla, stir well and divide the batter between the prepared pans.

BAKE at 325 F for 25 to 30 minutes, until the cakes are a pale golden brown, spring back when touched lightly in the center and begin to pull away from the sides.

COOL IN THE PANS for 10 minutes on wire racks or folded kitchen towels. Then turn out the cakes onto wire racks or plates to cool completely, top side up.

TO MAKE THE ICING, have the cake layers handy and ready for frosting, so that you can spread the warm frosting quickly once it is ready. In a heavy medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter, evaporated milk, and vanilla. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Stir well and then adjust the heat so that the frosting boils and bubbles gently. cook for 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes.

BEAT THE WARM ICING with a wooden spoon until it thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. Place a cake layer, top side down, on a cake stand or serving platter. Quickly spread some icing over the top, and cover it with the second cake layer, top side up. Ice the top quickly and then spread the remaining icing over the sides.

IF THE ICING BECOMES TOO HARD to spread, warm gently over low heat, add a spoonful or two of evaporated milk, and then scrape and stir well until the icing softens enough to spread again. Dip a table knife in very hot water to help soften and smooth out the icing once it is spread.

McDermott calls the following recipe "the dowager empress of the royal family of coconut cakes. A yellow layer cake recipe is topped with White Mountain Coconut Icing, which is based on her Classic Boiled Icing, also known as "divinity frosting," given in the book. An easier version, Seven Minute Frosting, is also explained within the pages. McDermott also explains coconut cracking, and says to include the juice as part of the liquid in the batter if you do use fresh. She likes to spread a thin layer of raspberry or blackberry jam on the layers before icing.

Classic Coconut Cake

SERVES 8 TO 10

Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk, or juice from a fresh coconut plus enough milk added to make 1 cup

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

White Mountain Coconut Icing

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 egg whites

About 3 cups freshly grated coconut, or sweetened shredded coconut

TO MAKE THE CAKE, heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt, and use a fork to mix them together well. Stir the vanilla into the milk.

IN A LARGE BOWL, beat the softened butter with a mixer at medium speed until creamy. Add the sugar and continue beating, stopping to scrape down the sides, until the mixture is light and evenly combined. Ad the eggs, one by one, beating well each time, until the mixture is thick and smooth.

ADD ABOUT ONE THIRD of the flour mixture to the batter and beat well at low speed. Then add about half the milk to the batter, beating well. Continue beating as you add another third of the flour mixture, followed by the rest of the milk, and then the remaining flour mixture, beating well each time until the batter is very thick and smooth.

QUICKLY SCRAPE THE BATTER into the prepared cake pans, dividing it evenly, and place them in the oven. Bake at 350 F. for 25 to 30 minutes, until the cakes are golden brown, spring back when touched lightly in the center, and begin to pull away from the sides of the pans.

REMOVE FROM THE OVEN, and cool in the pans on wire racks or folded kitchen towels for 10 minutes. Then turn out the cakes onto wire racks or plates, turn the layers top side up, and cool completely. You could also split the layers horizontally to make 4 thin layers of cake.

TO MAKE THE ICING, stir the sugar into the water to dissolve it. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil and cook without stirring for 3 minutes. Then boil for 5 to 10 minutes more, stirring often, until the syrup has thickened and will form itself into a thread about 2 inches long when poured from a spoon back into the pot. Set the syrup aside.

BEAT THE EGG WHITES in a large bowl with a mixer at high sppeed until they are bright white, shiny and pillow up in to voluminous clouds. While beating at high speed, slowly pour the cooked syrup into the egg whites to blend them together into a fluffy white icing, 4 to 5 minutes.

TO ICE THE CAKE, place one cake layer, top side down, on a cake stand or serving plate. Cover it generously with icing and sprinkle with coconut. Place the second layer on top of the iced layer, top side up. First ice the sides to help keep the cake steady, and then spread icing generously over the top, completely covering the cake. Place the cake stand or serving plate on a cookie sheet to catch any loose coconut as you shower the cake. Sprinkle coconut all over the cake, and then gently pat handfuls of coconut onto the sides and top to cover any bare spots. Transfer any leftover coconut to a jar or resealable plastic bag and store it in the freezer.

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