Around the Kitchen Table: Our Favorite Birthday Meals + 5-Book #Giveaway #ATKT

MADDIE DAY here. Some of us celebrate our birthdays all month, and November is mine. In fact, today is my actual birthday!

My cake from three years ago, with all the names
various loved ones call me - except Edith!

November can be very dark in New England, as the day length dwindles to a near minimum, so a birthday helps. I'm always happy to have candles lit in my honor at the beginning of the month. And then there's New England Crime Bake next weekend, a joyful gathering of writers and fans and editors and agents. Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, follows a couple of weeks later. It means food and family,  sans gifts or elaborate decorations. Some years I've also had a new book release in November or at the tail end of October, but not this year. 

But first November starts with birthdays, mine and others. My granddaughter, Ida Rose, squeaked into Scorpio territory two years ago with her October 20th birthday (trust me on this - Hugh checked his ephemeris). My bestie Jennifer is also a Scorpio, plus several other women friends I felt an instant affinity to when we met. (Two important lovers in my distant past were also Scorpios.)

Jennifer and me two years ago -
we've been friends for 48 years!

Bloggers, let's share our favorite birthday meals. I'll start. As a child in southern California, I would request roasted chicken and roasted potatoes, my mother's French cut green beans with slivered almonds, half a steamed artichoke with melted butter, sliced avocado, and chocolate or marble cake. 

Now I request to be taken out to a favorite bistro or other gourmet dinner when it's just Hugh and me, since he doesn't enjoy cooking. I like to finish a special meal with a decadent chocolate dessert, a decaf espresso, and a cognac. 

If my sons are going to be around, they cook for us, and nothing makes me happier than having them working together in the kitchen while I sit. We chat and laugh and do a bit of kitchen dancing. (Every birthday needs kitchen dancing!) 

MLKers and readers: Did you request certain foods as a child? What kind of food do you celebrate your day with as an adult? Favorite kind of cake or birthday dessert? And do I have any fellow Scorpios among the MLK group or our readers? Dish!

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LUCY BURDETTE: Wow Edith, your birthday requests were so specific! In my house growing up, the birthday person chose the cake--that's the tradition I've carried forward. 

My sister and I were born close together, so we often shared an angel food cake frosted with whipped cream. Now my surrounding birthday people mostly want chocolate. 

Luckily, I have a wide range of chocolate recipes to offer! Here's a fairly recent chocolate Guinness cake--so yummy!

 

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LESLIE KARST: I always requested cherry pie for my birthday instead of birthday cake. And my mom would oblige, baking one with little cookie-cutter pastry horses marching around the top. I wish I had a photo, because her pies were so darling! 

Nowadays, I still love me a cheery pie, but am far more interested in the main course--my favorite being steak-frites with sauce bèarnaise. 

steak au poivre, no frites

My sister's birthday is the day after mine (plus five years), so we try to celebrate together each year and often cook for ourselves. Luckily she has the same food taste as I. But I often skip the bèarnaise sauce, since it's a bit of a pain to make. (And we send someone out to McDonald's for the frites.)

 

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I still have that
cake plate! 

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Happy Birthday, Edith! (And Maddie, too!) Like Lucy, the tradition in my childhood was that the birthday celebrant got to choose the cake -- and birthdays were about the only time we had cake, being People of the Pie, preferably cherry pie. And I too chose angel food cake for my birthday, with frosting -- I have no idea what kind it was.  

And that brings up a poignant memory. For my mother's last birthday, the family was gathering in the retirement community in Helena, MT, where she lived. She asked for angel food cake and strawberries, but I did not think it would survive the 160 mile drive, in August, over the mountains. So I called Safeway. "Oh, sure, hon, we can do that for you," the bakery woman said when I made my request---and she did. I showed up, and picked up a grocery bag packed with a fresh angel food cake, strawberries, glaze, and a can of whipped cream -- and birthday candles. It was a kindness I have never forgotten. Here's my version of Angel Food Cake with Strawberries. which I often make in my mother's memory. 

