I’m tickled pink to be
back, or maybe I should say I’m tickled chocolate-colored. My latest Local
Foods mystery, Farmed and Dangerous,
takes place in deep winter in Massachusetts. And boy, did we have a winter this
year! Even though it’s now sunny and green outside, when a blizzard rages a
person’s thoughts turn to soups, stews, and baking (right, Sheila?). And
chocolate.
While this cake isn’t described in the book, it certainly something Cam could have enjoyed baking. It doesn’t really involve locally grown produce, but she’s much less of an avid locavore than her customers are. Not that she minds getting paid for supplying them, though.
I made this cake for
Easter brunch this year (it was STILL cold out at Easter) because I had a
gluten- and dairy-free guest coming, and this cake fits the bill. It’s not a
bit short on flavor, though.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
12 servings
(depending…)
Ingredients:
Oil
1-1/4 cup roasted
almonds
3/4 cup plus 4 T sugar
6 oz good quality semisweet
chocolate chips
10 cardamom pods
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup cocoa powder
Juice and zest of one
large orange
6 eggs, separated
Kosher salt
1 pint fresh
raspberries, divided in half
Cointreau
Directions:
Heat oven to 350
degrees.
Pour some Cointreau in
a glass and sip.
Rub oil inside
nine-inch spring form pan and set on a baking sheet.
Use a hammer or a
mortar and pestle to pound the pods until the husks open. Remove and discard
the husks. In a food processor,
combine cardamom seeds, almonds, and 1/4 cup sugar. Process until well chopped.
Add chocolate and
process until well ground. Move mixture to a bowl. Whisk in cinnamon, cocoa
powder, orange juice, and zest until smooth.
In a medium bowl, whisk
the egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until significantly thickened.
Stir in the other mixture.
Whisk the egg whites
and a pinch of salt with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add
2 T of sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks form.
Working in three
batches, fold whites into yolk mixture.
Pour batter into spring
form pan, then place pan on baking sheet in the middle of the oven. Bake for 40
to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.
Cool to room
temperature, then run a knife around the perimeter of the pan and release the
sides.
Lightly mash half the
raspberries in a small saucepan, add 2 T sugar, and gently heat until sugar is
dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup Cointreau (or more, depending…).
Use a chopstick to
gently poke holes into the top of the cake.
Array rest of fresh
raspberries hole down on the cake, then spoon cooked mixture over top.
Enjoy!
Edith will be delighted to offer a copy of Farmed and Dangerous to someone who comments here (please include your email so she can reach you). The selection will be made by a random drawing. Read about the book below!
Edith will be delighted to offer a copy of Farmed and Dangerous to someone who comments here (please include your email so she can reach you). The selection will be made by a random drawing. Read about the book below!
Organic
farmer Cam Flaherty is struggling to provide the promised amount of food to her
customers in her first winter in Westbury, Massachusetts, and her new
greenhouse might just collapse from the weight of the snow. Supplying fresh
ingredients for a dinner at the local assisted living facility seems like the
least of her worries—until a cantankerous resident with a lot of enemies dies
after eating the meal.
But
while the motives in this case may be plentiful, the trail of poisoned produce
leads straight back to Cam. Not even her budding romance with police detective
Pete Pappas will keep him from investigating her.
As
the suspects gather, a blizzard buries the scene of the crime under a blanket
of snow, leaving Cam stranded in the dark with a killer who gives new meaning
to the phrase “dead of winter.”
Agatha-nominated
and Amazon-bestselling author Edith Maxwell writes four murder mystery series,
most with recipes, as well as award-winning short stories.
Farmed and Dangerous is the latest in Maxwell's Local Foods
Mysteries series (Kensington Publishing). The latest book in the Lauren
Rousseau mysteries, under the pseudonym Tace Baker (Barking Rain Press), is Bluffing is Murder. Maxwell’s Country
Store Mysteries, written as Maddie Day (also from Kensington), will debut with Flipped for Murder in November, 2015.
Her Quaker Midwife Mysteries series features Quaker midwife Rose Carroll
solving mysteries in 1888 Amesbury with John Greenleaf Whittier’s help, and
will debut in March, 2016 with Delivering
the Truth.
A
fourth-generation Californian, Maxwell lives in an antique house north of
Boston with her beau and three cats. She blogs every weekday with the other
Wicked Cozy Authors (http://wickedcozyauthors.com), and you can find her at www.edithmaxwell.com, @edithmaxwell, on Pinterest and
Instagram, and at www.facebook.com/EdithMaxwellAuthor.
