Charmaine Wilkerson struck gold with her debut novel, “Black Cake,” and so did Hulu after adapting it for the small screen this fall. The New York Times best-selling story recalls the tale of a woman, Coventina “Covey” Lyncook (played by Mia Isaac), who discloses her untold secrets to her children after losing a battle with cancer. In her absence, Covey — known by her offspring as Eleanor Bennett — leaves behind audio recordings that reveal her journey from the Caribbean to Europe to America after her husband’s murder forced her to flee her hometown in Jamaica. What follows suit, though, are earth-shattering revelations that unexpectedly shake up her kids’ world.

Before “Black Cake” even hit bookshelves, talks of an adaptation were happening. Series creator Marissa Jo Cerar took on the mantle of translating Wilkerson’s book material to the screen with her interpretation, with Oprah Winfrey on board as one of the executive producers. With just eight episodes, “Black Cake” quickly became a hit among viewers, who are still reeling from the dramatic finale. This is far more than Wilkerson could’ve imagined for the story.

When she wrote her book, the author said, “I wasn't thinking about a screen series.” “I was just exploring the characters that came to me and the struggles that they faced, their joys, their worries, and how the past would weigh on the present, on a new generation.”

Ahead, Wilkerson spoke to BET.com about the inspiration behind her novel, its Hulu adaptation, and the potential future of the TV series.

BET.com: I have to say, I’m fascinated with how layered and complex the story of “Black Cake” is. What inspired you to write a book heavily focused on identity and family?

Wilkerson: Well, I do a lot of thinking about identity. I come from a multicultural, multicolored family; we've lived in a number of different places. Some of us don't even look alike, so it's natural that I would think about identity, but I really am fascinated by the power that stories have to shape our identities, whether they are told or not told. So, in the case of “Black Cake,” you're talking about family secrets, but they don't have to be secrets. They can be stories that have been forgotten, stories that haven't yet been learned. And I'm really curious about the way in which a story that has not been told shapes our identity and what happens when it comes to the surface. So that's one of the interests that really drove this story of a woman who reveals after her death that she is not who she said she was and the kind of impact that's going to have on her children, their relationships, and their sense of identity.

BET.com: What’s the significance of black cake, the dessert, to you? 

Wilkerson: Well, my mother made a legendary black cake. Even other relatives say that it was legendary. But black cake is not a phrase we use in my family. We call it rum cake or plum pudding — depending on which country in the Caribbean you come from, you might give it a different name. Black cake, which some people call this traditional Caribbean fruitcake, is this rum-soaked delicious dessert that's associated with celebration, Christmas time, and weddings; only a few people make it really well, as far as I'm concerned. And the significance in this story is that it represents all of those things. It also represents drama in the story because it's part of the plot. But the broader symbolism is the language of food, how it's used to communicate tradition and culture, and how it also sort of represents some of the things that happened in our past that are not so positive.

BET.com: When you wrote “Black Cake,” did you anticipate it’d become an onscreen adaptation one day?

Wilkerson: I did not sit down to write this book thinking about that. I was just writing a series of stories until I realized that one of those stories was growing. And the story was these two teenage girls swimming out in the sea. They were obsessed with the sea, and they were exceptionally strong. They were unusual young ladies, is what they were called at the time, as they approached the age of womanhood. They're going to get into trouble, and their strength is going to help them to overcome some of that trouble. I wasn't thinking about a screen series, I was just exploring the characters that came to me and the struggles that they faced, their joys, their worries, and how the past would weigh on the present, on a new generation.

BET.com: The decision to turn “Black Cake” into a series was made before the book came out, right?

Wilkerson: That's true. This is my first novel, and so it was quite a surprise that as I was just finishing and polishing the text, people were expressing interest in taking the story and interpreting it for the screen. And I was just delighted that people with the kind of talent that Marissa Jo Cerar, the showrunner, and people from Oprah Winfrey's Harpo films had, [saw] some interest. They seemed to understand the heart of the story and what it was trying to convey.

BET.com: I read that Marissa Jo Cerar was initially approached to adapt your book into a movie, not a series. Was a TV adaptation the best medium to tell this larger-than-life story?

Wilkerson: Well, I think you hit on it in your very first statement. It's a very multi-layered story. There's no doubt about it. There are a lot of things going on, a lot of characters. I would say that the story lends itself naturally to being laid out in a series so that you can explore different aspects and learn more about the characters and what happens to them. I was not part of that conversation, so by the time Marissa came to me, she said, “I really see this more as a series because of everything that's going on.” And I liked that idea.

BET.com: Those initial conversations with Marissa, did you align with her vision right off the bat and how she wanted to adapt “Black Cake” for the screen?

Wilkerson: There were two things that Marissa said to me in an early conversation that really struck me and made me feel confident that this was someone who could do a very interesting job of interpreting the book for the screen. One of the things she talked about was her own emotional connection to some of the themes. The other was just the fact that she really loved the idea of trying to convey the variety of characters, the diversity of the characters, the multiple locations. Her enthusiasm and interest in bringing that to the screen was exciting. But she also underscored that she felt that a screen production would be an interpretation of the book, an amplification, an extension, and her colleagues at Harpo Films said the same thing from the start. So those two things made me feel that one, she was taking a broad view of what could be done, and two, she really was invested emotionally. 

BET.com: I’ve seen a lot of people asking about a second season after the finale. Do you think there’s enough story left for that?

Wilkerson: There certainly are enough characters and stories; that's all I can say. We don't know what will happen, but there's no doubt that is a wonderful job the screenwriters, actors, directors, and all of the people who helped to create the series have done that. There's so much you could do. It is a multilayered story with a lot of characters, and there are a lot of themes that are interesting.

Stream all episodes of “Black Cake” on Hulu now.