Mr. Right and I like going out for birthday celebrations, and since his is mid summer and mine mid winter, it's a great combo -- especially if we're someplace warm like we were last year. 

Birthday tiramisu,
in Honolulu! 

But even if we've gone out, I still enjoy making my own birthday cake, to keep the celebration going. No longer the creature of habit I once was, it might be a carrot cake, like this Carrot Graham Layer Cake, or Walnut Cake, or Almost-Flourless Chocolate Torte. The dinner itself, out or at home, is never the same twice -- one year in a small beach town in Mexico, it was street tacos with beer followed by coconut ice cream because that was all that was available. And you know what? It was perfect!

Happy Birthday, all you November girls and boys! 

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MOLLY MACRAE: My birthday is one week after Halloween. I’ve always loved that and I’ve had some wonderful birthdays. Here I am with my friends Martha Lee and Maureen, and my brother Andy celebrating my birthday and static electricity with balloons stuck to our hair in 1959.

As kids (six of us), we were sometimes asked what kind of cake we’d like to have. But right around when I turned nine or ten, Mom got it into her head that I LOVED ice cream cake roll and that’s what I got every year from then until I went away to college. It made her so happy to put it on the table with candles that I never had the heart to tell her I don’t like ice cream cake roll at all. My brother Jack and I agree that the best and only birthday cake is yellow cake with chocolate frosting. As for a favorite birthday meal these days? Nope, haven’t got one. I like most everything we have at home (and if someone were to fix something for my birthday that I don’t like, I wouldn’t have the heart to tell them).

Happy birthday fellow Novemberistas! That’s not a real word but it collects all the November Scorpios and Sagittarians together and we can say it with flair and the clicking of castanets.

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CLEO COYLE: Happy Birthday, Edith! Because my February 2nd birthday lands on Groundhog Day, I start the day by celebrating with the most famous groundhog in the world and the people of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Getting up before sunrise, I brew a pot of coffee and video stream this lively party that goes on all night long with tens of thousands attending and culminating in the appearance of Punxsutawney Phil at the break of dawn....

I almost always re-watch the Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day movie that week, and (unlike Bill's loop of a life in that film) my birthday meal varies, depending on the winter weather and my writing deadlines, but there will always be cake! 

I have been enjoying the Red Ribbon cakes on my birthday for years. This beloved Filipino bake shop has some wonderful varieties, including the Choco Mocha Crunch Cake with honeycomb candy, and the light and creamy Mocha Roll (one of my favorites, pictured below). Highly recommended. May you all have a delicious birthday! ~ Cleo 

Cleo's "Red Ribbon"
Mocha Roll Birthday Cake

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KIM DAVIS: Wishing you the happiest of birthdays, Edith! My mom had six siblings who all lived in the vicinity of us. I had a lot of cousins so as a kid all of our birthdays were big events when the family gathered together. I don't remember what was served for meals--it was potluck style no doubt--or even what kind of cake was served. What I do remember with great fondness is the homemade ice cream made with the old-fashioned hand-crank churn with lots of cracked ice and rock salt since my birthday is in August. That ice cream was the BEST and as the birthday girl, I got to lick the ice cream off the paddle when it was done. One year--I was probably six--I decided I'd be helpful and water the grass with the melted water left in ice cream churn. Let's just say I learned my lesson that grass and plants do NOT like salt water! On my actual birthday I got to choose what to have for dinner with my immediate family and I'd always choose tacos with my dad's homegrown pickled jalapeños. As an adult I make my own birthday dinners and generally have swordfish or every once in a while, steak. And for a birthday dessert, it's always ice cream although I buy it instead of making it.

While birthday cake might not be my ideal dessert, I jumped in wholeheartedly to learn how to decorate cakes when my granddaughters came along. As my youngest granddaughter put it every single year, "it's the best birthday ever," whenever she'd see the cake! The princess castle is from her 4th birthday and I made the two towers from slabs of homemade gingerbread cookies, while the stacked center is all cake. 

