Chocolate Cream Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #24)(9)

Quickly, Hannah assembled the ingredients and prepared her Bundt pan. Since Aunt Nancy’s recipe said to use something called Pan Coat to brush on the inside of the Bundt pan instead of greasing and flouring it, Hannah followed the second recipe Aunt Nancy had gotten from her friend Judy to mix up the Pan Coat. She brushed it all over the inside of the Bundt pan, set the oven to preheat at the proper temperature, pulled out her electric stand mixer, and began to mix up the cake.

In less than fifteen minutes, Hannah’s cake was ready to bake and once she’d slipped it into her oven, she flicked off the overhead lights in the kitchen and went back to the living room to find something to watch on her flat-screen television set.





PAN COAT

This recipe is from Judith Baer and it works like a dream!



? cup flour (just scoop it out and level it off with a knife)

? cup vegetable oil ? cup Crisco





Place the three ingredients, in the order given, in a bowl.



Judy’s 1st Note: This recipe is simple: Today, I made some more Pan Coat and put the flour in the bowl first, the oil next, and then the Crisco. I use the same half cup measure for all of them, and I do not wash it until I have all three ingredients in the bowl. If you do this in order, the Crisco will easily slide out of the measuring cup.



Whip the ingredients together until the mixture is thick and creamy. (This is easier with an electric mixer.)



Brush Pan Coat all over the inside of your baking pan.



Yield: Enough Pan Coat to coat the inside of several baking pans.



Judy’s 2nd Note: If you have Pan Coat left over, place it in a jar, cover the jar with a square of wax paper, and screw on the lid. It will keep in your pantry or cupboard without refrigeration until you are ready to use it again. The ingredients will separate, but all you have to do is mix them together again.



Aunt Nancy’s Note: Judy got this recipe when she took a cake decorating class. She uses it when she bakes wedding cakes and gingerbread houses for Christmas.



Hannah’s Note: Pan Coat will work on any pan that needs to be greased and floured. (And it’s a lot easier than greasing it first, dumping in some flour, and then standing over the kitchen wastebasket trying to get the flour on every inside surface.





ULTIMATE STRAWBERRY BUNDT CAKE

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.



4 large eggs ? cup vegetable oil ? cup strawberry liqueur (I used Drillaud Strawberry Liqueur)

8-ounce (by weight) tub of sour cream (I used Knudson)

1 Tablespoon strawberry jam box of Strawberry Cake Mix, the kind that makes a 9-inch by 13-inch cake or a 2-layer cake (I used Pillsbury)

5.1-ounce package of DRY instant vanilla pudding and pie filling (I used Jell-O)

12-ounce (by weight) bag of white chocolate or vanilla baking chips (11-ounce package will do, too—I used Nestlé)





Prepare your cake pan. You’ll need a Bundt pan that has been sprayed with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray and then floured. To flour a pan, put some flour in the bottom, hold it over your kitchen wastebasket, and tap the pan to move the flour all over the inside of the pan. Continue this until all the inside surfaces of the pan, including the sides of the crater in the center, have been covered with a light coating of flour. Alternatively, you can coat the inside of the Bundt pan with Pam Baking Spray, which is a nonstick cooking spray with flour already in it or use Pan Coat.



Crack the eggs into the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix them up on LOW speed until they’re a uniform color.



Pour in the half-cup of vegetable oil and mix it in with the eggs on LOW speed.



Add the half-cup of strawberry liqueur. Mix it in at LOW speed.



Scoop out the container of sour cream and put it into a small bowl. Add the Tablespoon of strawberry jam and stir it in.



Add the sour cream and strawberry jam mixture to your mixer bowl. Mix that in on LOW speed.



When everything is well combined, open the box of dry cake mix and sprinkle it on top of the liquid ingredients in the bowl of the mixer. Mix that in on LOW speed.



Open the package of instant vanilla pudding and pie filling and sprinkle in the contents. Mix it in on LOW speed.



Shut off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl, remove it from the mixer, and set it on the counter.



If you have a food processor, put in the steel blade and pour in the white chocolate or vanilla baking chips. Process in an on-and-off motion to chop them in smaller pieces. (You can also do this with a knife on a cutting board if you don’t have a food processor.)



Sprinkle the white chocolate or vanilla baking chips in your bowl and stir them in by hand with a rubber spatula.



Hannah’s 1st Note: If you don’t want to use strawberry liqueur in this recipe, use whole milk or water with a little strawberry jam mixed in for flavoring.



Hannah’s 2nd Note: The reason the white chips in this recipe are chopped in smaller pieces is that regular-size chips are larger and heavier, and they tend to sink down to the bottom of your Bundt pan.



Use the rubber spatula to transfer the cake batter to the prepared Bundt pan.