Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #16)(45)

Add the softened butter. (The butter should be at room temperature unless, of course, you’re working in a drafty kitchen in the middle of a cold Minnesota winter. In that case, you’ll have to soften it a bit more!)

Mix the brown sugar and butter together thoroughly.

Add the eggs, one by one, beating after each addition.

Mix in the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla extract.

Feel the sides of the bowl you set aside with the bran flakes and raisin mixture. If it’s not so hot it’ll cook the eggs, add it to your work bowl now. Mix it in thoroughly.

Measure out the flour, packing it down in the cup when you measure it.

Get out the 2 cups of buttermilk (or whipping cream if you used that).

Add about a third of the flour to your bowl and mix it in.

Add about a third of the buttermilk to your bowl and mix that in.

Add half of the flour you have left and mix it in.

Now add about half of the buttermilk you have left and mix that in.

Add the rest of the flour. Mix well.

Add the rest of the buttermilk. Mix well.

Hannah’s 2nd Note: You may have to mix in the final 2 ingredients by hand, especially if your bowl is getting too full for your mixer.

Measure the 2 cups of quick-cooking oatmeal and mix that in.

Measure the final 2 cups of bran flakes and mix them in.

Give the bowl a final stir and cover it with plastic wrap. Refrigerate your batter for at least 2 hours before you bake Mom’s Bran Muffins. (Overnight is fine, too. It’s even preferable. Everyone likes a warm muffin for breakfast.)

When you want to bake, preheat the oven to 375 F. degrees, rack in the middle position.

While your oven is heating to the proper temperature, prepare your muffin pans.

You can either spray your muffin cups with Pam (or another nonstick cooking spray) or line them with cupcake papers. Both methods work just fine.

These muffins don’t rise very much so fill your muffin cups ? (three-quarters) full.

Hannah’s 3rd Note: Lisa and I use a 2-Tablespoon scooper to fill our muffin cups down at The Cookie Jar. It’s neater than trying to spoon muffin batter into the cups.

Bake your muffins at 375 degrees F. for 20 minutes.

Hannah’s 4th Note: You can bake these muffins one pan at a time if you like. As long as you keep the muffin batter tightly covered in the refrigerator, it will be fine for up to 6 weeks (that’s right, SIX whole weeks!)

Cool your muffins in the muffin pan for at least 20 minutes. Just set the whole pan on a wire rack or on a cold stove burner. At the end of that time, you can take them out of the muffin cups and let them cool completely on a wire rack. They’re delicious warm, or cold.

Yield: 3 dozen delectable muffins.

Hannah’s 5th Note: If you’d rather make jumbo muffins, bake those for 30 minutes at 375 degrees F.

A Word of Caution: Everyone says that bran muffins are good for digestive health. This appears to be true because if you eat too many of these for breakfast, you’ll be spending a lot of time in the little room with the porcelain fixtures!

Chapter Fifteen


When Hannah reached the landing after ascending the covered staircase that led up to her condo, she was exhausted. It had been a terrible afternoon, but thankfully it was over. All she had to do now was make a sandwich for her dinner, and think of something to prepare for Mike when he came over to interview her at nine this evening.

Hannah stood on the bridge that ran between her condo and the condo across the way and wished that she hadn’t agreed when Mike had said he’d come by at nine to take her statement. All she really wanted to do was relax and enjoy the slight breeze that blew across the manicured grounds below without commitments for the remainder of the night. The sun had dropped behind the row of tall pines that hid her condo complex from the road, the temperature had lowered a good ten degrees, and the mosquitoes hadn’t found her yet.

As she stood there breathing deeply and feeling calmer, she watched the clouds make their majestic progress across the azure of the sky. There was something so comforting about dealing with nature instead of with people, even people she loved. You could watch nature change from one moment to the next and know that you didn’t have to attempt to influence it in any way.

There was a high-pitched whine that buzzed past her ear and Hannah knew her nature respite was over. One mosquito had found her and that was enough. Within thirty seconds the first mosquito would ring the dinner bell and bring hundreds of friends and relatives to the buffet table.

Hannah wasted no time thrusting her key in the lock and opening the door. She stepped back, braced herself, and caught the feline who hurtled himself into her arms. “Hi, Moishe. Did you miss me?”

The answer was a purr so loud that she knew he’d been waiting for her at the door. She stepped in, kicked the door shut behind her, dropped her purse in the chair by the door, and carried Moishe to his favorite perch on the back of the living room couch. This wasn’t easy. The last time she’d taken him to see his vet, Moishe had tipped the scales at twenty-two pounds. Between dragging Doctor Bev out of Miller’s pond, refilling the flour and sugar bins down at The Cookie Jar this morning, and carrying Moishe across the living room, Hannah figured she’d accomplished enough weight-lifting for the week, or perhaps even for the month.

As soon as she’d checked Moishe’s water bowl and poured herself something cold to drink, Hannah went back into the living room to see if there’d been any calls. The red light was blinking on her answering machine, and she pressed the button to play her messages.