The Angel of Forest Hill

by Cindy Woodsmall

  RECIPES FROM FEED MY SHEEP,* BY CAROL STEELE JAMES

  Double Chocolate Cheesecake

  24 Oreo cookies, crushed (makes about two cups)

  ¼ cup butter, melted

  4 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened

  1 cup sugar

  2 tablespoons flour

  1 teaspoon vanilla

  2 4-ounce bars Baker’s semisweet chocolate, melted and then cooled

  4 eggs

  ½ cup blueberries

  Preheat oven 325°. Mix Oreo crumbs and butter, and press into the bottom of a 9˝ x 13˝ cake pan lined with foil. Bake 10 minutes. Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, and vanilla with a mixer until blended. Add chocolate and mix well. Add eggs one at a time, beating on low speed after each egg, just until blended. Pour mixture over crust. Bake 45 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool to room temperature. Then refrigerate for at least four hours. Use the foil to lift the cheesecake from the pan. Top with berries.

  * * *

  * Carol Steele James, Feed My Sheep, www.Facebook.com/​FeedMySheepCookbook/. Used by permission.

  Italian Cream Cake

  ½ cup butter, softened

  ½ cup shortening

  2 cups sugar

  5 large eggs, separated

  1 tablespoon vanilla

  2 cups all-purpose flour

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  1 cup buttermilk

  1 cup coconut, flaked

  Nutty Cream Cheese Frosting

  1 cup pecans, chopped

  1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

  ½ cup butter, softened

  1 tablespoon vanilla

  1 16-ounce package confectioner’s sugar, sifted

  In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and shortening at medium speed with electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Then add vanilla and blend well. Combine flour and baking soda, then add to butter mixture alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition. Stir in coconut. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and then fold into batter. Pour into three greased and floured 9˝ round cake pans. Bake at 350° for 23–25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Once removed from the oven, place pans on wire racks for ten minutes. Then remove the layers from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

  For the frosting, place pecans in a shallow pan and bake at 350° for five to ten minutes, or until toasted. Stir every two to three minutes. Cool. Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla at medium speed with electric mixer until creamy. Add confectioner’s sugar, beating at low speed until blended. Beat at high speed until smooth. Stir in pecans. Frost cake.

  Acknowledgments

  To my publishing family—the parent company Penguin Random House and the imprint WaterBrook Press. You’ve supported me faithfully and thoughtfully for ten years. Thank you.

  To Shannon Marchese, my editor for ten years. Equally important as the many things I mentioned in the dedication for this book, I thank you for a decade of hearing me and intervening so that I’ve been blessed to work with Carol Bartley.

  To Carol Bartley. Thank you! From my debut novel to my nineteenth book, you’ve been my trusted copy and line editor, a skillful, gentle corrector, and a wonderful, thorough fact checker. I’m awed and honored that I’ve had the pleasure of working with you for a decade! And I’m very glad you enjoy my zany humor that strikes time and again as we hone each other’s work.

  To my son Tyler and my daughter-in-law Erin. Without your encouragement, help, and wonderful skills, I couldn’t have completed the last two fiction books. Thank you.

  And to Catherine King, a one-time reader of my books and now a wonderful brainstorming partner. Thank you!