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Category: Cake

12
Mar
2023

Pineapple and Spice Financier – Murder is Easy

categories: Cake, Dining With The Dame, Pineapple, Stand Alone

Hello crime readers and food lovers! This month’s read is Murder Is Easy, and I have a LOT to say about it! Starting with a rant about how I ended up choosing a Pineapple and Spice Financier (which does not appear in the story at all) to represent the novel. Murder is Easy contains very few food references. This really annoyed me! I kind of get it when AC doesn’t mention food in the novels set in foreign climes. Back in the day, there would likely have been some good old-fashioned British reserve (ie thinly veiled racism) against foreign food. But Murder is Easy is set in an English village and features multiple old ladies! Where are the scones? Where are the high teas and finger sandwiches? The village fete with cake stalls galore?

Murder Might be Easy but Menu Decisions Aren’t!

So, what do you do when there is no food mentioned in the novel? My first thought always goes to puns. Murder is greasy? Murder is cheesy? Chowder is Easy? Humlebeetroot Salad? I dismissed all of these as cornier than the chowder! I was very nearly set on the idea of making Olivia De Havilland’s Salad Niçoise. (She played Honoria Waynfleet in the 1982 version of Murder is Easy). However, when I looked more closely at the recipe on Silver Screen Suppers I saw that it contained both red and green capsicums. Long-time readers will know that these do not agree with me at all. I thought about inventing a Hit and Rum cocktail, which was going to be my take on a pineapple mojito, and spoke to two of the murders in the novel. However, I felt there have been a lot of cocktails in my recent Dining with the Dame posts so I wanted to shy away from them.

Finally, I decided I wanted to use pineapple which, features as a murder weapon, in the story combined with the country feel of a freshly baked cake. I chose the Pineapple and Spice Financier as I felt that the spices (cardamom and ginger) were a nod to Luke Fitzwilliam’s time in the Mayang Straits. Whilst this is an entirely made-up place in my mind it is a reference to Malaysia which was still under British rule in 1939 when this book was written.

Phew…that was a long intro! So let’s get into Murder is Easy!

Murder is Easy- The Plot

Luke Fitzwilliam is home to England from his work as a policeman in the Mayang Straits. On his way to London, he meets an elderly lady called Lavinia Pinkerton on the train. They get to talking and Ms Pinkerton confides to him that she is on her way to Scotland Yard to warn them that there is a serial killer operating in her small country village. She names several people who have already been a victim of said killer and also names who she thinks will be next.

Now, if you want my honest opinion of Luke Fitzwilliam? To put it nicely, he’s no Hercule Poirot. He’s not even a Miss Marple. In the words of Smashmouth he “ain’t the smartest tool in the shed”. However, his lack of perspicacity comes later. Right now, we can’t really fault him for thinking he has sat down next to some batty old lady and so he doesn’t really take her seriously.

Until, the next day, he reads in the paper that she was killed in a hit-and-run accident.

And a week later, he reads that Doctor Humbleby who Miss Pinkerton said was the next victim, has also died. Luke’s spidey senses start tingling and he heads down to Wychwood under Ashe to do some investigating.

We have:

Several mysterious deaths in the town Wychwood-Under-Ashe
A chauffeur killed by a stone pineapple
Dirty deeds going on with the local antique dealer
A cat called Wonky Poo who becomes involved in the murders in a totally disgusting way.
One of the suspects strangling a canary
Inspector Battle who we last saw in Cards on The Table (also in The Secret of Chimneys and The Seven Dials Mystery) making an appearance!

Unfortunately, we don’t have Poirot around to solve the mystery. Instead, we have Luke Fitzwilliam (cue Smashmouth quote above in your head) making what seems like interminable lists of suspects and motives and still not honing in on the killer faster than his new girlfriend Bridget. Oh, and if we’re going to cue Smashmouth whenever Luke is mentioned, then the signature tune for Bridget is The Eagles Witchy Woman! So many references to Bridget being witch-like. All of which come to nothing.

Murder is Easy – The Covers

The Recipe – Pineapple and Spice Financier

My recipe comes from the November 2022 issue of Delicious Magazine.

“Luke – Luke – what’s that…?”

The moon had come out from the clouds. Luke looked down to where Bridget’s shoe trembled by a huddled mass.

