Christmas Cupcake Murder

by Joanne Fluke

  To Decorate Santa’s Christmas Wreath Pancakes:

  Either sprinkle the top of your “wreath” with powdered sugar, or drizzle on Cinnamon Powdered Sugar Glaze.

  Dot the top side of the “wreath” with red and/or green candied cherries to resemble the berries on a wreath.

  To Decorate Santa’s Hat Pancakes:

  Spoon a small circle of Cinnamon Powdered Sugar Glaze in the center of each small pancake.

  Cut the stem part off a fresh (or frozen and thawed) strawberry to give it a flat bottom to sit on. Be sure to leave the tip of the strawberry intact. That’s the top of the Santa’s Hat.

  Place the strawberry, point up, in the center of the circle of glaze. Then drizzle a little more glaze around the base of the strawberry so that it looks like the white fur on the bottom of Santa’s hat.

  Dab a little more glaze on the tip of the strawberry so that it resembles the tassel on the tip of Santa’s hat. You can also decorate Santa’s Hat Pancakes with whipped cream if you wish.

  Yield: Makes approximately 4 Santa’s Christmas Wreath Pancakes and 4 Santa’s Hat Pancakes.

  Chapter Sixteen

  There was a knock at her back kitchen door and Hannah knew exactly who it was. It was a tentative knock, as if her early-morning caller was desperately hoping he wasn’t disturbing her, and that meant it had to be Joe Smith.

  “Come in, Joe.” Hannah opened the door and greeted him. “Pour yourself a cup of coffee, and I’ll get you a couple of my new Christmas Coconut Crunch Cookies for breakfast.”

  “Sounds great, Hannah,” Joe said quickly, hanging up the parka Delores and Carrie had given him. “Do you think it’ll ever warm up?” he asked her, rubbing his hands together as he headed for the kitchen coffeepot.

  “Probably not for another month,” Hannah answered, putting a generous helping of cookies on a plate for him.

  “You’re probably right,” Joe said with a sigh, carrying two cups of coffee to the work station and taking a seat across from Hannah’s favorite stool. “After all, the Minnesota spring doesn’t usually come until April at the earliest, and the end of May at the latest. I guess we should stop talking about the cold weather, and be grateful that we’ll probably get a white Christmas.” He smiled at Hannah as she came over to sit down. “I love Christmas, don’t you?”

  “I do. The reflection of the lights on the snow is so beautiful. And if the weather’s not really awful, everyone goes out at night to visit neighbors and go to holiday parties.”

  “And you cater those parties?” Joe asked. And then an expression she couldn’t interpret crossed his face.

  “What did you just think of, Joe?” Hannah asked him.

  “Your catering. I used to help my mother with parties. We always had the neighbors over for Christmas. Relatives too. And my mother always invited anyone in our township over for one of her parties, so that everyone was included.”

  “That was nice,” she said, making a mental note to write down the word township on the list she was keeping about what Joe had remembered. “Do you recall the name of your township?”

  “It was Lake something, or maybe something-Lake. All I can remember is that Lake was in the name. Everyone loved my mother’s holiday parties.”

  “And you said that you helped with those parties?”

  “So did Donnie, but there was only so much he could do.”

  “Because he was slow?”

  Joe shook his head. “Not really. He knew all the neighbors and remembered their names. And he helped them with odd jobs before Dad started the shop. After that, Donnie was too busy learning how to refinish furniture and reupholster sofas and chairs. He loved to work in the shop, Hannah. He said it made him feel smart. ”

  “Did you help to teach Donnie how to work in the shop?”

  “Yes. Donnie had trouble when it came to things like reading and adding numbers together, but he loved to make things look like new again. And he had a real talent for it. Dad used to ask Donnie which material to use on chairs and sofas, and he told me that the patterns and colors that Donnie chose were perfect. When Dad died, and Donnie and I kept the shop open, I used to ask Donnie for advice when it came to choosing upholstery material. ”

  “Do you remember Donnie’s last name, Joe?”

