She turned in his arms and hugged him close, with one arm still holding the crystal bowl.
“I want to go see my cat,” she said. “Let’s go home.”
“Now you’re talking.” He grinned at her.
They paused for a brief moment to watch as Olivia was carted off the festival grounds by security. Mel stopped to congratulate Oz on his excellent tackle and let the DeLaura brothers admire the trophy.
Joyce and Maria gazed at Mel and Joe with pleased expressions, and then Maria leaned close to Joyce and said, “They’re going to have beautiful babies, don’t you think?”
Joyce beamed. “Oh, yes, very beautiful.”
Mel felt her face get hot and assumed it was now the color of her beet-infused red velvets. “Mom! Mrs. D!”
“Call me Mama, dear,” Mrs. DeLaura instructed her.
“We have to go—now!” Mel said to Joe.
Much to her chagrin, he was grinning at her. He kissed her temple and led her from the festival. As they crossed the street, putting some distance between them and their families, Mel felt her breathing become more normal.
She felt Vic’s letter crinkle in her pocket, and she pulled it out and placed it carefully in her glass bowl. It seemed only right that Vic’s secret ingredient should find its resting place inside a winner’s trophy.
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Recipes
Parsnip Cupcake with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting
A parsnip spice cupcake with ginger cream cheese frosting topped with a toasted walnut.
2 cups peeled, shredded, and lightly steamed parsnips
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ teaspoon ground allspice
¾ teaspoon ground cloves
3 large eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup walnut halves, toasted
Preheat oven to 350°F. Steam the shredded parsnips lightly in a vegetable steamer for 5–7 minutes; set aside to cool. Put cupcake liners in a muffin tin. Combine the flour, sugar, ground ginger, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves in a large bowl; whisk to combine. Whisk the eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla in a medium bowl to combine. Pour the wet mixture over the dry, stirring until just combined. Stir in the parsnips. Fill each muffin cup ⅔ full with the batter and bake for 23–25 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool completely. Makes 12–16.
Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons crystallized ginger
3 cups powdered sugar
Beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth. Add in the crystallized ginger. Gradually add the powdered sugar and beat until the frosting is smooth. Put the frosting in a pastry bag and pipe onto cupcakes in thick swirls, using an open tip. Top with a toasted walnut.
Toasted Walnuts
Spread walnuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet; bake at 350°F for 8–10 minutes.
Chocolate Stout Brownie Torte
A chocolate stout brownie served in a chocolate
shell and topped with thin layers of chocolate
mousse and brownie and a dollop of
whipped cream.
Chocolate Stout Brownie
12 ounces chocolate stout
1 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
2 cups sugar
½ cup butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 13 X 9 X 2-inch baking pan with aluminum foil. In a large bowl, whisk together the stout and cocoa powder until blended and smooth. Whisk in the sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and eggs, one at a time. Blend well. Add the flour and salt, mixing until the batter is smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spread the mixture in the prepared pan. Bake 35–42 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs. Set aside to cool. Makes 32.
Chocolate Mousse
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
10 ounces heavy whipping cream
Place the chocolate in the top of a double boiler, or in a microwave-safe bowl; cook until melted. Stir the chocolate until it is smooth. Allow to cool slightly. Whip the cream in a large bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks barely form. Fold the chocolate into the cream and chill 30 minutes in the refrigerator, until set.
To make Mel’s torte, use a premade chocolate shell and cut a 2 X 2-inch brownie in half so that you now have 2 layers. Put one layer in the chocolate shell then spread chocolate mousse over it. Place the second layer on top and garnish with a dollop of whipped cream.
Chocolate Chili Cupcakes
A spicy chocolate chili cupcake dipped in a
chocolate candy coating and garnished with a
chili pepper.
1¼ cups flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cardamom
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon chili powder (Mexican)
¼ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter, softened
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
12 small red chili peppers for garnish
Preheat oven to 350°F. Put cupcake liners in a muffin tin. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, spices, and salt. In another bowl, mix the butter and sugar until it is fluffy; slowly mix in the eggs and vanilla. Then add the wet mixture to the dry until thoroughly blended. Fill each muffin cup ⅔ full and bake for 18–22 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes 12.
Chocolate Candy Coating
8 squares of chocolate candy coating, melted
Once the cupcakes are cooled, melt the chocolate candy coating in either a double boiler or use a microwave-safe bowl. Stir the melted chocolate until it is smooth. Carefully remove the chocolate chili cupcakes from their cupcake paper. Using a fork, stab the top of the cupcake and dip it into the chocolate until it is completely covered. Let the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl and carefully place the cupcake on the wax paper to harden the candy shell. Top with a fresh chili pepper.
