Memorial Day Cake @MaddieDayAuthor #giveaway

MADDIE DAY here with a jump on the US Memorial Day holiday, coming up on Monday. This is a yummy sour cream cake that's easy to decorate with a sour cream frosting and red and blue fruit. See, you can use it for the 4th of July, too! You're welcome.

Memorial Day Cake

Who doesn't love a red, white, and blue dessert for Memorial Day? This cake is adapted from a Sweetest Menu recipe.

Ingredients

Sour cream cake

3 cups all purpose flour 

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick softened butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups full fat sour cream

Sour cream frosting and fruit topping

1 stick butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 cup full fat sour cream

2 cups cleaned and halved strawberries

2 cups blueberries

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons cognac, sherry, or other liqueur (optional)

 

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and line a 9”x13” pan or two cake pans with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Add sour cream and mix to blend.

In a small bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir into wet ingredients.

Transfer cake batter to your pan(s) and gently smooth the top. 

Bake cake for approximately 35-40 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Leave cake to cool slightly before carefully removing from cake pan(s). Leave on a wire rack to cool completely. Remove parchment paper and place on serving platter. (I covered a cutting board with tin foil.)

To make the frosting, add butter to a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and beat slowly until it starts to come together. Add sour cream and continue to beat until smooth.

Cover top (and middle if using two pans) of cake with sour cream frosting.

Mix blueberries and strawberries with sugar and alcohol (omit if desired) and let sit half an hour.

Spoon onto cake. Refrigerate if the cake won't be eaten promptly.

Enjoy after your cookout and/or with your favorite veteran.

Readers: What dessert do you enjoy on Memorial Day or another spring celebration? 

I'll send one lucky commenter Mulch Ado About Murder, my fifth Local Foods Mystery (written as Edith Maxwell), which takes place over Memorial Day weekend!

🍔🍓🎂

Murder at the Rusty Anchor will be out at the end of June!

A Case for the Ladies is out and available wherever books are sold!

My most recent releases are Deep Fried Death, #12 in the Country Store Mysteries.

And Murder Uncorked, Cece Barton Mystery #1, which released in late October.

Check out all my writing:

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

Lemon Sour Cream Cake @MaddieDay #giveaway

MADDIE DAY here, with a yummy cake and a celebration! 

Ten years ago exactly, I made the decision to leave my day job as full-time software technical writer. It had been my most recent career of several, and it was a good one for me for about twenty years. I worked with words and with smart engineers and other writers. Pay was good, dress was casual, hours were flexible. What's not to like?

Except...I really, really wanted to write more crime fiction. I had one mystery out. The first Local Foods mystery was releasing the following month. I'd written the second and had a contract for a third, and I had several short stories in print. 

But I was fitting it all in around the edges of a demanding job involving WRITING, with an hour commute each way. 

So I conferred with my Hugh (it helped that we'd downsized the previous year and have no mortgage), mustered my nerve, and gave notice.

I never would now be sitting here with nearly thirty published books and more on the way if I hadn't ended my five-year plan three years early. I'm so glad I did, and that deserves cake! 

So I bring you this delicious lemon sour cream cake. Easy to make, and easy on the tongue.

Lemon Sour Cream Cake

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups white sugar

1 cup butter at room temperature

3 eggs

1 cup sour cream (option: substitute whole milk plain yogurt)

1 large lemon, zested and juiced, divided (note: always zest before juicing)

½ cup powdered sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a fluted tube pan, such as a Bundt pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Combine sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. 

Add flour mixture, sour cream, and lemon zest. Beat until smooth.

Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes. 

Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Run a table knife around edges to loosen. Invert carefully onto a serving plate or cooling rack. Let cool completely, about 1 hour.

Stir 3 teaspoons lemon juice, powdered sugar, and butter in a small bowl until a thick glaze forms. Poke holes in the top of the cake with a chopstick. Drizzle glaze over cooled cake.

Enjoy with tea, coffee, or sherry – and a good book.

The latest in each of my series, plus my new short story collection.

Readers: What's your favorite flavor of Bundt cake? Have you had a momentous career change? I'll send one commenter your choice of one of my latest books! (Make sure you include your email address.)

📕🎂📚

My most recent release is A Questionable Death and Other Quaker Midwife Mysteries, out in April 2023.

The next book will be Murder at a Cape Bookstore, releasing in August, 2023.

Following that in quick succession will be "Murderous Mittens" in Christmas Mittens Murder and Murder Uncorked, both featuring my new wine bar manager Cece Barton.

Check out all my writing!

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.