Month: August 2025
Cooking With Christie: Birthday Cake Cookies
Inspiration: I wish I could say that I made these cookies for someone’s B’day, but alas, it’s the recipe’s use of sprinkles that drew me to this particular cookie. These tiny flecks of color always make me happy when I get to sprinkle them into one of my bakes.
Despite my passion for sprinkles of any variety, if this were back in March, I would’ve shied away from baking them. However, since reading Kate Lebo’s series of arguments in The Book of Difficult Fruit, I am far less trepidatious about using imitation or cheap(er) almond extract in my bakes. Which is a wonderful thing, since almond extract is one of the key tastes in the quintessential birthday cake flavor. (BTW: If you haven’t read The Book of Difficult Fruit, I highly recommend you give it a try. Click here for my full review.)
The magazine where I found this recipe.
With imitation almond extract in hand, I set about whipping up these festive treats….Only to realize I didn’t own vanilla bean paste or all-natural jimmies, the recipe writers recommended using. The latter I already knew I was missing. However, on my birthday, my husband gifted me a three-pound container of jimmies to play with in my bakes — and they are definitely not all natural. Though it went against the recipe’s recommendation, I went with what I already had on hand.
The vanilla bean paste was more troubling.
However, by the time I read the recipe’s fine print, I was already neck-deep in multitasking, and pausing my cookery to run to the grocery store for a single ingredient wasn’t a viable option….So I improvised. Using two teaspoons of vanilla powder and the innards of one vanilla bean in an attempt to recreate the clean taste of the missing paste. Which worked surprisingly well!
The other alteration I made to these bespeckled treats was reducing their size. Rather than portioning off the dough in half-cup scoops, I used my standard tablespoon-and-a-half scooper — then adjusted the cooking time for the smaller cookies. (For me, large cookies are great as a special, sometimes treat you buy at a bakery. But for the everyday cookie? Smaller is definitely better, as they are far easier to dunk in a cup of coffee.)
Cookie dough!
However, what I enjoy about these large cookie recipes is that if you do decide to reduce their size, they typically yield about two dozen cookies rather than the standard thirty-six to forty-eight.
Even with these minor adjustments, the cookies turned out great! Soft and cake-like, they went down a treat with my husband’s co-workers.
Agatha Christie’s Canon of Characters: I definitely think Miss Marple would make these Birthday Cake Cookies. They are simple to whip up, easier to transport than cupcakes, and still make the recipient feel special.
Of course, the byproduct of this gesture isn’t anything to sneeze at either.
Taking the time to bake something especially for them, plus the sheer act of recalling their birthday in time to act on it, could potentially lead the recipient to reveal a piece of crucial information they might not have otherwise divulged to Miss Marple during an investigation.
Though I don’t see this beloved elderly spinster as being this Machiavellian, I don’t think she would turn away from using every advantage she could — if someone was in imminent danger. And since St. Mary Mead’s an invention from the mind of Agatha Christie, imminent danger could be very deadly indeed.
My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
Mystery Review: A new twist on Romeo & Juliet
A Daughter of Fair Verona — Christina Dodd
If Seattle Mystery Bookshop were still breathing, I’d have at least five copies of this book on my recommendation shelf! No, probably ten. Seriously, it’s been a long while since I’ve giggled/snorted/chortled out loud this much whilst reading a mystery. Christina Dodd does an excellent job of blending Shakespeare’s characters, language, the values of the day, moods, and manners with today’s sensibilities. Yet the dark undercurrents lurking beneath the laughs (one would expect nothing less of a book based on the Bard’s body of work), keep A Daughter of Fair Verona from becoming a parody of Shakespeare’s original work.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
A Daughter of Fair Verona is about Rosaline, the eldest daughter of Romeo & Juliet. Yes, that Romeo and Juliet. Turns out, the aim of a dagger held by a thirteen-year-old girl isn’t quite as true as one would suppose. As for the bottle of poison? Romeo fell victim to biology — as it isn’t uncommon for those who ingest a large quantity of a toxic substance to vomit it right back up again. In this case, this biological safeguard allowed Romeo to survive and live happily ever after with his Juliet.
Fast forward nineteen years.
Rosaline, the eldest daughter of the ever growing Montague family, has every intention of remaining a spinster. After nearly two decades of witnessing Romeo and Juliet’s passion (apparently, their drama did not taper off as they got older), Rosaline wants nothing to do with marriage, passion, and romance — despite her parents’ efforts to match her with a mate.
Attempts which Rosaline repeatedly manages to sidestep rather neatly.
Unfortunately, neither paternal unit has given up on settling Rosaline into her “happily ever after”. And, for the fourth time, they announce they’ve found their eldest daughter a husband. Who, unfortunately, turns up with a knife in his chest during his and Rosaline’s engagement ball….And the murderer is just getting started.
