Aimee and Elizabeth are the middle of four sisters, and all of these women learned the delights of dessert making in their grandmothers’ kitchens. Sarah Cole and Minnie DuBose were often found in their kitchens, creating delicacies in an atmosphere of hospitality and warmth. Elizabeth remembers entering her grandmother Minnie’s kitchen and seeing the special table where the desserts were stored. “We were always around food and cooking. My dad’s mom had a breakfast nook with a table that always had four or five desserts on it.” 

Aimee and Elizabeth are quick to emphasize that they are not gourmet chefs. “We try to keep things simple,” Elizabeth says. “If we can simplify a recipe, we will. That is what we want to do in our homes. We love good fellowship and having people in our homes. Christ showed us hospitality, so we want to show others hospitality.”

Aimee agrees, adding, “The purpose of hospitality is to bless. Our grandmothers and our mom had the gift of hospitality. They loved to celebrate, laugh, tell stories, and thank God for the things that matter in life. Whatever we’ve been given is just an overflow we want to share. Food is a ministry — it doesn’t even have to be something spectacular.”

This ethos of hospitality has a special time to shine at Easter. Aimee is in charge of making the special “Cross Cake” — an Italian cream cake — for the Easter dessert. As she says, this is a reminder of the sweetness of the sacrifice of Christ, which lies at the heart of the Easter celebration. With layers of cream cheese filling sandwiching three rich sponges full of coconut and nuts and topped with a white icing, this lovely Italian cream cake is always served on a special silver service platter that belonged to Aimee and Elizabeth’s grandmother, Sarah “MaMa” Cole.

The sisters often take inspiration from family recipes, though they like to add their own twists to make it simpler. Their grandmother, Minnie “Granny” DuBose, serves as the inspiration for Elizabeth’s pound cake with caramel icing. While the caramel icing is inspired by Granny’s layered cake recipe, Elizabeth uses pound cake instead, which is a much easier option than the complicated layers of the original recipe. These pound cakes are some of the family favorites.

Aimee reflects on some of her earliest baking attempts, which were done in a far smaller way than their current endeavors. “Early on our mother got us in the kitchen with an Easy-Bake Oven. So that is where we got our start, with little cakes or a brownie. We’d wait for that little teeny round thing to come out, and then we’d say, ‘Wait — there are four of us!’”

Now that they have far more than four people to feed, Aimee chooses to serve a decadent chocolate mousse that is sure to please every age. “We have always loved chocolate!” Aimee says. “Mousse is something we’ve made for a long time, and it is relatively easy.” With an Oreo crust and chopped or shaved chocolate to top it off, this mousse is the perfect make-ahead dessert.

Aimee and Elizabeth’s mother, Mary Anne DuBose, inspired them with a love for making desserts, and her custard recipe takes center stage in Elizabeth’s strawberry trifle. “My mother used to make custard for us when we were sick,” Elizabeth says. “I remember whenever anybody got really sick … I can just see her in there making that boiled custard.” Besides the boiled custard, the trifle contains layers of pound cake, strawberries, and whipping cream, and is certainly delicious enough to banish all sorrow, if not all sickness. 

Aimee and Elizabeth are now the grandmothers who cook together with their grandchildren, teaching them to make Christmas sugar cookies or chocolate chip cookies or to dye eggs for Easter. Their freezers filled with cookie balls ready for baking are the equivalent of their grandmother’s dessert table, but for the next generation. Both women are passionate about passing along not only the culinary skills, but their passion for hospitality. As they gather their grandchildren, and any other hungry mouths and hearts in need of cheering around their table, they are continuing the lessons learned in the kitchen of their childhood.