I always let them choose a theme for the cake and then I'd come up with a design. The hardest theme I had to work with was when my youngest granddaughter, turning seven, insisted it had to be gummy worms 😕It took me a few weeks to think on it, but finally landed on this cake:

A tropical forest with gummy worms and cookie crumb dirt on the base! No matter how you celebrate, wishing all the November birthday people, the happiest of days!

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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: Happy Birthday, Edith!  At one time we had four family birthdays in November--my Dad, niece, grandmother and my late husband.  It was a busy month! I don't remember any special meals for my birthday although when I went to stay with my grandmother for a week during the summer she  always made my favorite--potato soup and "German pancakes" (crepes) filled with sweetened cottage cheese and dusted with cinnamon.  Birthday cakes always came from the local bakery--white cake with white icing.  Now I choose chocolate every time! Funny cake story: when I was pregnant with my younger daughter, my water broke in our local Chinese restaurant.  For many years afterwards we would go there to celebrate her birthday. On her tenth birthday, a strange car pulled into our driveway.  It was the owner of the Chinese restaurant with a cake for my daughter.  I suppose he never forgot the trauma of my nearly giving birth in his restaurant!

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VICKI DELANY: November! The month of my birth as well. It’s been a heck of a long time since anyone made me a birthday cake. (Sob story, I know). My children don’t live near enough to me for a drop in dinner or just a night out, so I am quite often on my own. Which I don’t mind. Really!

This year, I’m going to Ottawa to go out to dinner with my eldest daughter and my mom.  Admittedly, it’ll be as much if not more of a treat for Mom (turning 101 in January, and we have a big celebration planned for that), but I’m looking forward to it. My daughter knows all the best places.

I can’t complain too much – on my 60^th birthday I was in South Sudan, 65^th in Amsterdam, 70^th in Mozambique. Next year it’s the 75^th and we will be doing something involving international travel for that.

I do like to bake however and several times I’ve made this celebration cake to take to events like children’s birthday parties, and last year for Christmas Eve when we had children at the table.  You don’ have to be a kid to enjoy this cake though as everyone loves it.  (Caveat, mine always turns out a lot muddier looking than the picture in the cookbook. But it still tastes great).  

Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Vanilla Cake
with Sprinkles from Vicki Delany

One other thing about November birthdays.  My granddaughter, Isla Webb, was born on my 70^th birthday!  Here’s a picture of my daughter serving my birthday cake shortly after we got the word that the baby had arrived. 

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LIBBY KLEIN: Happy Birthday Edith! My birthday is December. Also known as the month of getting the shaft. I'm trying to make the "half birthday" a thing. I don't remember food or special cakes for any of my birthdays. I only remember the year Santa came to my party. As an adult, I want one thing for my birthday. To have it in another country. I need to team up with Vicki! I threw my granddaughter a pool party for her 4th birthday and we had a seven layer My Little Pony rainbow cake. She still talks about it.

 

GIVEAWAY!

To be entered in this week's drawing

for these terrific mysteries below,

join us in the comments.

    What about you? How do you celebrate your special day? Favorite kind of birthday cake or dessert? And are there any fellow Scorpios among our readers? 

Join the

conversation!

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DEADLY CRUSH by Maddie Day

SILENT NIGHTS ARE MUDER by Libby Klein 

BULLETPROOF BARISTA by Cleo Coyle

THERE'LL BE SHELL TO PAY by Molly MacRae

ESSENTIALS OF MURDER by Kim Davis

Comments Open
Through Wednesday
November 5

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Chocolate Birthday Cheesecake from @MaddieDayAuthor #giveaway

MADDIE here. Today is my next-older sister Janet's 70th birthday! We are less than two years apart in age and have been close since our teen years. 

Preteen ballerinas Edith and Janet

We attended the same university, we're the two out of the four Maxwell siblings who earned advanced degrees and traveled the world, and we just plain like each other. She's also an excellent cook.

But I can't travel to Ottawa, Canada, to help her celebrate. We can't meet in Puerto Rico for a family warm-weather birthday party as we'd dreamed of. I've arranged for a special gift to be delivered from a local indy bookstore to her, because we're a family of voracious readers, and we all have to support bookstores.

