Fudge Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #5)(5)



Beatrice looked very distressed. "I'm sorry I brought this whole thing up. If Ted wasn't so all-fired set on having his mother's recipe in the cookbook, I'd tell you to just forget it."

"No way!" Both Hannah and Lisa spoke at once. There was a very brief moment of silence and then all three women burst into laughter.

When they'd stopped laughing, Lisa spoke up. "We'll figure it out, Beatrice. Hannah and I love a good mystery and at least this one doesn't involve a dead body."

"Only my mother-in-law," Beatrice quipped. And then she looked slightly shocked at her own humor. "I'm really glad Ted wasn't here to hear that!"



Hannah gave her hair a final brush and glanced in the mirror one last time. From the neck down, she looked very "teacherly" in her navy blue pantsuit and white blouse. From the neck up, it was another story. The humidity had been high today and her hair was a riot of unruly red curls. Hannah pulled it back, secured it all in the silver clasp her youngest sister, Michelle, had bought from one of her artist friends at Macalester College, and flicked off the light in her bedroom.

"I won't be late," Hannah promised, reaching down to pet Moishe as he followed her down the hall. "I'm just going to the school to be what I was going to be before I became what I am now."

Moishe gave a little yowl and stared up at her. Maybe it was her imagination, but he looked simply stupefied by the explanation she'd just uttered and Hannah burst into laughter. "Sorry. That was confusing. I'll be teaching an adult cooking class at the school and then I'm going out to dinner with Mike. Don't worry. I'll leave you with plenty of food."

Hannah was still chuckling over her sentence structure as she hurried down the stairs. She was looking forward to her date tonight with Lake Eden's most popular unmarried man. Mike Kingston had moved to Lake Eden just over a year ago, recruited from the Minneapolis Police Department by Sheriff Grant to head up the Winnetka County Detective Division. Since Mike was Bill's partner, both Andrea and Bill favored him for the position of brother-in-law. Delores liked Mike, but she'd teamed up with Carrie to push Norman, and Michelle, Hannah's youngest sister, liked both of them. So did Hannah and that was why she couldn't choose one over the other. Perhaps it was just as well that neither man had proposed. Sharing her life with someone who didn't use a litter box might be nice, but Hannah didn't really want to give up any of her independence.

Twenty minutes later, Hannah drove into the school parking lot. She was early and it was deserted. She pulled up as close to the home economics classroom as she could, grabbed her box of supplies, and headed for the delivery entrance. When Jordan High had been designed, the architect had put in an outside door for ease in delivering kitchen equipment and supplies. The regular teacher, Pam Baxter, had given Hannah a key when she'd agreed to take over the night cooking class. Instead of learning cake decoration, as Pam had originally planned, Hannah's class would be testing all the recipes that had been submitted for the Lake Eden cookbook.

Hannah stepped inside and flicked on the lights, blinking like an owl caught in the beam of a searchlight. The multiple overhead lighting fixtures were bright enough to turn night into day. When her eyes adjusted, Hannah set her box on a counter. Pam Baxter's pantry contained all the staples, but she'd brought the special ingredients her class would need for the recipes they were testing tonight. One of the ingredients was a package of sweetened dried cranberries for the cookies Hannah had just created. Since they were made from cranberries and cranberries grew in a bog, she planned to call them Boggles.

Five minutes later, Hannah was ready to teach. Her name was written on the blackboard in the unlikely event there were students who didn't know her, stacks of recipes were ready to be dispersed to the five groups that would bake at the five kitchen workstations, and the sign-in sheet was displayed on a clipboard at a desk in the front row. The only thing missing was Hannah's class and she had over an hour before her students would arrive.

Hannah sat down at the desk, but it didn't feel right. Perhaps she'd been wise to change her career plans. She was a lot happier in front of an oven than she was behind a desk. She got up and walked to one of the workstations. She'd put the extra time to good use by mixing up a batch of Alma Koester's Fudge Cupcakes without the secret ingredient. Once she'd tasted them, Beatrice might be able to tell what was missing.



Boggles



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



2 cups melted butter (4 sticks)

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

4 eggs-beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

4 cups flour

3 cups sweetened dried cranberries (Craisins or another brand)* * *

3 cups rolled oats (uncooked oatmeal)



* * * If you can't find the cranberries where you live you can substitute any chopped dried fruit such as dates, apricots, peaches, etc.



Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter in large microwave-safe bowl. Add sugars and let cool a bit. Add eggs, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and vanilla. Add flour and mix. Then add the cranberries and oats and mix everything up. The dough will be quite stiff.

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