With a startled exclamation he dragged his arm free and knelt down. He looked from the shapeless heap to the gate post above. The pine-apple was gone. “

Murder is Easy – Agatha Christie

Links to The Christieverse

As mentioned above Inspector Battle makes an appearance in Murder is Easy.
The Bells and Motley. is a pub in Wychwood under Ashe. A pub by the same name features in the Harley Quin short story called “At The Bells and Motley”.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Murder is Easy

Plum Pudding
Tea (multiple times)
Coffee (multiple times)
Bacon and eggs (I will make these one day!)
Kidneys (I will never make these)
Liqueur Brandy
Beer
Sherry

Other Related News

A boomslang features in the Bullet Train. We, of course, know all about that particular snake from Death in The Clouds.
The BBC has announced a new adaptation of l Murder is Easy. (The Olivia de Haviland / Bill Bixby version is available on You Tube. The Miss Marple version is not great and I would not recommend it, except Benedict Cumberbatch plays Luke).)
This month marks the 100th anniversary of Murder on The Links…why not celebrate by making an Omelette Berrichonne?

April’s read is Sad Cypress.

Have a great week!

26
Nov
2022

Orange and Poppyseed Cupcakes – November 2002

categories: Baking, Cake, Sandwiches

Hello Friends!!! For today’s twenty years ago post, I am cooking from the November 2002 issue of Super Food Ideas. Let’s see if the mag lives up to it’s name! Today’s theme is picnic food. These orange and poppyseed cupcakes would be perfect for a spring picnic and were delicious to boot! Sadly our weather has not been kind. It has been very cold and rainy so my picnic ended being on my dining room table!

My Picnic Menu

Chicken Club Sandwich

I love a club sandwich but for some reason, I only ever eat them when ordering from a hotel room service menu. This one was ok. No bacon which was disappointing but the addition of avocado was nice. There was a weird instruction to add tomato sauce (ketchup) into the avocado mix. I ignored it. because….ewww. You can do beter November 2002!

Here’s the recipe.

I am not going to talk about the Mac and Cheese bites here because, I ended up changing the recipe so much that I am going to do them as a separate post! But we came here for Orange and Poppyseed Cupcakes so here they are!

I don’t think I have tasted orange and poppyseed anything before. There was a time when I was absolutely addicted to the lemon and poppyseed muffins at Muffin Break. It got so all the people I worked with knew how much I loved them so even if I had not gone past the Muffin Break that morning, my colleagues would let me know if the lemon and poppysed muffins were on the menu. These cupcakes were very reminiscent of those muffins. In fact though, I did not have enough orange zest to top all the cupcakes (possibly because I spilt so much of it all over the recipe) so there is a mix of lemon and orange zest on all of them making them even more nostalgic for me.

Orange and Poppyseed Cupcakes – The Recipe

The original recipe was for one large cake. For cupcakes, just drop the cooking time, Mine were ready in 25 minutes.

My Nigella Moment

What is a Nigella moment? You know how at the end of each episode of a Nigella tv show, you see her popping back to the fridge for just one more bite of something? My Nigella moment this month is a recipe I cooked from the mag that did not fit with the picnic theme. It was a salmon fillet with wasabi mayo. I served mine with some edamame sprinkled with furikake, pickled ginger and some not very Japanese but very delicious oven fries! In the interest of brevity, I have not included the recipe but, if you like the sound of it and want to do your own trip back in time, hit me up in the comments!

I hope you’ve enjoyed time travelling back to November 2002 with me.

Have a great week!

04
Jul
2022

Blueberry Cake

categories: 1970's recipes, Baking, Blueberries, Cake, Good Housekeeping World Cookery

Last Friday was Canada day so it seemed like an appropriate time to leave the United States of America and head north in our journey through Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery. It may also be an excellent time to leave the United States of America for Supreme Court related decisions too but that is by the by. Anyhoo, to celebrate our move to Canada I made a blueberry cake!

Now, blueberry cake is not the first thing I think of when my thoughts turn to Canadian cuisine. BUT…this chapter was fairly disappointing. Notably, the first thing I do think of was totally missing. I mean – WHO ON EARTH HAS A CHAPTER ON CANADIAN COOKING AND DOES NOT INCLUDE A RECIPE FOR POUTINE????

Ok. Let me take a few moments to do some of the deep rhythmic breathing they taught me at the conference I attended recently. Just. Breathe. Do not feel disappointed that you will not be making poutine. When you go to the office on Thursday you can buy some poutine from the very excellently named Lord of The Fries. Which may be even better than making some yourself. And breathe…

Ok, calming mantra over, let’s get on with the blueberry cake.

Blueberry Cake – The Recipe

The recipe called for lemon flavouring. We currently have a tree laden with lemons so I used the zest of one lemon and the juice of half a lemon as my “flavouring”. This added a nice hit of lemon to the cake. I found this cake to be quite dry – it very much needed a bit of cream or ice cream on the side. I had some with some homemade Mango Kufli (from Adam Liaw’s recipe) and it was divine. Mango, lemon and blueberries are a match made in heaven! I am not sure if this is because I did not have enough blueberries to half fill the loaf pan. There was a LOT of cake batter to blueberries so for future baking I might halve the batter mixture. Another variation might be to put a layer of blueberries in the middle or through the cake as well as on the top.