Maxwell sisters Janet, Barbara, and Edith with our mom, Marilyn, in 2012

Still, I'd rather celebrate in person. This is a recipe blog, and I happen to know how much my sister loves good chocolate. So I thought I'd make her a chocolate cheesecake. Jannie, I'm sorry you don't get to taste any! I hope you have some special birthday chocolate today.

Chocolate Birthday Cheesecake

Fair warning: this makes a large, rich cheesecake.

Ingredients

Crust:

24 Oreo cookies

1/4 cup butter, melted

Filling:

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup heavy cream, room temperature and divided

24 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

5 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Ganache:

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cups minus 2 tablespoons heavy cream

2 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream (or just use all heavy cream)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan

Add Oreo cookies to a food processor and crush until you have a fine crumb and very few larger pieces.

Add melted butter and stir until evenly distributed.

Press the crumbs into the bottom of the springform pan (and up the sides).

Place a rimmed cookie sheet on a lower oven rack (crust will drip). Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool. 

In a four-cup measuring cup, add 1/4 cup of heavy cream and the chocolate chips. Heat for 20-second intervals until the chips have melted and the mixture is smooth with no lumps. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand-held mixer until creamy and smooth.

Beat in the sugar and cocoa powder until smooth.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and 1/2 cup of heavy cream, mixing until combined.

Fold in the chocolate mixture.

Add the vanilla and stir to combine.

Pour the batter on top of the cooled cookie crust.

Bake for 70 minutes (keep the rimmed cookie sheet on the lower rack). The cheesecake is done when the sides are set but the center is still a little bit jiggly.

Remove the cheesecake from the oven and let it rest until the pan is cooled.

Refrigerate for 4 hours or until completely chilled.

Combine chocolate chips and heavy cream into a large glass measuring cup. Heat in the microwave in 20-second intervals until melted and creamy. Stir in Baily's. 

Pour over chilled cheesecake and let it sit for about 15 minutes or chill longer before removing the pan's outer ring.

Slice and serve!

Readers: What's your favorite birthday cake to make (or order) for others - or for yourself? To celebrate, I'll send one commenter a copy of Strangled Eggs and Ham, which includes a recipe for Southern Jam Cake.

My most recent book is Candy Slain Murder, the eighth Country Store mystery. As with all my books written as Maddie Day, you'll find easy recipes in the back.

The next book out in late March will be the wide release of Murder at the Taffy Shop, the second Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery - up for preorder now!

After that, my alter-ego has A Changing Light, our seventh Quaker Midwife Mystery releasing on April 13! It's also up for pre-order.

I hope you'll visit Edith Maxwell and me 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 north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

Birthday Cake in the Time of Sheltering in Place

My husband's birthday was on April 22nd.  Since we are both over 60, we have been using a grocery pick-up service to avoid going to the store until things settle down a bit.  I couldn't see asking the shopper to pick out a birthday cake let alone a card.  But I did want to celebrate in some way.  I managed to arrange a Zoom call with our combined kids, granddaughter and all their significant others to wish him happy birthday.  It was a lot of fun!

But there was the question of a cake...and believe me, hubby loves cake almost as much as he loves me.  So I poked around in the pantry.  Fortunately I had a boxed cake mix, which I sometimes use to doctor up when I need to take a dessert to take to our monthly potluck with friends.  I also unearthed a can of pineapple in the back of the pantry that I had forgotten about.  It wasn't crushed pineapple but a whirl through the food processor solved that problem! I also had a container of Cool Whip, a box of instant vanilla pudding and enough pineapple for the cake and the icing.  Crisis solved!

So here is a recipe that turned out very well and was quite delicious.

Ingredients

Cake:
1 box mix--yellow or white
1 cup of crushed pineapple with the juice
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil

Frosting:
1 container of Cool Whip
1 box instant vanilla pudding
1 cup of crushed pineapple with juice

Directions:

Combine all cake ingredients in a bowl, mixing well.  Pour batter into a 9 x 13 pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes (depends on your oven--your cake might need more or less time.)

