Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #16)(32)

“It started out with Norman. I asked him to come over for dinner when I ran into him at the hospital on Sunday. And then Mike called and wanted to come over right before we were about to sit down for dinner. And Norman took the phone and invited Mike.”

Andrea rolled her eyes at the ceiling. “Norman’s too nice for his own good.”

“Sometimes . . . yes,” Hannah agreed, wisely deciding not to mention which man had stayed at her condo the latest.

“Mother called me. She managed to find Barbara’s mother’s medical records. Barbara was her first baby and she couldn’t have any more after Barbara was born. She had a hysterectomy.”

“So Barbara couldn’t have a brother,” Andrea concluded.

. “Not a full brother, but how about a half-brother?” Lisa asked. “That would count as a brother.”

“You’re a genius!” Hannah said, smiling at her partner. “I never thought of that! Barbara’s brother could be her father’s child.”

“I’ll look into it,” Andrea promised.

“And I’ll ask Dad,” Lisa promised. “He has good days and bad days, but on the good days, he remembers a lot. I can ask Marge, too. She might remember.”

“Good idea,” Hannah said, and then she turned to her sister. “Are you going to see the crane?”

“Yes. Tracey wants to see it and I promised I would. It’s going to be quite a sight, Hannah. How about you? Are you going?”

Hannah made a snap decision. “We’re going right after Roger picks up the bar cookies.”

“Wonderful!” Lisa began to smile. “I’ve never seen a crane that big. I’m going to call Marge and tell her so she can bring Dad. I’ll ask them to come here first. Then they can take care of the coffee shop while we bake the bars and the cupcakes for Roger.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Andrea asked.

“As a matter of fact there is.” Hannah pulled some money out of her pocket. “Will you run down to the Red Owl and tell Florence that we need eight jars of seedless raspberry jam?”

“Sure. I know she’s got raspberry jam. I bought some the other day. But I don’t think it was seedless.”

“That’s okay. We can always melt it and strain it.”

“Okay. Anything else?”

“Yes. Six double packages of brownie mix.”

Once Andrea had left for the grocery store, Lisa turned to Hannah. “Where’s the recipe for the Berried Treasure Bar Cookies? I’ll start on them as soon as Andrea comes back with the jam.”

“There isn’t one.”

“No recipe?”

“Nope. I’m just going to wing it. I’ll jot down the recipe as I go, and if they turn out, we’ll add it to our book.”

Lisa stared at her in something very close to awe. “You’re going to make up a recipe on the fly?”

“You betcha!”

“But what if the Berried Treasure Bar Cookies don’t turn out?”

Hannah gave a little shrug. “That’s why I asked Andrea to pick up the brownie mix. I’ll just bake six double batches of brownies and glaze the top of the pan with melted raspberry jam. And then I’ll frost the top with chocolate frosting.”

“Brownies from a mix?”

“Think of it as insurance. I’ll use my own brownie recipe unless I run into a time crunch. If that happens, I’ll just use the mix.”

“Do you think that’ll work?”

“Oh, yes. Doctor Bev will never know the difference and we’ll have a good laugh at her expense.”
BERRIED TREASURE BAR COOKIES (RASPBERRY BAR COOKIES)

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

1 cup cold salted butter (2 sticks, 8 ounces, ?

pound)

2 cups all-purpose flour (don’t sift—pack it down in

the cup when you measure it)

? cup powdered sugar (not sifted)

4 beaten eggs (just whip them up in a glass with a

fork)

2 cups white (granulated) sugar

? cup seedless raspberry jam

? teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

? cup all-purpose flour (don’t sift—pack it down

when you measure it)

? cup seedless raspberry jam

? cup (1 stick, ? pound, 4 ounces) salted butter

1 cup white (granulated) sugar

cup cream

? cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (approximately

? of a 6-ounce package—I used Nestle)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Spray a 9-inch by 13-inch cake pan with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. Alternatively, you can line the cake pan with heavy duty aluminum foil and spray that with the cooking spray.

The Shortbread Crust: Cut each stick of butter into eight pieces. Zoop them up with the flour, and powdered sugar in the food processor, using an on and off motion, with the steel blade until the resulting mixture looks like coarse cornmeal. Spread it out in the bottom of the cake pan. Pat the crumbly mixture down with your freshly-washed hands. This is your shortbread crust.

Hannah’s 1st Note: If you don’t have a food processor, you can mix up the crust with a piecrust blender or two knives. Don’t worry if the crust gets “doughy” instead of crumbly. Once you spread it out in the pan and bake it, the end result will be the same.