Chocolate Cream Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #24)(35)

“You too, Norman.” Hannah motioned for him to come in and patted the booth beside her.

“Dot’s bringing more fresh coffee and our dessert,” Sally told them, and then she turned to Lynne. “If Tom is coming back tonight I’ll cut a slice of cake for him and you can take it back to the room.”

Lynne shook her head. “Thanks, Sally, but I don’t expect him. He hasn’t called and that usually means he’s tied up with business. I think he’ll probably decide to stay in Minneapolis overnight.”

“Then I’ll put a slice in the cooler for him and he can have it tomorrow,” Sally decided. “I wonder where Dot’s busboy is with . . .” She stopped and began to smile as the curtain was pulled aside and the busboy came in with a large carafe of coffee, cups, cream and sugar, silverware, and dessert plates.

“Oh, my!” Hannah gasped as Dot arrived with a beautiful cake on a silver platter. “Is that chocolate?”

“Yes,” Sally answered. “It’s chocolate and butterscotch. This is my Ultimate Chocolate Butterscotch Bundt Cake. I got the idea from you, Hannah. I combined my two favorite ultimate cake flavors, the Ultimate Fudgy Chocolate Bundt Cake and the Ultimate Butterscotch Bundt Cake and made them all in one.” Sally stopped and looked slightly worried. “I hope you don’t mind, Hannah.”

“I don’t mind at all!” Hannah reassured her. “It looks lovely, Sally. I love how you frosted it with butterscotch icing and drizzled chocolate down from the top.”

“That’s so my waiters will know exactly what kind of cake it is by simply looking at the frosting. If I’d just used the butterscotch frosting, they might have thought that it was Ultimate Butterscotch Bundt Cake and not Ultimate Chocolate Butterscotch Bundt Cake. This way they can tell the difference between them.”

“Makes sense,” Norman commented. “It looks absolutely delicious, Sally.”

“Hannah’s recipes are always delicious,” Sally told Lynne as she reached out for the carafe of coffee and poured cups for Norman and herself. Then she topped off Hannah and Lynne’s cups and picked up the knife to cut the cake.

“There’s something wonderful about a cake in a Bundt pan,” Hannah said.

“It’s a great design and it makes any cake look special,” Lynne agreed.

Hannah began to smile. “Sometimes Andrea uses a Bundt pan for one of her Jell-O molds. She says it’s a little harder to get out because the pan is thicker and doesn’t warm up as fast as a regular Jell-O mold, but whenever she goes out to a potluck dinner, she puts the Bundt pan in the back of her car with a platter over the top. By the time she drives to wherever she’s going, the Jell-O has jiggled its way loose and it’s ready to unmold.”

Sally laughed. “Andrea’s nothing if not resourceful. Most Minnesotans are. One time I made a big platter of Jell-O in a turkey roaster.”

“How did that turn out?” Norman asked her.

“It was harder to unmold, but once it was on the platter, it looked great. I used it at one of my Sunday brunches right here in the dining room, and Betty Jackson told me she’d never seen so much Jell-O in one place before.”

Sally passed the cream and the sugar, and then she pulled the cake platter toward her. “Let’s taste this cake and then you can tell me if you think it should go on the dessert menu.”

Hannah watched as Sally sliced the cake and plated it. She thought again of the Minnesota man who’d invented the Bundt pan. Hannah wondered whether his wife had been insulted because he’d told everyone that he’d devised the ridged cake pan because her cake slices were different sizes.

“Ready?” Sally asked after she’d passed them the dessert plates.

“Ready,” Hannah said as they all picked up their dessert forks.

For the space of several seconds, no one said a word. They were too busy tasting, swallowing, and cutting off a second bite. It took several more seconds before Lynne put her fork down on her plate and gave Sally a thumbs-up. “Wonderful!” she said, reaching for her coffee cup to take a sip. “It’s delicious and it’s really rich. And it’s great with strong coffee.”

“Agreed,” Hannah echoed. “It’s a wonderful cake and I’m glad we have a lot of coffee, Sally.”

Sally nodded and gestured toward the intercom. “And we can always call Dot for more if we run out.”

Once they’d finished their slices of Ultimate Chocolate Butterscotch Bundt Cake, Sally removed the silver lid from another dessert platter and uncovered Lisa’s Pink Grapefruit Cake. “I hope you saved room for another taste trial.”

“I did,” Norman said quickly. “That’s pretty, Sally. What is it?”

“It’s Lois Brown’s Pink Grapefruit Cake,” Hannah told him. “Lisa mixed it up, Michelle baked it, and I brought it in for Sally to taste.”

“I love pink grapefruit, but I don’t think I’ve ever had grapefruit in a cake before,” Lynne said.

“Neither have I,” Norman agreed. “But if Lisa mixed it up and Michelle baked it, it’s bound to be good.”

“It’s made from a recipe that Aunt Nancy got from her friend Lois Brown,” Hannah said, picking up her fork and preparing to taste it.