For the frosting, combine the Cool Whip, pudding and pineapple and mix well.   

OUT NOW! Book #5

 

 AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

The dead of winter takes on a whole new meaning in the new Cranberry Cove Mystery from USA Today bestselling author Peg Cochran!

On a night of heavy snow and bitter cold, newlyweds Monica and Greg are comfortably nestled before a warm fire when they’re roused by a late-night knock at the door. Surprised to find a troubled and confused woman on the doorstep, Monica is even more shocked when the woman vacantly utters that someone is trying to kill her. Sensing distress but not danger, Monica decides to help this mysterious woman, but her clouded recollections yield little—until she dredges up memories of her sister and a nearby home, where they find the woman’s sister, dead.

Unable to deny her own curiosity or the woman’s request for help, Monica begins digging into the suspicious death, only to discover a murky family history of valuable land, a bullying brother, an unscrupulous real estate developer, and endless rumors of good deeds met with bad blood. And when the trail of the killer begins to turn cold, Monica realizes that while the family wants to bury their sister, someone is out to bury the clues—and if Monica’s not careful, to bury her as well . . .

Includes tasty recipes!
 

And Coming October 27...

 

Amazon

Barnes & Noble 

 

 

Coconut Cream Birthday Cake #recipe @lucyburdette

Birthday girls by Bill Carito

Lucy Burdette: I don’t mind sharing a birthday celebration, in fact I like it. I trace this back to my experience growing up. My older sister Sue (older by 11 months, two weeks) and I shared our January celebrations. We often had a joint party, though maybe we had individual cakes on the actual day? I don't remember for sure.

This year and last year, I was pleased to share birthdays with my friend Barbara Ross, who reaches all the milestones eight days before I do. This year I promised to make this coconut cake. However, I got sick and couldn’t attend the dinner nor make the cake. My solution was to make a cake for our two birthdays together. The rub was, I had a good old friend visiting who loathes coconut. So I made a coconut cream cake, only sprinkling the coconut on the icing so I could leave a little section coconut free. (You will note the little toothpicks which are used to remind myself not to put coconut on this triangle of cake. It turns out at this age, I can agree to do something with myself and forget it instantly, so I decided a physical reminder would help.)

This cake is found in Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. I changed a few things around, like making the coconut unsweetened – the cake was plenty sweet anyway. And I added some chopped strawberries between the layers and strawberries on top for color and decorations. When I put the batter into the pan, I was worried. It did not fill up the pans as many batters do. It also came out looking quite flat. But after the whipped cream and strawberries and coconut were added, it was beautiful, and everyone agreed, delicious!
Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder, low-sodium for me
1/4 teaspoon salt
Three eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whipping cream

1 1/2 cups whipping cream
3 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
Shredded or flaked organic coconut
Strawberries

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease the pans, followed by inserting rounds of parchment paper. Stir together the dry ingredients. Beat the eggs with 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat the cream to stiff peaks, using a KitchenAid or handheld mixer. 

three sets of ingredients

And the egg/vanilla mixture and beat that in briefly. Add the dry ingredients and stir until the flour disappears.

nice fluffy batter

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until lightly browned and the cake springs back when touched.

uh-oh, not covering bottom of pan

Cool the cakes completely. (I made these the day before and covered them with plastic wrap.)

a little skinny

Beat the cream with confectioner's sugar until stiff. 


Spread whipped cream on the bottom layer, sprinkle this with coconut flakes and chopped strawberries. 

Settle the second layer on top and again, sprinkle with coconut and decorate with strawberries.

note the toothpicks demarcating coconut-free zone

Make sure to refrigerate if you are not serving this right away, and refrigerate leftovers if you have any. I can’t emphasize how good this cake tasted and how fast it disappeared!


Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mysteries--find them wherever books are sold! Find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest--Instagram too...DEATH ON THE MENU will be in bookstores on August 7! Here's a pre-order the book link from Amazon--and here's a link to preorder a hard copy from RJ Julia in CT, where you'll be able to get a signed copy. I'll post others as they appear.