Deep Fried Bananas with Baked Plantains
Bananas with brown sugar, wrapped in a spring
roll and deep fried, served with chocolate sauce
and baked plantain chips.
2 large bananas
8 (7-inch-square) spring roll wrappers
1 cup brown sugar
1 quart hot oil for deep frying
Preheat the oil in a deep fryer to 375°F. Peel the bananas and slice them in half lengthwise and then across to make 4. Place one piece of banana on a spring roll wrapper and sprinkle with brown sugar to taste. Roll up the spring roll wrapper; as you roll, fold up the edges to seal the ends as you don’t want the banana to get saturated with oil. Wet the final edge of the spring roll paper to seal it. Repeat with remaining bananas. Fry a few banana rolls at a time in the hot oil until evenly browned. Place on paper towels to drain. Makes 8.
Plantain Chips
2 green plantains (green ones bake better than yellow) Cooking spray
Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a nonstick cookie sheet with cooking spray. Cut the ends off the plantains and peel. Cut each plantain on the diagonal into ½ inch-wide slices. Arrange in a single layer and coat the tops with cooking spray. Bake 15–17 minutes,
turning after 8 minutes.
Chocolate Sauce
⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa
1 ⅔cups sugar
1¼ cups water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the cocoa, sugar, and water. Bring to a boil and let boil 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
Goat Cheese Mini Tarts
A delicate goat cheese tart on a thin ginger-
infused graham cracker crust with a caramelized
top holding diced ripe figs and drizzled with
lavender honey.
2 packages honey graham crackers, to
make about 2¼ cups of crumbs
5 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons ground ginger
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
8 ounces spreadable goat cheese
2 cups ripe figs, diced
1 cup caramelized honey
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a food processor, grind the graham crackers to form fine crumbs. Add the sugar, ginger, and butter, and pulse to combine. Press the mixture into a mini-cheesecake pan, pressing the crumbs into the bottom until ½-inch thick. Bake for 10–12 minutes. Cool slightly before carefully removing from the pan. Once the crusts are cool, spread a ½-inch layer of goat cheese onto the crusts and sprinkle with the diced figs. Pour caramelized honey on top and serve.
To caramelize honey
In a heavy-bottom saucepan, heat 1 cup of honey with 1 tablespoon of water (it keeps the honey from scorching) and a few drops of lemon juice (it keeps the honey from hardening). Stir the honey constantly with a wooden spatula. Once the honey is a deep brown hue, it is ready to use.
Red Velvet Cupcakes (Using Beets)
A red velvet cupcake made with beet puree and
topped with cream cheese frosting and an edible
flower (optional).
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup canola oil
¼ cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, room temperature
¾ cup beet puree
Preheat oven to 350°F. Put cupcake liners in a muffin tin. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, add in the oil, lemon juice, vanilla, and egg to the beet puree. Pour the beet mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients, and mix just enough to combine. Fill each muffin cup ⅔ full and bake for 18–22 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
Beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar and beat until the frosting is smooth. Put the frosting in a pastry bag and pipe onto cupcakes in thick swirls, using an open tip. Decorate with an edible flower, such as a nasturtium.
Turn the page for a preview of Jenn McKinlay’s
next book in the Cupcake Mysteries . . .
Red Velvet Revenge
Coming soon from Berkley Prime Crime!
“What are we going to do about the business?” Angie DeLaura asked. She was sitting across the table from Melanie Cooper, dishing up her Twenty-three Skiddoo sundae while Mel sipped on her Camelback soda.
They had escaped their cupcake bakery, leaving it under the supervision of their two employees, and were sitting in the Sugar Bowl, Scottsdale’s landmark ice cream shop. Mel always had the Camelback soda, vanilla ice cream scooped into old-fashioned soda with a pitcher of extra soda water on the side; it was her longtime favorite.
She glanced around the pink and chrome interior and noted that the Sugar Bowl hadn’t seemed to age a day since it opened in 1958. Not that she had been around then, but her mother, Joyce, had been, and she remembered coming here when she was a little girl, just like Mel remembered coming here with her father and her brother when they were kids. There was something about the thick glass ice cream dishes served on paper doilies on the classic white plates that was charmingly nostalgic.