  “Yes, it’s the same as . . .” Joe stopped speaking and looked startled, as if he were waking from a dream. “I . . . I have a terrible headache, Hannah.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a vial of pills. “Doc gave me some pills. Do you mind if I get a glass of water?”

  “Of course not! Just stay right where you are, Joe. I’ll get it for you.”

  As Hannah ran water into a glass, she decided to call Doc the moment Joe left and tell him what had happened. It was clear that Joe’s memory was coming back, and the things he remembered were painful to him. She needed Doc’s guidance on which questions she could ask and which subjects she should avoid.

  As Hannah delivered Joe’s glass of water and watched him take one of the pills from his prescription bottle, she thought about everything that had taken place over the past week.

  The first bit of news she’d received from Doc was startling. Joe and Freddy had completely reupholstered his recliner, including replacing the wooden slats that had broken. Hannah had seen it the next time she’d gone to the hospital to see Joe, and it was a thoroughly professional job. Joe and Freddy were a good team.

  The next change had been instigated by Delores and Carrie. Once they’d seen the work that Joe and Freddy had done at the hospital, Delores had purchased the storefront, where their combined antiques were stored, turned on the electricity and heat, and fashioned a small “apartment” for Joe to live in while he regained his memory.

  The next big change had come from Joe himself. Of course, he was grateful for Delores and Carrie’s largess. He’d offered to work renovating their antiques during the day for them, if they agreed to hire Freddy to help him with the heavy lifting and provide a small salary for food and necessities.

  Of course, Hannah’s mother had been delighted to accept Joe’s offer and Joe and Freddy had begun to work in the storefront two doors down from Hannah. She had invited Joe to stop by at The Cookie Jar for coffee every morning, and he’d gratefully accepted her offer.

  Hannah readily admitted that there was an ulterior motive to her offer of coffee and some of her bakery goods. Having morning coffee with Joe every day provided her with the opportunity to ask him questions about his former life. Hannah hoped, if things went well and Joe’s memory came back, she’d be able to find the family he’d left behind, including the person she suspected was his brother Donnie.

  “Which piece of furniture are you working on now, Joe?” Hannah asked him, giving him time to talk about something that wouldn’t cause his headache to recur.

  “Your mother’s davenport,” Joe responded immediately. “It was in bad shape, Hannah, but I think Freddy and I got a handle on it. Did you know that it converts into a sofa bed?”

  “No!” Hannah was surprised. “I had no idea. And I don’t think Mother knew either. Is that why it’s so heavy?”

  “Yes. The carriage under the mattress is made of steel, and so are the inner springs. Steel is great for durability, but adds a lot to the weight of the davenport. Unfortunately, the mattress is a total loss.”

  “No wonder it was so heavy!” Hannah said, remembering how much strength it had taken to move the davenport out far enough for her to climb up and out of the space. “What happened to the mattress? Did someone remove it?”

  “No. It was still there . . . in pieces. There were still chunks of padding.”

  “Rats?” Hannah guessed.

  “It had to have been something like that, perhaps mice, or possibly an opossum tearing it up to make a bed for her young.” Joe gave a little shrug. “It was so far gone, it was impossible for me to tell what had gotten into it.”

  “Can the mattress be replaced?”

  “Yes, but it’ll have to
be a custom job. There was enough of the mattress left to measure how thick it was and where it was sectioned to fold, and I had the frame under it to go by.”

  “Can you make a new mattress?” Hannah asked him.

  Joe laughed. “No, not me. That’s way beyond my skill set. But your mother and Carrie are looking for a place that can make a mattress that size.”

  “Mother’s good at finding things like that,” Hannah told him.

  “I noticed. She’s also very good at choosing which antiques to buy. Carrie will occasionally fall for the cheap imitations, but your mother won’t. She’s got a good eye.”

  “That’s nice to know.” Hannah felt a rush of admiration for her mother’s talents. Her dad had always said that Delores was great at finding rare antiques.