I cannot impress upon y’all how much fun this book is! Seriously, Dodd captures both the darkness and light of Shakespeare’s work. Even better? There are no asides explaining the cultural/societal norms of Shakespearean literature, nor are there history lessons or footnotes that explain politics. Dodd keeps the narrative focused on Rosaline and the mystery, allowing the plot to unfold at full tilt from the front to back cover.
If my shelf were still around, I would grab a copy of A Daughter of Fair Verona and press it into your hands, telling you, “trust me, you’re going to have fun.”
My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
Cooking With Christie: Everyday Sourdough
Inspiration: Over the past few years, I’ve struggled to make and maintain sourdough starters. Much like my fermentation experiments, my forays into these fermented starters always seem to crash and burn before I ever get to the good part — baking! Irritated at the latest failure, I sat down with a stack of cookbooks devoted to sourdough and started studying. Whereupon I found two simple tips/tricks that kept my starter alive long enough to bake with.
First and easiest fix: wrapping the jar of starter in a kitchen towel. Apparently, my kitchen is a tad too cool for a starter to thrive and it needed a blanket.
The second solution required a trip to our local farmers’ market, more specifically to the stall selling organic heirloom varieties of flour. According to several books, these small-batch flours contain a variety of micronutrients that help starters flourish, whereas plain old white flour from the grocery store strips away these nutrients.
And it worked!
Happy to have finally made a sourdough starter that lived longer than a couple of days, I started scouring these same tomes for a recipe and found a simple one in King Arthur Baking Company’s Baking School — a straightforward Sourdough Sandwich Bread recipe.
And it turned out magnificently fluffy!
Unsurprisingly, within a week of making this loaf, my starter died — again. But now I’ve hope!
There’s a similar recipe on their website, but it has way more steps and ingredients. I would highly recommend purchasing the book instead. Over the years, Baking School‘s become the baking book I keep turning to when I need a recipe that turns out beautifully the first and one hundredth time. (BTW: I’m not paid for this review or for making the recipe; I just really like their stuff.)
Christie’s Canon of Characters: Though Agatha Christie’s sleuths often struggle to find and nail down that book’s ne’er-do-well, I don’t know if they’d apply the same deductive reasoning to their failed bakes. Poirot probably would, though I can’t imagine him flubbing up repeatedly on something as supposedly simple as a starter.
Miss Marple probably mastered this technique early on and teaches it to the long string of maids she hires to help her out around the house. Perhaps Tuppence would struggle? Only because she’s pulled hither, thither, and yon by her three kids, husband, and murder cases. Colonel Race globe-hops entirely too much to even contemplate something as needy as a starter.
Superintendent Battle, yes, he’s the one who would both want to try making bread and figure out why it failed. He strikes me as a man who would enjoy puttering around the kitchen with his wife and daughters during his off hours. Perhaps not failing on purpose, but still enjoying the exasperation of one of his female family members showing him “the right way” to ensure the bread turned out every time!
P.S.: Here’s a picture of the modest Dagwood Sandwich I made that night for dinner using the sourdough bread!
My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
Cooking With Christie: Outtake
I took this photo when I was making sprinkles — right when I added the food coloring to the base sugar mixture!
Cooking With Christie: Another Use For Malt Vinegar…
Inspiration: Staring in my fridge one afternoon, I spotted the bottle of malt vinegar sitting on a shelf, behind the pickles and lingonberry jam — and wondered if there was another use for it besides sprinkling it over my fish and chips. Unwilling to let my curiosity fizzle out under the weight of laundry, dishes, and weeding, I used the computer in my pocket (i.e., my phone) to see what recipes I could find that featured malt vinegar…and found one for Malt Vinegar Rye Bread.
Warming up my mixer, I set to work.
Turns out this is a pretty easy loaf to make. Even better? It’s pretty tasty as well. Pairing well with turkey, Havarti, and my homemade mustard. However, what I’m more interested in is how well this tangy rye bread pairs with Welsh rarebit, Danish open-faced sandwiches, and a fancied-up version of beans on toast. All dishes, for some reason, I hadn’t thought of making before now…I think I might be writing hungry. Because all I want to do is sprint into my kitchen and whip up another loaf and try out these other recipes.
And who am I to deny inspiration and curiosity’s influence?
See ya later!
Christie’s Canon of Characters: Depending on their preferences, I can see any of Christie’s detectives enjoying this loaf of bread — if it goes well with any of the aforementioned untested pairings. Speaking of which, I wonder if they’d enjoy a patty melt, because I just bet this bread would add an extra layer of flavor…
Seriously, I’ll see you later, I need to see what’s in my fridge!
My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
Cooking With Christie: Outtake & A Giant Oops!
Okay, so last Thursday I wrote about making a St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake. I, in fact, made two, and both cakes turned out great…However, the process of making them did not go flawlessly. For reasons I can only guess at, because I’ve no clue what my brain was doing, whilst mixing the base bready layer — I added one cup of milk.
