tuppence

Cooking With Christie: Molasses Tea Cakes

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Ignore the jar of sprinkles, they don’t feature in this recipe, they just decided to photo bomb the pic!

Inspiration: When my Husband’s co-workers request treats, nine times out of ten, they ask for either a spice based bake or one featuring lemons. On this occasion, a pair of people with spring birthdays wished for bite-sized bits of cake featuring warm autumn spices. 

A request I happily accommodated! Until I discovered the sleeve of the cake pan, I’d intended to use sprouted legs and went walk about. Leaving me to wonder at what temp and how long to bake the batter-filled tin. Happily, I located a similar pan on the manufacturer’s website, and even better, I stumbled upon this recipe there as well! 

And the crowd went wild for these super moist and flavorful cakes!

A Word of Warning from me to you: First, when and if you assemble these ingredients, the batter they produce is extremely thin — in my cake baking experiences, at least. But never fear! This is precisely how it’s supposed to turn out! 

Second, don’t fill the tiny cake molds more than 2/3 to 3/4 full. Otherwise, you’ll encounter difficulties prying them out of the pan and wasting a bunch of the batter as you’ll need to cut the bottoms off the aforementioned tea cakes. 

Third, for reasons I don’t quite understand, in the comments section of this recipe for Molasses Tea Cakes, people wrote about finding their taste too molasses-y. So much so that many warned against using blackstrap molasses. Which is interesting, as I thought they needed more molasses and spice! 

To each is own. 

Admittedly, they aren’t the sweetest tea cake I’ve ever eaten. However, I find this a feature, not a disadvantage. Especially if you’re bringing them to a buffet where dessert offerings tend to lean towards the sugary sweet end of the spectrum. They are by no means savory, but the cakes’ only source of sugar is a quarter cup of molasses. Nor does the recipe call for a glaze. 

Just so you know!

Christie’s Canon of Characters: These treats are petite enough to appeal to Poirot if decorated stylishly. Whilst their lack of sugar might appeal to Tuppence. Thus allowing Tuppence to keep a room full of kids celebrating Autumn, Halloween, or a winter holiday from skating on Saturn’s rings during a sugar high! And finally, I think Miss Marple, would enjoy sharing these tiny cakes with visiting inspectors, friends, and the occasional suspect during tea time.

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025

Cooking With Christie: They’re not perfect, but they’re tasty!

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Inspiration: I’ve always wanted to try making Checkerboard Cookies, but they’ve always intimidated me as the pattern seemed complicated. However, I’ve another slice-and-bake refrigerator cookie in my arsenal of recipes — so I was at least familiar with that portion of the bake. Shored up by this knowledge, I screwed up the courage on a day when I possessed both the energy and mental space to try making something new.

Despite being intimidated by this cookie (which I am aware sounds silly) I decided to switch up the recipe slightly from the one found here. Knowing food coloring can change the consistency of a dough, I decided against using it. No biggie.

My second deviation from the original recipe was slightly more drastic.

Since real almond extract is off-limits due to stupid, stupid allergies and less than excited at the prospect of using wholly artificial flavoring — I looked around my kitchen for an alternative and came up with this:

A. Sticking with the two teaspoons of vanilla extract, I made the base dough and then divided it in half.

B. Taking the first half of the mixture, I zested two medium-sized lemons into the dough, mixed it in, and then set it aside.

C. Whilst the other half of the dough waited patiently in a bowl, I blitzed an ounce of freeze-dried raspberries in a food processor down into a fine powder. Next, I strained the powder through a fine mesh strainer (to remove the seeds) not once but twice — before mixing it into the other half of the plain dough.

Then, I followed the rest of the baking instructions! And they turned out beautifully! Tasting akin to raspberry lemonade, these cookies are packed full of flavor and would make a wonderful springtime treat.

Christie: I can see Tuppence making these cookies for a school bake sale or for a village fete! They are both tasty and a little fancier than your typical cookie (or at least, in my mind, they are)!

Cooking With Christie!

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This Week’s Recipe: Hungarian Goulash

I’m a fan of make ahead meals. Too tired to make something healthy for dinner? Head to your deep freeze, pop it in a pot to warm up and voila – a nutritious meal in minutes.

Recently I’ve become a big fan of this particular recipe. Though it isn’t a particularly quick one. (Hence why I make it ahead. Plus, it always tastes better the next day!)

And of course, because I can’t help myself, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly….

I add an extra bell pepper, an extra carrot or two, a six ounce can of tomato paste (as I always loose the tubes of tomato paste in my fridge), and if I have extra cherry tomatoes I will toss them in as well.

Then I double the Worcestershire sauce. (A great spicy one from Portlandia Foods and no I’m not being paid to plug them I just love their product!) Then cut the 3 Tsp of beef bullion down to 1.5 tsp tomato/chicken bullion (otherwise it gets a bit salty).

However the biggest change: Rather than using a cornstarch slurry to thicken it up – I use potato flakes instead. They work like a dream. I also omit the Yukon potatoes called for at the tail end of the recipe. (As they don’t freeze well.) Instead, after I reheat the goulash, I serve it over buttery mash potatoes!

Seriously this is now one of my absolute favorite dishes now!

(And kudos to carlsbadcravings.com where I found the instructions – they not only give you the crockpot method – but oven and stove top methods as well. Plus tips on how to freeze/reheat the goulash!)

Agatha Christie: This is a dish I can see Tuppence making for the same reasons I do! With three kids, a husband and a dog (though they do have a butler) I think she needs all the shortcuts she can find to fit in all that detecting and spying.