Smokey Mountain Breakdown

Last Sunday was the "Homecoming" at Pastor Jimmy's Edwina Church of God in Jesus' Name, the Signs Serpent Handling church that I’ve been attending and writing about.

Above pictured was my offering, a dark chocolate "Picnic" cake. Many of you may be familiar with this cake in its sheet cake incarnation called a "Texas Sheet Cake" or "Texas Picnic Cake". Essentially what we have here is a rich moist chocolate cake frosted with boiled fudge frosting and sprinkled with chopped pecans. I've experienced mini marshmallows mixed in with the frosting.

Indeed, I'm very experienced in the ways of chocolate cakes.

I believe this cake has a reputation as a cake for taking on outdoor outings because the boiled fudge frosting seals the cake. It’s always better the second day and should be made a day ahead.

If you are a high church person like myself, you may not be familiar with the tradition of the Homecoming. The Homecoming is a yearly summer gathering of everyone who is or has been a member of one of these smaller churches. The Baptists have them as well as the Holiness churches. Everyone is welcome and it takes the form of a big picnic that follows a service and much gospel singing.

Everyone brings food and it is a really wonderful time.

We went in for the service and one of the rare treats was the presence of Jimmy’s younger minister, Michael, and Pastor John Brown from the Marshall church. There were three generations of ministers there all preaching in the style of the Jesus’ Name Snakehandlers.

Since so many children were in attendance, there were no serpents attending the Homecoming. Michael’s baby girl would wander up on the stage with him and he preached almost the entire time holding her.


Every once in a while she'd get tired of being held and toddle off the stage to look at us all with big wide eyes, and scuff her little patent leather shoes on the floor.

And the singing! There was a great deal of singing. Friend Scott met me there and did a duet of "I'll Fly Away" with a young lady who was sitting in front of us with her fiance. They were getting counseled by Jimmy on getting married, which is a very, very serious commitment in a Holiness church. Her young man and I were not singers but eagerly egged the two of them on.

It was the first time I'd really seen the little church that filled up.

But I know you are really ready to see the food. There was so much food! I was actually so into it that I almost forgot to take pictures of it.



There were all sorts of hams, meat loafs, devilled eggs, potato salads, green beans, fried chicken, and all sorts of salads. This, I'm afraid was my plate. This was quite modest compared to Scott’s. Scott managed to find the medieval truncheon sized Styrofoam plates. But he is 6 foot 9. Everything I tried was absolutely delicious!


The church has constructed a picnic shed in the back of the church for just such gatherings. This is where we took all the food before the service and where we womenfolk retired to get everything ready as soon as the service ended.

As is the custom here, the children eat first. Then we all file in and enjoy the bounty of food and the excellent company.

All in all it was a wonderful day for a Homecoming.


Oh. You probably want the recipe for that cake I started all this with?