  “She’s also very good at choosing upholstery material, almost as good as Donnie was.” Joe stopped and looked sad. “I’m really glad Freddy works with me part-time. He reminds me of Donnie, and I really miss my brother.” Joe popped the rest of the last cookie into his mouth and smiled at her. “I don’t suppose there are more of these, are there, Hannah? All your cookies are great, but I think these Christmas Coconut Crunch Cookies are the best.”

  * * *

  Once Joe left for the morning, with a bag of take-out cookies and a cup of coffee in one of Hannah’s to-go containers, Hannah glanced at the clock. It was still too early to call Doc to tell him that Joe had called Donnie his brother. Chances were that he was up by now, but if he wasn’t, she didn’t want to disturb his sleep.

  She baked three more batches of cookies, rinsed out the metal bowls she used for cookie dough, and put them in her industrial dishwasher. Once that was set and activated, she poured herself another cup of coffee and sat down to go through her recipe book to decide what she should bake next.

  The Christmas rush was upon Hannah and Lisa at The Cookie Jar, and Hannah was coming in early to bake almost double the cookies they usually sold. Either Hannah or Lisa was busy almost every night with a party to cater, or a special delivery for a Christmas dessert, and it would become even more intense before the holiday season was over. That made Hannah think of what Joe had said about helping his mother with parties. While she had Doc on the phone, she would ask his advice about whether she should offer Joe the chance to help her with catering parties. They could always use an extra pair of hands at large gatherings.

  While Hannah sat with a fresh cup of coffee, she paged through her loose-leaf recipe book and thought about what she wanted to bake next. They really needed another Christmas cupcake, but she was fresh out of ideas. It should probably be a chocolate cupcake of some sort. At parties, chocolate cookies, chocolate pie, chocolate-filled cream puffs, and chocolate cupcakes seemed to be almost everyone’s favorite. Whatever she decided to create, Hannah knew it should probably be something with chocolate.

  As she paged through her recipe book, she came across the first recipe she’d ever created for her mother. It was Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies and Delores loved them. And Delores wasn’t the only one who loved the combination of chocolate and cherries.

  The moment the idea popped into her head, Hannah set about to make up a new cupcake recipe with a chocolate-covered cherry in the center.

  The thing Hannah considered was how the cupcake should taste. It should be rich with enough chocolate to satisfy even the most addicted chocolate lover. Her model was Delores. Hannah had once found her mother’s stash of chocolate candy in a drawer in her kitchen. The drawer had been full, but a month later, when Hannah had looked again, it was almost empty. Delores prided herself on maintaining her weight. She liked to tell people that her wedding gown still fit her perfectly. She also bragged that she was the same weight she’d been when she was a senior in high school. How could her mother eat all that chocolate and still maintain her girlish figure? Hannah had pondered that question many times, and she’d come to the conclusion that Delores had probably made a pact with the same devil that Mike had made. Oh, of course she knew she was being ridiculous, that it was a matter of body chemistry and basal metabolism, but she did wonder why her mother and her sisters, Andrea and Michelle, had no trouble maintaining their weight, when she struggled constantly with the problem.

  The next decision Hannah had to make was what she should call her new cupcake. She didn’t want to use the words Chocolate-Covered Cherry in the name because she planned to hide the candy in the middle of the cupcake and using it in the title would take the surprise part away. The baker would know, of course, but someone tasting the cupcakes for the first time would be deliciously surprised.

  Twenty minutes later, after making the cupcake batter as rich with chocolate as she possibly could, Hannah slipped the first batch onto the shelves of her industrial oven. Luckily, she’d found the box of chocolate-covered cherries that she’d been planning to put under the Christmas tree for her mother, still wrapped and in the pantry.

  There was nothing like baking to clear her mind, and now she was ready to call Doc Knight to ask him what he’d prescribed for Joe’s headaches, and whether Joe could help her cater Christmas parties.

  CHRISTMAS COCONUT CRUNCH COOKIES

  DO NOT preheat oven—dough must chill before baking.

