Night Sky Cake: Guest Post by Molly MacRae

I love when my mystery and chocolate worlds collide. Here's a wonderful recipe from mystery author Molly MacRae. You'll love it--and you'll love her books!

Molly MacRae:
Night Sky Cake

One of the joys of writing is having free reign to make stuff up—people, businesses, whole towns and worlds. Cakes, too, and that’s where I had a problem recently. Basant Paudel, a Nepali businessperson in my Highland Bookshop Mystery series, came up with a recipe for a cake that sounded awfully good to me. But you see the problem, there, don’t you? If he came up with it, then that means it’s really only in my head. But what the heck. I figured if he could do it, then maybe I could do it, too. Here’s Basant in conversation with Janet Marsh about the cake.

“What is it?” Janet asked.
“The night sky brightened by a path of moonbeams and sparkling stars.”
“Good heavens.”
“As you say.” Basant gave a slight bow. “In reality, it is chocolate cake with a swirl of lightly sweetened mascarpone and sprinkled with flakes of Himalayan salt. The cake is moist and quite rich.”

It took me a couple of tries to get the recipe right and, as you might guess, I’m not a cake artist when it comes to decorating. But here’s the recipe for Night Sky Cake and a picture of it. In the book, Basant asks Janet to test and rate the cake. Her verdict? “MMmm. Out of this world.”

Night Sky Cake 

Preheat oven to 350° F
Butter a 9”x13” pan and dust with cocoa

Cake 
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
2 tsp cardamom
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp almond extract
Whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, cardamom, baking soda, and salt. Add water, oil, vinegar, and almond extract.

Filling
8 oz. mascarpone
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
Stir mascarpone, egg, and sugar together until smooth.

Frosting
8 oz. mascarpone
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 tsp almond extract
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Himalayan flake salt for sprinkling (optional)
While the cake is baking, mix all ingredients (except for Himalayan flake salt) until smooth and creamy. Refrigerate until cake is cooled.

To assemble:
1. Pour half the cake batter into prepared pan.
2. Dollop filling evenly over batter in pan.
3. Pour remainder of batter over filling.
4. Bake 25-30 minutes (until toothpick stuck in cake comes out clean).
5. Cool completely before cutting cake into squares or rectangles.
6. Thinking about the Milky Way, pipe a galaxy of frosting onto each cake piece.
7. Sprinkle your Milky Way sparingly with flake salt (optional, but a real burst of delicious).
8. Serve. 

***

The Boston Globe says “Molly MacRae writes murder with a dose of drollery.” MacRae writes the Highland Bookshop Mysteries and the Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries. Heather and Homicide, book 4 in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries, comes out December.

Tunnel of Fudge Cake with Crystallized Ginger: Guest post by Molly MacRae

I just love when my mystery and chocolate worlds collide. Today I welcome back Molly MacRae, the author of the Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries (NAL/Penguin). Check out www.mollymacrae.com or connect with Molly on Facebook or Pinterest. You can also find Molly blogging on the first Monday of each month at www.amyalessio.com and on the 23rd of each month at www.killercharacters.com.


Molly MacRae:
TUNNEL OF FUDGE CAKE WITH CRYSTALLIZED GINGER

Tunnel of fudge cake – when I first heard the name, I fell in love. I’d never seen or tasted one, but I knew it had to be good, and so I let Mel Gresham, the café owner in my Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries, put the cake on her menu. Of course, Mel being Mel, she didn’t settle for traditional tunnel of fudge, she insisted on studding the cake with crystallized ginger. We both liked that idea so much we decided to include the recipe in Knot the Usual Suspects, coming out in September. The problem with that plan was two-fold: a) we didn’t have such a recipe, and b) Mel isn’t real, she’s a character in the books, so not a lot of actual help. But that didn’t stop us.


There are quite a few versions of the recipe available. Mel and I ended up using parts of three and then adding our variation – substituting crystallized ginger for the walnuts all three called for. Our results? Everything we’d hoped for. The baking cake smells wonderful, it slices beautifully, it’s delicious and moist, and the structure is stabile – the tunnel remained fudgy and intact over five days of taste tests.

Mel and I are planning another experiment – dividing the batter for one cake between three loaf pans – hoping to answer two questions: 1) will the loaf pans produce structurally sound tunnels, and 2) will making the cake in three loaves, two of which can be given away, be the answer to the moan, “I can’t make that cake and have it sitting there tempting me”? When we find out, we’ll report back.

Tunnel of Fudge Cake with Crystallized Ginger 

Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt or tube pan.

Ingredients: 

Cake 
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1-3/4 cups butter, softened
6 eggs
2 cups powdered sugar
2 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped, crystalized ginger

Glaze 
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
 4-6 Tbsp milk

Directions 
1. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Gradually add the 2 cups of powdered sugar, blending well. Stir in flour and remaining cake ingredients. Pour batter into prepared pan. Spread evenly.
2. Bake at 350ºF for 45 to 50 minutes or until top is set and edges are beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 1 1/2 hours. Turn out onto serving plate and cool completely.
3. Combine glaze ingredients in small bowl, adding enough milk for desired drizzling consistency. Spoon over top of cake, allowing some to run down sides. Store tightly covered.