Chocolate Cream Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #24)(39)

Return the cake to the refrigerator for an additional 30 minutes and then serve it to your guests.





PINK GRAPEFRUIT CAKE (This recipe is from Lois Brown.) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F., rack in the middle position.



? cup (1 stick, ? pound, 4 ounces) salted butter, softened to room temperature 2 cups white (granulated) sugar 8 ounces light cream cheese (Neufchatel) softened to room temperature 3 large eggs ? cup vegetable oil ? cup whole milk 1 Tablespoon grated pink grapefruit zest (just use the colored part)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)





Hannah’s 1st Note: You will be using pink grapefruit zest in the cake recipe and pink grapefruit juice in the glaze recipe. Zest the pink grapefruit first and juice it later, when it’s time to make the glaze.



Prepare a Bundt cake pan by spraying it with Pam, or another nonstick cooking spray, and then coating the insides with flour. To do this, sprinkle some flour in the bottom of the Bundt pan, stand over your kitchen wastebasket, and turn the cake pan so that the flour touches the sides and coats them. Don’t forget to coat the outside of the crater in the middle of the pan. When you’re through preparing your pan, hold it upside down over the wastebasket and shake out the excess flour.



Place the softened butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.



Add the white sugar and the softened cream cheese. Beat everything together until the mixture is light and fluffy.



Mix in the eggs. Beat until they are thoroughly incorporated.



Drizzle in the vegetable oil and continue to beat until the oil has been incorporated.



Add the milk and the pink grapefruit zest. Mix them in thoroughly.



Mix in the vanilla extract, the baking powder, and the salt. Mix well.



Add the flour in half-cup increments, beating after each addition. The object is to create a smooth, well-mixed cake batter.



Pour the cake batter into the prepared Bundt pan.



Bake at 325 degrees F. for 45 minutes or until the top surface of the cake does not indent when touched with a finger. Be very careful not to overbake this cake.



Let your Pink Grapefruit Cake cool for 15 minutes before taking it out of the pan. To do this, place a platter on top of the Bundt pan and turn the platter and the pan upside down on your kitchen counter. When the cake has cooled enough, it will fall out of the Bundt pan and onto the platter.



When the cake is completely cool, glaze it with Pink Grapefruit Glaze. The recipe follows.





PINK GRAPEFRUIT GLAZE



4 Tablespoons pink grapefruit juice 2 cups powdered (confectioners’) sugar





Using an electric mixer, combine the pink grapefruit juice with the powdered sugar.



Hannah’s Note: You can experiment with the amount of juice and the amount of sugar. This glaze is very forgiving. If it’s too thick to pour over your cake, add more pink grapefruit juice. If it’s too thin to coat the cake when you pour it on the cake, add more powdered sugar and give it a second coat.



Lois’s Note: The more glaze, the better!





Chapter Ten


“Okay, Hannah. Try these.” Lisa walked over to the work station and set a platter down on the stainless-steel surface. “I baked them last night and I need to know if you want to sell them for Valentine’s Day.”

“They look great, Lisa,” Norman said, reaching for one. “I like the pink frosting.”

“It had to be either pink or red,” Lisa told him. “And red is a lot harder to do with liquid food coloring. It only takes a few drops of red to make pink if you’re adding it to something that’s naturally white.”

“White chocolate?” Norman guessed, taking one and pushing the platter toward Hannah.

“Yes,” Lisa said, and then she turned to Hannah. “Are you still nervous about Ross?”

“I guess so. I just know that I’m not at all hungry and I feel a little queasy. I hope I’m not getting sick.”

“It could be anxiety,” Lonnie suggested, reaching out to snag a brownie. “What do you call these, Lisa?”

“White Chocolate Brownies.”

Hannah knew that Lisa was disappointed when she hadn’t reached out for a brownie right away. She didn’t want one, far from it, but there was no way she’d disappoint her partner. “Maybe I’m just hungry,” she suggested, grabbing a brownie from the platter. “All I had for breakfast this morning was coffee and these look really great, Lisa.”

“Thanks!” Lisa was all smiles, and Hannah was glad that she’d made the effort. Now all she had to do was eat the brownie and declare how good it was. She had no doubt that it was wonderful. It looked absolutely delicious. The only problem was that her stomach was roiling and she was having all she could do not to look as sick as she felt.

It’s probably just stress, Hannah told herself, but she didn’t believe it. The reason her stomach was acting up wasn’t important. The important thing was to convince Lisa that she loved her White Chocolate Brownies.