Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #16)(50)

“Thanks!” Andrea beamed at the compliment. “Of course Tracey and Bethie deserve some of the credit. Tracey stirred and she reminded me to put the scooping spoon in the freezer so the dough wouldn’t stick.”

“Good for Tracey.” Hannah already knew that her almost-seven-year-old niece was a big help to Andrea, but she wondered what two-year-old Bethie could do to help. “How about Bethie? What did she do?”

“She drank the pineapple juice after I drained the pineapple. And before you say anything, I know that’s not really helping, but I told her it was. And she did critique the cookies. She said, Yummy, Mummy! And then she asked for another one.”

“That’s a seal of approval in my book. Are all these cookies for me?”

“Yes. I’ve got another container at home for Lisa and Herb. I’ll bring them by The Cookie Jar in the morning.”

“Would you mind if I served your cookies tonight? They’d be really good with vanilla ice cream.”

Andrea’s face lit up. “I wouldn’t mind at all! Who’s coming over? You said there were six.”

“You, me, Mike, Norman, Mother, and Michelle.”

“Then it’s a family party except for Bill. He’s working late on some paperwork that has to be filed. He says it takes him a lot longer now that he has to explain everything to one of the temporary secretaries. Barbara used to take care of all that.” Andrea gave a little sigh. “I wonder if she’s ever going to come back to work. It’s so sad. And they’re still in the dark about exactly what happened and who attacked her. I wonder if she’ll ever be able to tell us.”

“I think she will. She was rational for longer periods of time when I saw her this afternoon. She said some strange things, but some things made sense, too.”

“Let me help you set the table,” Andrea offered. “And when we’re through, you can tell me all about it.”
PINEAPPLE COCONUT WHIPPERSNAPPER COOKIES

Do not preheat your oven quite yet—your mixing bowl and spoon must chill before mixing this cookie dough.

8-ounce can of crushed pineapple

1 box yellow cake mix (the kind that makes a

9-inch by 13-inch cake)

1 large egg, beaten (just whip it up in a glass with a

fork)

2 cups of original Cool Whip (not low-fat Cool

Whip)

1 cup (8 ounces) sweetened coconut flakes

? cup powdered (confectioner’s) sugar (for rolling

the cookies)

15 to 18 maraschino cherries cut in half lengthwise

30 minutes before you’re ready to bake, stick a teaspoon from your silverware drawer in a large freezer-safe mixing bowl. Stick the bowl with the spoon in the freezer to chill.

Open the 8-ounce can of crushed pineapple and empty it in a small strainer. Occasionally, use the back of a tablespoon from your spoon drawer to press down on the top of the crushed pineapple in the strainer to speed up the draining time.

After 30 minutes have passed, empty the drained pineapple out onto a couple of paper towels and blot it gently to remove any remaining moisture.

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

Either spray a cookie sheet with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or line it with parchment paper and then spray that.

Remove the large mixing bowl from the freezer, but leave the spoon in.

Pour approximately half of the yellow cake mix into your bowl.

Add the beaten egg and stir it in.

Add the drained pineapple and mix it in.

Sprinkle the rest of the yellow cake mix on top. Add the Cool Whip and the coconut. Stir everything together until it’s well mixed.

Place the half-cup of powdered sugar in a shallow bowl. Then take the spoon out of the freezer.

There are two ways to form dough balls with this sticky cookie dough. One is to scoop out dough with the chilled spoon and place it in the bowl of powdered sugar, rolling it around with your fingers until it forms a small ball. The other, easier way is to dust your hands with powdered sugar, pinch off a small amount of dough, place it in the bowl of powdered sugar and shape it into a ball with your fingers.

Use your favorite method (you may want to try both to see which one works best for you) to form 12 dough balls for each cookie sheet.

If you don’t have double ovens, place the remaining cookie dough in the refrigerator to wait until you have room to bake a second sheet of cookies. If you forget to do this and leave it on the counter, it will be even stickier!

Place one-half of a maraschino cherry, cut side down, on top of each cookie ball on the sheet. Flatten the balls just a bit by pressing down on the cherry halves.

Bake your Pineapple Coconut Whippersnapper Cookies at 350 degrees F., for 15 minutes.

Remove your cookies from the oven and let them cool for 2 minutes on a cold stovetop burner or a wire rack.

When 2 minutes have passed, remove the cookies from the sheet with a metal spatula and place them on the wire rack to complete cooling. If you used the parchment paper, this is simple. Simply pull the paper off of the cookie sheet and onto the wire rack. The cookies can stay on the paper until they’re cool.

Hannah’s Note: Pineapple Coconut Whippersnapper Cookies are very pretty. Lisa and I are going to make them for Christmas parties using both red and green cherries since red and green are the traditional colors of Christmas.

Lisa’s Note: Herb absolutely adores these cookies. I can’t bake them fast enough for him!