Growing up, the Sugar Bowl had been a favorite hangout of Mel and Angie’s, along with their other childhood chum Tate. The three of them had practically owned the table by the window where Mel and Angie now sat enjoying the respite from the scorchingly hot July day outside.
Summer in the Valley of the Sun was as mean as an old man with sciatica. The sidewalk heated up so much, Mel was sure the bottoms of her flip-flops were going to melt. Just walking around the corner from their shop, Fairy Tale Cupcakes, had made both Mel and Angie sweat like marathoners, which they were definitely not, given that the relentless heat had them moving about as fast as a pair of desert tortoises.
“What do you mean, what are we going to do about the business?” Mel asked. She was staring out the window, watching the midday heat rise from the street, making everything shimmer as if it actually were melting under the ferocity of the sun.
“It’s 114 degrees out there,” Angie said. “Our tourist business has completely dried up, and the last special order we had was for the Levinsky bar mitzvah two weeks ago.”
Mel made a very loud slurp with her straw and reached for the pitcher to add more soda. She looked at Angie and said, “Your point?”
Angie blew out a breath, stirring the dark brown bangs that hung across her forehead. The rest of her long hair was piled up in a clip on the back of her head. She gave Mel a level look as she scooped up another gooey spoonful of her sundae.
“I think we should close for a week or two,” Angie said. Mel opened her mouth to protest, but Angie barreled ahead. “Hear me out. It’s costing us more money to be open than to close; we can both take a vacation until monsoon season hits, and then when we open, our regulars will be back and our tourists will slowly trickle on in again.”
“You know, if you want to go to Los Angeles to see Roach, you can just go,” Mel said. “We don’t have to shut down the bakery so you can go be with your boyfriend.”
Mel knew her tone was a little harsh, but sheesh! Close down the bakery? She couldn’t help but think that it would be the kiss of death for their small business.
Angie’s eyes narrowed, and she plunked down her spoon with a plop. She looked like she was winding up to argue, and Mel braced herself as Angie’s fiery temper was hotter than the desert sun and known for leaving scorch marks on the recipient of her ire.
Angie never got the chance to let loose her volley of mad. With a bang and a puff of blue smoke, an ancient, oversized van lurched into a parking spot on their side of the street. Mel and Angie whipped their heads in the direction of the noise.
“Is that . . .” Angie began, but Mel was already rising to her feet.
“Yup, it is,” she said. “I’d recognize that shaggy mane and that bald head anywhere.”
Angie began to shovel the last of her sundae into her mouth. She slapped her free hand to her forehead, and Mel knew Angie had just given herself a walloping case of brain freeze.
They hurried to the cashier’s window by the exit and paid their tab. Mel rushed back to leave their waiter’s tip tucked under her soda pitcher.
“But Oz and Marty are supposed to be watching the bakery,” Angie said as she followed Mel out the door.
Mel was pretty sure the blast of heat that struck her full in the face as she stepped outside singed her eyebrows. She tried to look on the upside, as in no waxing or plucking, but people without eyebrows just looked weird. She ran her fingers over her brow bone just to reassure herself that they were still there, and then felt positive that the acrid smell that was assaulting her nose wasn’t burnt hair but rather the noxious blue smoke coming out of the tailpipe of the decrepit van in front of her.
“Oz,” she called to her young intern. “What are you doing here?”
The young man, who had been the bakery’s paid intern since last spring, turned his head from under the hood of the van to look at her.
“Hey, Mel,” he said. He stepped back and opened his arms wide. “Check it out. Isn’t she a beauty?”
“That depends. Is she a contestant in a demolition derby?” Angie asked. She was fanning the back of her neck with one of the thick paper napkins from the Sugar Bowl.
“Heck, no,” Marty said, stepping forward. He was a dapper older gentleman who had come to work in the bakery several months before, when Mel and Angie had discovered if they were to have any sort of personal life, they needed backup.
Oz and Marty exchanged excited glances and then spoke together, “She’s your new cupcake van.”
Mel looked at Angie and assumed her dumbfounded expression mirrored her own and then looked back at the van. She took in the oversized white behemoth, which reminded her of an old bread truck. It was covered in faded Good Humor and Blue Bunny ice cream stickers, and she felt her powers of speech evaporate as she tried to form a response.
“I know it isn’t much to look at now,” Marty said. “But we could trick this baby out, and it would be sweet.”
“Where did it come from?” Angie asked.
Death by the Dozen Page 24
