“Ready,” one waiter replied, whisking the cover off a tray containing individual cakes in small aluminum pans.
Using potholders, Sally tipped one pan upside down over a dessert dish. She pressed down on the bottom of the pan and a cake popped out. She handed it to the second waiter, who used two forks to pull the bottom of the cake apart, and almost immediately the scent of hot butterscotch filled the air.
Lonnie began to smile, and his smile grew larger as the waiter put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the center of the cake. “Oh, boy!” he said, accepting the dessert bowl. “I can hardly wait to taste this!”
“Don’t wait,” Sally told him. “It won’t take long to unmold the rest of these and put on the ice cream. It’s your birthday, Lonnie. You get to try yours first.”
As Sally unmolded the cakes and the waiters pulled them apart and scooped on the ice cream, Lonnie took his first bite. “Incredible!” he said, looking positively rapturous.
It didn’t take long for Sally and her waiters to serve the rest of the desserts, and soon identical smiles were on every face. Sally sent the two waiters back to the kitchen and they were replaced by another waiter, pushing another dessert cart with a large carafe of coffee for refills and the after-dinner drinks for those who’d ordered them.
“Just in case there’s not enough dessert, I brought two other favorites of mine,” Sally told them. “I’ll sit down with you to have a cup of coffee and then I’ll package up any of the other desserts you want to take home with you.”
“What are the other desserts?” Michelle asked her.
“European Peach Cake and Apple School Pie.”
“Is that Edna Fergusson’s Apple School Pie?” Michelle asked.
“Yes, she gave me the recipe. It’s great for buffets because you get more pieces than you would with a regular apple pie.”
Lonnie turned to Sally. “Don’t forget to package a slice of each one for me. I haven’t had Apple School Pie since I graduated from high school.”
“I’d like a slice of each one, too,” Michelle said.
Hannah sat back and listened as Sally packed up the desserts and everyone gave their preferences. “Don’t worry about the dessert cart, Sally,” Hannah told her when Sally had finished packing the desserts. “When I leave, I’ll wheel it back to the kitchen and put the leftovers in the walk-in cooler. That way Andrea and I can have some for breakfast when we come in early to bake.”
The party broke up shortly after everyone had received their dessert care packages. Before Michelle left, Hannah pulled her aside. “What did you get Lonnie for his birthday? I’m dying to know.”
“I’ll tell you, but not until the work on your condo is finished. You’ll find out then.”
“Shall I stop by the bar and order drinks for us?” Norman asked when most of the crowd had left.
Hannah nodded. “Yes, but just lemonade for me. Carry the drinks to the lobby and I’ll meet you there for a while.”
When everyone was gone, Hannah went out with the dessert cart and wheeled it down the hallway to the kitchen. She had no sooner stashed the leftover desserts in the cooler when the kitchen door opened and Mike came in.
“Do you have a minute or two?” he asked. “I really need to talk to you, Hannah.”
“Of course,” Hannah agreed quickly. “What’s on your mind, Mike?”
“I couldn’t have solved that murder case, Hannah. And I’m not sure Lonnie could have, either. So I wanted to thank you for helping . . .” Mike stopped and shook his head. “Helping was the wrong word. I should have said thank you for solving the case by yourself, Hannah.”
“You’re welcome,” Hannah said, realizing that he looked troubled. “Thank you for arriving when you did or I wouldn’t be here tonight.”
Mike gave a nod of acknowledgment. “I just came in to tell you that I plan to rethink my detective teams. I’ve talked to Rick about the new guy, and neither one of us think he’s going to make it. He’s really good at paperwork, though, and I think he’d be perfect as Bill’s assistant.”
“That makes sense. But if the new guy is Bill’s assistant, Rick won’t have a partner.”
“Lonnie doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to be Rick’s partner. A team of brothers would be good and they can take turns with the lead.”
Hannah began to frown. “I agree that they’d make a good team since they get along so well, but who’s going to partner with you?”
“Nobody.”
Hannah was puzzled. “You mean . . . you’re going to solve cases alone?”
“No. It’ll take me a week or so to make sure that Lonnie and Rick will work well together and the new guy will be a good assistant for Bill. And then, if everything goes smoothly, I’m going to walk into Bill’s office and tell him I quit.”
BUTTERSCOTCH SUNDAE CAKES
Preheat oven to 500 (that’s five hundred) degrees F., rack in the middle position.
Ingredients:
8 ounces salted butter (2 sticks, ? pound)
8 ounces (by weight) butterscotch chips (1 and ? cups . . . I used Nestlé)
4 egg yolks (save the whites in a covered bowl in the refrigerator to add to scrambled eggs, or to make Forgotten Cookies)
5 whole eggs
1 cup white (granulated) sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour (pack it down when you measure it)
Vanilla or chocolate ice cream to finish the dish Before you start, select the pans you want to use from the following suggestions: You can use large-size deep muffin cups to bake these cakes, but if your muffin pan is solid and the cups don’t lift out, you’ll have to remove each cake by using two soup spoons as pincers to pry them out. Each batch will make 9 cakes if you use large muffin tins.
A popover pan is also a possibility, especially the kind with removable cups, but you’ll have to run a knife around the inside of each cup and tip it over to remove the cake. Each batch will make 6 cakes in large, deep popover cups.
You can also use individual soufflé cups, but again, you’ll have to use two soup spoons or run a knife around the inside of the dish to remove the cakes from the soufflé cups. Each batch will make 8 small or 6 large soufflé dish cakes.
Hannah’s 1st Note: I’ve found it’s a lot easier to use the disposable foil pot pie tins you can buy at the grocery store. With those, you can just flip them over on the dessert plate or bowl, press down on the foil bottoms with a potholder, and the cakes will pop right out. (Yes, the pot pie tins are an extra expense, but removing the cakes will be much faster and the tins can be washed several times by hand or in the dishwasher before you’ll have to throw them away.)
To Prepare Your Pans:
Grease and flour the insides of the pans you’ve chosen. As an alternative to that messy procedure, you can spray them with nonstick BAKING spray (the kind with flour added). If you decide to use the baking spray, spray the insides once, let them dry for a few minutes, and then spray them again before you fill them with the cake batter.
To Make the Cake Batter:
Place the salted butter and the butterscotch chips in a medium-size microwave-safe bowl.