Leicester Prize-winning cook prefers old-fashioned cooking


By Catherine Hunter Many in Leicester have been


privileged to sample her chocolate pound cake. For years Helen Jo Riddle has baked cakes for benefits in the Leicester area. “People don’t cook the old-fash-


ioned way any more,” said Riddle who still bakes all her cakes from scratch. “I still like to cook with food right from the garden.” Riddle said she learned to cook


from her mother, Maude Sharpe, and from Edith Wells, who owned Hall’s Grocery, now the Leicester General Store. “Mother cooked for the work


hands on the farm,” said Riddle who grew up on a dairy farm. “Sometimes we had as many as 18 hands.” Riddle remembers starting work


at Hall’s Grocery as early as age 13. She worked for them for 25 years and still looks after the old Wells home place. Riddle also remem- bers living without electricity or running water until she was 10 or 12 years old. She said they didn’t have cake mixes and pre-packaged foods back then. “Mama killed and plucked a


chicken for dinner every Sunday,” Riddle said. “She baked all her cakes from scratch. We always had cakes.” Riddle has honored her mother’s


and Wells’s legacy by helping cook for area benefits and church rais- ings. She and the other women of Trinity Baptist Church would cook every Saturday while the men were building the church. Riddle has baked cakes for nearly every benefit auction at


Edith Well’s chocolate torte recipe


First layer 1 cup chopped pecans 1 cup self rising flour 1 stick margarine


Melt margarine and stir in


pecans and flour. Bake in a 9”x13” dish at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.


Second layer – cream to-


gether and put on top of first layer: 8 ounces of cream cheese 1 cup sugar ½ large container of Cool Whip


Third layer – mix and


spread over the cream cheese layer: 2 boxes of instant chocolate pudding


3 cups of cold milk Cover with the remaining


One of Helen Jo Riddle’s specialties is her prize-winning, made-from-scratch chocolate pound cake. Photo by Catherine Hunter


the Leicester Community center for years, with some of her cakes selling for as much as $1,000. Her special chocolate pound cake has won first prize at the North Caro- lina Mountain State Fair the past three years. Some of Riddle’s other special-


ties include a chocolate or butter- scotch torte, peppermint candy, scallop potatoes, broccoli casserole and plain old-fashioned coun-


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www.leicesterleader.com September 16 - September 22, 2010 - THE TRIBUNE/LEADER 17


try food such as beans, corn and squash. She said her grandson, Joseph Hawkins, likes her Swiss cake with cream cheese the best. She also loves to bake and decorate cakes for birthdays. Riddle said her secret is to exper-


iment and use one’s own judgment with different recipes. “It’s a bless- ing to be able to cook and bake for people,” she said. “I love giving the cakes away for a good cause.”


Cool Whip and sprinkle with the chopped pecans.


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