I was only supposed to use 5 tablespoons (a quarter cup plus 1 Tbsp).
This significant increase in liquid became readily apparent when I started mixing in the flour. Instead of forming the expected dough, all I had was a loose batter. Knowing that humidity can affect how much flour bread needs, I added a handful of flour. And another. And another.
Then the handfuls got bigger.
By this point, I must have added about two or three extra cups. I wasn’t measuring, so I’m not sure. However, the dough was sort of starting to do what it was supposed to, but it still wasn’t right. And I was trepidatious about adding much more, lest the final product turn crumbly or worse, not rise at all. Finally, after a solid ten minutes of mixing, I looked at the recipe and immediately realized my error. Scraping my mistake out of the mixing bowl into another, I set it aside and started again.
By the time I looked up from all the measuring, mixing, and side chores a couple of hours later, I discovered my mistake had risen.
Even more surprising? It looked like regular bread dough.
Deciding — nothing ventured, nothing gained — I shaped my mistake into a round loaf and stuck it in the oven. Using the cake’s baking temp of 350 degrees, I baked it until the top turned golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.
And much to my astonishment, my mistake turned out great! A slightly sweet bread that paired really well with butter and/or lingonberry jam. Admittedly, it was a tad crumbly, just as I feared, but for a bake I’d completely messed up and written off — it was amazing!
My 52 weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
Cooking With Christie: St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake
Inspiration: Did you learn this riddle as a kid — How do you eat a bear? One bite at a time. It’s intended to illustrate how to overcome an overwhelming task. It’s also how my mother-in-law ate an entire gooey butter cake in one sitting whilst gabbing away with her fellow family members one evening. What’s even funnier? No one, including her, noticed the cake slowly shrinking until after she demolished the entire sucker. After listening to this story get retold for years at every holiday gathering, I decided to make her one as both a joke and in her honor.
Unfortunately, I fell at the first hurdle.
In a fit of spring cleaning, my mother-in-law threw out all her handwritten family recipe books and cards, believing they all could be found online. (I nearly cried when she told me this. All that knowledge lost!) Meaning she no longer had a copy of her mother’s original recipe.
And this was about eight(ish) years back — before yeasted cakes became all the rage. Making it challenging to find a recipe that didn’t start from a boxed cake mix (which I can’t eat due to allergies), and even those shortcut ones were few and far between.
So I made her lemon bars instead.
Then, about a year later, Bake From Scratch magazine printed a scratch-made recipe for St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake! To say I was over the moon is an understatement, and so was she when I presented her with it.
Even better? The whole family finally got to taste this legendary/infamous cake and fall in love with it.
Helpful Hints From Me To You: This cake can take upwards of 6-7 hours to make. However, you can shave this down to 3(ish) with a little bit of easy prep.
- Brown the butter the night before, then set it in the fridge to cool overnight. Then remember to pull it out when you start making the base so it warms to room temperature when you’re finally ready to use it.
- Pull the butter and eggs you’ll need for the recipe from the fridge and leave them on the kitchen counter overnight. It’s really important for this recipe that these ingredients are at room temperature when you use them. Otherwise, the base layer won’t rise as high when baked.
- Make sure to use a 13×9” pan with tall sides. This cake rises and falls a lot in the oven, and if you’re not careful, you could end up with cake all over the bottom of your oven. I use disposable aluminum pans, the one between the short-sided cake pan and the steep-sided turkey roaster.
- Make sure to preheat your oven about 45 minutes before the rise time is complete. (That way your oven’s temp is stable when you put the cake in to bake.)
- In the last twenty minutes of the rise time, make the batter for the second layer.
Although the time sink is considerable for this cake — 2 hours of it is simply letting the first layer rise, and 30 minutes of baking. So this cake isn’t quite as daunting as it sounds. Moreover, you don’t frost it — you simply sprinkle it with powdered sugar, and maybe some edible glitter, then you’re done.
The gentle unevenness of the gooey butter cake’s top is its hallmark, i.e, something to be highlighted, not covered up.
Christie’s Canon of Characters: I can totally envision Tuppence making this cake, should it have migrated from around the St. Louis area to England between 1922 and 1973.
Because you can get so many other things accomplished whilst making this dessert: a couple of loads of laundry washed, dried, and folded; dishes washed and counters cleaned; beds made; pick up the house; even a bit of vacuuming. All things that need doing, but can be challenging to accomplish when baking sweets. All you need to do is keep an eye on the clock and timers wound!
It’s a fantastic multitasker cake.
Especially when you need to bake something for a fete or bake sale, but your three kids need clean britches!
My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025
Cooking With Christie: Outtake!
This is the baked off loaf of bread in which I used the harvest grain medley from King Arthur Baking Company.
And it turned out pretty well! Especially for a first attempt!
My 52 Weeks With Christie 
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