Cake Mix + Pudding Mix Cake

 

I had to bring a dessert to an early St. Patrick's party.  The recipe below is the original from MarginMakingMom.  This is a great basic recipe for a simple and quick cake that can be customized with different flavor mixes and add-ins like chocolate chips or nuts.  I substituted pistachio pudding for the vanilla, which gave the cake a light green hue.  I also added green food coloring to the glaze and added a bit of Bailey's (why not?)  I made it thick enough to ice the cake but it can be made thinner for drizzling.  Or simply finish the cake with a dusting of confectioners sugar.  I then went wild with the sprinkles and topped the cake with a miniature leprechaun hat.  You can add any flavor pudding mix you like, ditto the cake mix. I also baked the cake in a tube pan because I can never get a cake out of my Bundt pan without leaving chunks of cake behind.  (Any tips welcome!)

French vanilla cake mix

3.4-oz instant vanilla pudding mix

3 eggs

1 cup warm water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Heavy cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees 

Grease and flour a Bundt or tube pan (or spray generously with cooking spray.)

Place cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water, vegetable oil, sour cream and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer.  Beginning on low, raise speed to medium high and beat mixture for two minutes until well combined.

Pour into prepared pan and bake 40 to 50 minutes.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove cake to a wire rack to continue to cool.

MAKE GLAZE

Add confectioners sugar to a bowl and add (1 to 2 tablespoons optional liqueur) heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached--from thick enough to ice cake or thin enough to drizzle.

 

Enjoy!

The Open Book Series

When murder taints writer-in-residence Penelope Parish’s charming British bookshop, she must follow the clues to catch a killer before tempers boil over.

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

 

Family fireworks lead to murder in the new Cranberry Cove Mystery from USA Today bestselling author Peg Cochran!

The Fourth of July always means endless celebrations in Cranberry Cove, and this year Monica and Greg have the added pleasure of spending it with Monica’s college roommate, Kelly Cargill. When they join Kelly and her family to watch the fireworks, it’s all very exciting—until the elderly matriarch of the family dies on the spot. Then evidence comes to light that she was poisoned, and Monica promises to do what she can to catch the culprit.

Just about everyone in Kelly’s family wanted to get their hands on what was sure to be a sizable inheritance. But Monica also discovers that one of them was trying to hide a messy love affair the older woman had discovered, and that the victim’s caretaker may have wanted revenge for enduring years of mistreatment. And just as more secrets surface and the clues begin to fall into place, Monica realizes that as she’s closing in on the killer, the killer is closing in on her . . .

Includes a mouthwatering cookie recipe!

 

Cranberry Cove #10 coming Summer 2024!

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

 

My article on the Enduring Appeal of Cozy Mysteries  

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Celery Soup @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I’ve always loved celery soup, even as a kid when it came as glop from a can. So when I saw a recipe in the New York Times cooking section for fresh celery soup, I couldn’t resist trying a version of theirs. The only disadvantage is that it does dirty up several appliances in the making. But it was worth it to use the blender to get the creamy texture at the end. And it's green for St. Patrick's Day!

Ingredients

One or 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the same of butter.

Two leeks

Three garlic cloves

One head celery

One large russet potato

Three bay leaves

A splash of wine, white or rosé

5 cups chicken broth 

One cup water

Several sprigs fresh oregano

1 cup parsley leaves

Clean the leeks well, peeling off the outside layers and slicing finely. Slice the garlic cloves. Melt the butter with the oil and sauté the leeks and garlic on low heat until they are soft.

Meanwhile, use your food processor to slice the celery. Peel the potato and cut it into chunks. Add these vegetables to the leek-garlic mixture along with the bay leaves, and the oregano. Sauté another 5 to 7 minutes until those vegetables are softening. Add a splash of wine and cook that down.

Add the chicken stock and simmer everything for 20 minutes until the veggies are soft. Add the parsley leaves at this point, and remove the bay leaves, then set this aside to cool. 

Blend all the vegetables with stock to a creamy texture and taste for seasoning with salt and pepper. I thought I might need to add a splash of milk or cream or cheese, but it was really delicious as is. I served this with green goddess biscuits, so it was a very green meal, perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mysteries. A DISH TO DIE FOR has just been awarded the Florida Book Awards bronze medal for popular fiction! 

A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS (#13 in the series) is now available for pre-order...