I think the way the blueberries bleed into the cake is so pretty!

Have a great week everyone!

03
Feb
2022

It’s the Year of the Tiger

categories: Baking, Cake, Chicken, Lunar New Year

Hello and welcome to the second instalment of my Year of The Tiger special. Today we having a Tiger Skin Chicken from Adam Liaw and some little French almond cakes called Les Tigres (the tigers) from Dorie Greenspan. But first let’s have a little look-see at what may lie ahead for us in the Year of the Tiger!

Predictions for the year of the Tiger suggest that this could be a year of political and social upheaval. It is also a year of extremes, some people will boom and some will bust. Fortune will tend to favour the brave. The water element in this year of the Water Tigre will bring emotions to the forefront.

Strap in folks, this could be a wild ride!

Tiger Skin Chicken

Let me first show you Adam Liaw’s beautifully striped Tiger Skin Chicken.

Mine was not nearly as precise.

BUT, this was so delicious! I basted the chicken every 15 minutes in those buttery juices and it stayed delightfully moist. It had a slight spicy curry flavour which I thought was lovely eaten warm and also cold in sandwiches the following day.

I just need to get my squeeze bottle technique so the lines are a little thinner and maybe control the heat during the grilling of the skin a little better. I also think I should have heated my honey before mixing it in with the yoghurt as it didn’t mix in well which is why I think some of my stripes were white, they were primarily yoghurt.

Here is the recipe from Adam’s Big Pot:

Les Tigres

To end our Year of the Tiger special we are having some little French cakes called Les Tigres. I am assuming this is because they are dipped in a ganache which gives them a dark stripe against the dark gold of the almond cake. They could also be called the leopards because the inside is dotted with choc chips!

Les Tigres Recipe

The Tigres were a lovely way to finish this celebratory meal!

Best of luck to you all in the coming 12 months – let’s hope you don’t catch too many tigers by the tail but that you wake every morning with a tiger in your tank!

25
Jul
2021

Cowboy Day – Pepsi Cola Cake with Broiled Peanut Butter Frosting

categories: 1960's recipes, Cake, Cook A Long, Cowboy Day

Yippee Ky Yay Cake Lovers, number 5 is alive!!!! This weekend, courtesy of the nicest man on the Internet, Greg Swenson, we are celebrating Cowboy Day with a Cookalong. I have chosen to bake a cake (because every celebration needs one) from Greg’s book, Recipes for Rebels: In The Kitchen with James Dean – and oh (cow)boy, what a cake it is. Pepsi Cola Cake with Broiled Peanut Butter Frosting.

You might be wondering what is the connection between a cake made from Pepsi and Cowboys? Well, hear me out here. It is a little like one of those puzzles you used to do at school where you change one letter at a time to turn one word into another…

But here me out:

James Dean played a cowboy in the film Giant
James Dean’s first paid acting job was in a Pepsi Commercial
Pepsi is a key ingredient in this cake.

Cowboy to cake in less steps than it will take you to go from bath to tubs!

Good lord, just look at that face!!! If that is not a textbook definition of impossibly handsome, I do not know what is.

Something that is most definitely not impossibly handsome is the Pepsi-Cola Cake. It is a massive brute of a thing (might one say a Giant?) that erupted like a volcano in my oven. It reminded me of the ads we used to have for Picnic bars – deliciously ugly.

I mean, ok, it doesn’t look quite as much like a pooh as a Picnic bar but at the point of removal from the oven, it did not look good.

But as the picnic ad states that’s what wrappers are for. And the wrapping on the Pepsi-cola cake is some divine Peanut Butter frosting.

I mean it’s still not the prettiest cake in the world. But, do not let it’s somewhat less than gorgeous faced fool you. Remember the delicious part of deliciously ugly? Well this cake has a ton of delicious! The cake itself is moist and fudgy, a little like a brownie. The slight slatiness in the peanut butter frosting is a perfect accompaniment to the sweetness of the cake. Beware though the Pepsi Cake is not just rich. It is filthy rich!!!

I have a sweet tooth and even I would recommend cutting what you think is a normal-sized slice of cake then cutting that in two. And bada bing bada boom that’s elevenses and afternoon tea sorted!!!!

Pepsi Cola Cake – Recipe

So, the recipe for this cake made me laugh. I love the way they ask for non-sweetened cocoa powder. I mean, when you already have 2 cups of sugar and a cup of Pepsi in your cake I guess you have to draw the line somewhere.

Here’s the recipe!

This was so much fun! I loved cooking this cake and being able to take part in the world wide cookalong to celebrate Cowboy Day 2021! Thank you Greg for organising and inviting me to contribute!

Have a great week everyone!!!!