Cinnamon Roll Murder

Bake the cake in a preheated 325 degree F. oven for 50 minutes. Then take it out of the oven and set it on a cold burner on the stovetop or a wire rack to wait for its Butter Sauce.

The Butter Sauce:

1 cup white (granulated) sugar

? cup water (I’ll just bet you could use Kentucky Bourbon instead of the water here, but I haven’t tried it yet.)

? cup butter (1 stick, 4 ounces, ? pound)

1 Tablespoon vanilla

To make the Butter Sauce:

Put the cup of sugar, the ? cup of water, and the ? cup of butter in a medium-size saucepan.

Hannah’s 2nd Note: Don’t use a saucepan that’s black or brown on the inside. You’ll be using it again later when you make the frosting and you need to be able to see when the butter you’ll heat in it turns brown.

Heat the three ingredients on MEDIUM heat until the butter is melted, but DO NOT let the mixture come to a boil.

Hannah’s 3rd Note: You can also do this in a microwave-safe bowl on HIGH for 90 seconds. (I used a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup.) If the butter is not melted at the end of that time, microwave it on HIGH in 20- second increments until it is.

Pull the saucepan over to a cold burner, shut off the hot one, and add the Tablespoon of vanilla extract. (Be careful—it could sputter a bit)

Use a fork, food pick, or a thin wooden skewer to poke holes all over the top of your cake. Don’t be too gentle. You want the holes to go all the way down to the bottom of the cake pan.(I used a thin wooden skewer and poked about 45 holes in mine.)

Pour the warm butter sauce over the top of the cake as evenly as you can. If you used a saucepan, don’t bother to wash it. You’ll be using it again when you make the frosting.

Hannah’s 4th Note: So far there’s ? of a pound of butter in this cake. Add it up if you don’t believe me. If you frost it with Great-Grandma Elsa’s Brown Butter Icing, it’ll be only a quarter cup shy of a whole pound!

Let the cake sit out on the wire rack or cold burner for at least 10 minutes so that the Butter Sauce has time to soak into the holes you poked.

Refrigerate your Butterama Cake for at least 2 hours. At the end of that time, just leave the cake in the refrigerator and start the Brown Butter Icing.

Brown Butter Icing:

? cup butter (? stick, 2 ounces, pound)

2 cups powdered sugar (confectioner’s sugar—pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (you could also use Ken- tucky Bourbon)

2 Tablespoons heavy cream (that’s whipping cream, but you could also use half and half which is light cream)

? cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional—to sprinkle over the top of the cake after you frost it.)

To make the frosting:

Put the ? cup butter into a medium-size saucepan. (You already have one sitting on a cold burner if you made the Butter Sauce on the stovetop. If you used the microwave instead, make sure that the saucepan you choose is not colored black or brown inside. (I made that mistake and I couldn’t see when the butter had browned.)

Place the saucepan on the stovetop and heat it at MEDIUM-HIGH heat. The butter will melt and then it will brown. Continue to heat it until it has browned.

When the butter is a nice caramel color, (this took about 5 minutes for me) , remove it from the heat and shut off the burner.

Stir in the 2 cups of powdered sugar.

Stir in the vanilla extract.

Put the 2 Tablespoons of heavy cream in a small cup and drizzle them in, stirring as you go until the frosting is smooth and spreadable.

This is another one of those wonderful no-fail frostings. If it turns out to be too runny, add a bit more powdered sugar. If it turns out to be too thick and stiff, add a bit more cream. Continue to adjust these two ingredients until the frosting is the right consistency.

Take the Butterama Cake out of the refrigerator and frost it with Brown Butter Icing. If you like, you can sprinkle some chopped pecans or walnuts over the top to decorate your cake.

Return the cake to the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve it. Like revenge, this dish is best served cold.

Chapter Eight

When the alarm went off the next morning, Hannah woke up to discover that she ached all over. In other circumstances she might have thought that this had something to do with the fact that two pillow-hogging cats, who seemed to morph into much bigger creatures in the dark of night, had shared her bed. But in this case, she was almost certain her soreness and stiffness was caused by last night’s trek through the ditch with Michelle, when they’d waded through the deep snow to get to the band bus.

“Come on, you lazybones. It’s time to get up,” Hannah said to the two cats who were stretched out sideways on her mattress, taking up much more than half the bed. They didn’t move. They didn’t even flicker a whisker in her direction, so Hannah tried again. “Daylight in the swamp. Time to get up and chase all the mice that came in during the night.”

Moishe opened one yellow eye and looked at her. His mouth remained closed, but Hannah could have sworn she heard him say, Good try Hannah, but there’s no mice in here. All I smell is the leftovers from the Hamburger Bake you made for Mike. Let us sleep for gosh sakes! Just because you have to get up before the crack of dawn doesn’t mean that Cuddles and I have to lose sleep.

“All right. You can sleep,” Hannah said, bowing to that penetrating one-eyed stare. “I’ll fill your automatic feeder before I go.”

She needed coffee. She’d probably die without it. Hannah thrust her feet into her moccasin slippers, thrust her arms into the faded chenille robe she’d purchased at Lake Eden’s only thrift store, Helping Hands, and shuffled