Cheese and Sour Cream Scones @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Happy St. Patrick's Day! This remains my all-time favorite photo of St. Patty's day in Key West. Posing in front was our beloved and gorgeous Tonka--the girls behind him insisted on having him in a photo. Luckily our friend Jerry Touger was there to capture the moment.

All that aside, I should be offering you something quintessentially Irish today, right? I am making corned beef and cabbage, but since it's in the crockpot and not photo-ready, I will share it next time. (Who says it can only be eaten on March 17??) If yours is likewise bubbling on the stove, these cheese and sour cream scones might go nicely with the dinner.

This recipe is probably more Scottish than Irish, but it does have flecks of green in it. If you're making a pot of soup or chili and want something a little special to go with, these scones fit the bill, too. I always choose a sharp cheddar for cheese scones but you could use whatever you have, or even mix and match. If you have a pot of chives in your kitchen window, feel free to swap out the scallions. You could use Irish Kerrygold butter and cheese, and feel good and Irish about the whole thing!

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached All-Purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder 

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, plus 1/4 cup more for the tops

1/2 teaspoon salt

3-4 chopped scallions 

8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, 1 stick

2 large eggs (1 separated, white reserved for glaze)

1/2 cup sour cream

1-3 teaspoons of sharp mustard, to taste

A few shakes of hot sauce, like Tabasco

Mix the dry ingredients together. Cut the butter into the dry mixture using a pastry cutter. The butter wants to be in pea-sized pieces, but try not to overwork the dough. Shred the cheese and chop the scallions and stir these into the butter-flour mixture. 

Whip together the egg plus yolk and the sour cream and mustard and hot sauce, and mix until the dough is moist. 

Pat the dough into a circle onto a floured surface-and then cut into wedges. Transfer to a parchment-covered baking sheet. Paint the saved egg white on the tops of the scones and sprinkle with shredded cheddar.

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until the tops are brown. 

Serve piping hot with more butter if you like!

If scones don't feel quite right, you might like my recipe for Irish soda bread. And for dessert? An Irish lemon pie would be perfect. I'm making both of them to have alongside the corned beef and cabbage. Hmmm, and now I'm thinking that all of those recipes will make their way into Key West #13, now very much in progress...

About things in progress, UNSAFE HAVEN will be featured on First Chapter Fun next Thursday March 24. You can follow the fun either in their Facebook Group and or on Instagram @firstchapterfun. 

If you read on a Kindle, both THE KEY LIME CRIME and A DEADLY FEAST are on sale for $1.99 until 3/20...

Last but not least, A DISH TO DIE FOR, #12 in the Key West food critic mystery series, will be out on August 9, but is now available for preorder wherever books are sold!

About A Dish to Die For:

Peace and quiet are hard to find in bustling Key West, so Hayley Snow, food critic for Key Zest magazine, is taking the afternoon off for a tranquil lunch with a friend outside of town. As they are enjoying the wild beach and the lunch, she realizes that her husband Nathan’s dog, Ziggy, has disappeared. She follows his barking, to find him furiously digging at a shallow grave with a man’s body in it. Davis Jager, a local birdwatcher, identifies him as GG Garcia, a rabble-rousing Key West local and developer. Garcia was famous for over-development on the fragile Keys, womanizing, and refusing to follow city rules—so it’s no wonder he had a few enemies.

 When Davis is attacked in the parking lot of a local restaurant after talking to Hayley and her dear friend, the octogenarian Miss Gloria, Hayley is slowly but surely drawn into the case. Hayley’s mother, Janet, has been hired to cater GG’s memorial service reception at the local Woman’s Club, using recipes from their vintage Key West cookbook—and Hayley and Miss Gloria sign on to work with her, hoping to cook up some clues by observing the mourners.

But the real clues appear when Hayley begins to study the old cookbook, as whispers of old secrets come to life, dragging the past into the present—with murderous results.

Irish Lamb Stew + Irish Soda Bread (gluten-free), #recipe from author @DarylWoodGerber

From Daryl aka Avery

Happy almost St. Patrick's Day. The Irish side of me, Traynor (or Trainor), comes from County Cork.  My grandmother was raised there and often spoke of her home country, even though she and her brother made their way on a steamer in the late 1800s to America. Okay, yes, her family was with her, but to hear her tell it, she and her brother crossed alone. They were both scrappers.