  Hannah’s 1st Note: This recipe makes approximately 10 dozen cookies. If you like, you can reduce the yield to approximately 5 dozen, by cutting each ingredient by half.

  2 cups melted butter (4 sticks, 16 ounces, 1 pound)

  2 cups powdered sugar (don’t sift unless it’s got big lumps and then you shouldn’t use it anyway)

  1 cup white (granulated) sugar

  2 eggs

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  1 teaspoon coconut extract

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  1 teaspoon cream of tartar (critical!)

  1 teaspoon salt

  2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

  1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

  1 cup white chocolate or vanilla baking chips

  4 additional cups flour (don’t sift—pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

  ½ cup white decorators sugar in a small bowl (for coating dough balls)

  Melt the butter in a microwave-safe mixing bowl. Place the mixing bowl on your kitchen counter.

  Add both of the sugars and mix thoroughly. Let the mix cool to room temperature.

  Stir in the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg is added.

  Add the vanilla extract and coconut extract. Mix them in thoroughly.

  Sprinkle in the baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Stir until they are well mixed in.

  With the steel blade in place on your food processor, sprinkle in 1 Tablespoon of flour.

  Measure out the sweetened coconut flakes and add them to the food processor on top of the flour. Now add the white chocolate chips on top of the coconut.

  Sprinkle the remaining Tablespoon of flour on top of the white chocolate chips.

  Use an on-and-off motion with the steel blade to process the coconut/white chocolate chip mixture. Continue to process until everything has been chopped into very small pieces.

  Hannah’s 2nd Note: One of the reasons that some people don’t care for coconut in cookies is that the coconut flakes stick between their teeth. Chopping the coconut up into tiny pieces eliminates that problem.

  Transfer the finely chopped, flour-coated coconut/ white chocolate chip mixture to your mixing bowl. Stir thoroughly.

  Add the remainder of the flour in half-cup increments, mixing after each addition.

  Use your impeccably clean hands to round up the cookie dough into a ball.

  Place the cookie dough in a sealable plastic bag and refrigerate it for at least one hour. (Overnight is fine, too.)

  When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees F. with the rack in the middle position.

  Prepare your cookie sheets by spraying them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. Alternatively, you can line them with parchment paper, leaving a lit
tle ear at the top and a little ear at the bottom so that you can easily pull the parchment paper, cookies and all, to a wire rack after they are baked.

  Place the white decorators sugar in a shallow bowl.

  Use your impeccably clean hands to roll the dough into walnut-sized balls.

  Roll each dough ball in the bowl of decorators sugar to coat it.

  Place the sugar-coated dough balls on the cookie sheets you’ve prepared, 12 cookies on each standard-sized cookie sheet.

  Flatten the dough balls with the back of a metal spatula or the palm of your impeccably clean hand.

  Bake your Christmas Coconut Crunch Cookies at 325 degrees F. for 10 to 15 minutes. (The cookies should have a tinge of light golden brown on the tops and outer edges.)

  Remove the cookies from the oven and transfer them, still on the cookie sheets, to cold stovetop burners or wire racks on the kitchen counter.

  Cool the cookies on their cookie sheets for 2 minutes and then remove them to wire racks to cool completely.

  Yield: approximately 8 to 10 dozen buttery, sugary cookies.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Hannah hung up the phone, and walked to the kitchen coffeepot. She’d learned a lot from her conversation with Doc. The prescription he’d given Joe was nothing but a mild analgesic, something anyone could buy over the counter at a pharmacy. As for Joe helping her with the catering, Doc was completely in favor of it! He thought it would be good to get Joe out with people again.

  She picked up the coffeepot, to pour herself another cup, and thought better of it. She’d had too much coffee already this morning. All coffee’d out by this time, Hannah was just sitting down on her stool at the work station when there was a knock at her back kitchen door. She recognized the knock immediately and hurried to let Andrea in.

  “Ooooh! What smells so good?” Andrea asked as she stomped the snow from her boots, put them on the rug by the door, and hung her coat on a hook.