She survived the 1906 quake in San Francisco. She travelled the world. She married a man. They had a son. She lost her husband tragically, so she married my grandfather, a man 30 years her senior. They had a son, my father. Grandmother Irene was a stalwart woman. She had rules. She liked things done in a certain way. Very Downton Abbey, come to think of it. But she loved the arts. She took me to the symphony and musicals. She loved to golf. She wasn't a cook. At least I never saw her cook. But she had a cook.  I remember some grand dinners at her house. I still make Christmas dinner the way it was served at her house: roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, crisp green beans. Incredible sugar cookies for dessert.

One thing she never served was Irish lamb stew. I couldn't figure it out. Was it to peasant for her tastes? I remember having corned beef and cabbage but not stew. 

I simply had to make one for myself. I browsed my cookbook shelves for a recipe but couldn't find one. I found Irish Soda Bread in my very first cookbook, The Gourmet Cookbook, Volume I. That recipe will follow.

So I went online and searched for recipes. There were lots of choices, but none fit the bill, so I tweaked a recipe I found in a Southern Living site, of all things. And the result is tasty!  Also, gluten-free for those, like me, who need to eat that way.

So happy St. Patrick's Day. If you are Irish. If you wish to be Irish. If you simply like to eat, drink, and laugh heartily!

By the way, while cooking this stew, I came across a term in a recipe that always stumps me: salt and pepper to taste. Honestly, salt and pepper "mature" in a stew over time, so how much is too much and how little too little? Personally, I'd rather err on the side of "too little" and add more of each spice when served. So in this recipe, I give you exact amounts. If you want more, be my guest.

Irish Lamb Stew

Gluten-free

Serves 4-6

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ½ pounds lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1” cubes

2 large sweet onions, quartered and sliced

4-5 large carrots, peeled and sliced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2-3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon dried parsley

2 teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon white or black pepper

3 cups beef broth (gluten-free)

10-12 small white potatoes

½ cup frozen peas

2 tablespoons corn starch

2 tablespoons water

Directions:

Peel and dice the carrots and onions. Set to one side. Trim and cube the lamb. *Note: I found this easier to do with kitchen shears. Lamb is slippery!

In a large, deep sauté pan, over medium-high heat, heat the oil. Sauté the lamb in the oil for 2 minutes. Add the chopped onion and cook, stirring, until the lamb is browned and onion tender, about 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle with thyme and add the chopped carrots, the bay leaf (I like more than most), parsley, salt, and pepper, and the beef broth.

Simmer for about 1 hour.

Add the potatoes, sliced in half if preferred, and cover. Continue cooking for 25 more minutes.

Add more salt and pepper if desired.

Add peas. Stir.

In a small bowl, stir the cornstarch and water together until smooth and no lumps. Add the mixture to the stew and stir well. Raise heat to medium low and cook for 3-4 minutes until the broth thickens.

This can be served immediately or made a day or two ahead and reheated. Flavors will meld deliciously! My husband says it's one of the best stews he's ever had, and he can be picky about stew!  So enjoy!

Serve with soda bread or crusty loaf.

Irish Soda Bread

Gluten-free

(tweaked from a recipe out of The Gourmet  Cookbook Volume 1)

Serves 6

2 cups gluten-free flour  (I used tapioca starch and potato starch)

1/8 cup sugar (2 tablespoons)

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

2 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk

1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 °F. In a small bowl, mix together the gluten-free flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt and xanthan gum. Cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Add the buttermilk and egg. Combine until incorporated.  [Note: if you don't have buttermilk on hand, use 3/4 cup regular milk plus 1 tablespoon vinegar.]

Turn the dough out on a board and knead it for 2 to 3 minutes until it is smooth. [Note: mine didn’t get “smooth” but was fully incorporated.]

Shape the dough into a round loaf. Put the loaf in an 8-inch cake pan. Press down [you might need to moisten your fingers] until it fills the pan. Using sharp scissors, cut a diagonal slit in the center of the loaf.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

My notes: I think I would have used a ½ teaspoon more of baking powder to make this fluffier. I’m not sure I needed the xanthan gum in a recipe that baked so fast. And my pan was a 9-inch cake pan. The bread came out rather flat. It cooked faster than the recipe called for. Therefore, it might have been puffier in an 8-inch cake pan.

No matter what, the flavor was lovely!

Savor the mystery!

******************

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AS GOUDA AS DEAD
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