Christmas Cake by Lynne Hinton

Author:Lynne Hinton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

SECTION THREE

Red Velvet Cake

2 eggs

1½ cups sugar

1 cup oil

1 tablespoon vinegar

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons red food coloring

Beat eggs with sugar; add oil and vinegar. In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients, add to egg mixture, alternating with buttermilk. Add red food coloring. Bake in 3 9-inch pans at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes. Frost cake with cream cheese filling.

Chapter Eleven

I’ll just put the cake on the table.” Louise walked into the house and right past Jessie and James as they sat in the den decorating the tree. She hadn’t even bothered to knock.

“Okay,” Jessie responded. It hadn’t surprised her to have Louise walk in. She had told her to come by because she had needed to talk to her about something important.

“It’s red velvet,” Louise announced from the kitchen. “I hope you like it. This one is from Mary Jo Ledford,” she added. She started taking out saucers and pulling out silverware. “I must have twenty cakes a day show up at my doorstep.”

Jessie waited for her friend to come into the den to join her to hear more about the cake. Louise headed out of the kitchen and then over to the closet at the front door and removed her coat and gloves. She placed them in the closet and turned toward Jessie and James.

“You want me to start a pot of coffee?” Louise asked.

“There’s some already made,” Jessie replied.

Louise headed into the room where her friends were waiting.

“Ever since the word got out that Beatrice had arranged for the winner of our contest to meet the Cake Lady, everybody’s sending me recipes and showing up at my house with cakes.” Louise walked into the room rubbing her belly. “Let me just say that I have had the opportunity to enjoy a vast assortment of Christmas cakes.”

“Lou, just because they’re bringing them to you doesn’t mean that you have to sample them all!” Jessie noted.

Louise smiled. “I know it.” She sat down on the sofa across from Jessie. “But I’ve discovered I have a kind of weakness about cakes. And besides, if I’m going to be bribed, I might as well enjoy it!”

“So maybe Beatrice’s claim has had a few benefits,” Jessie said.

“Well, if you mean these extra ten pounds, I’d say so!”

“Has she secured a prize yet?” Jessie asked.

Louise shook her head. Then she walked over to the tree to help James untangle the strands of light. “She still swears that she can get the Cake Lady.”

Jessie shook her head.

“She just won’t give it up,” Louise said. “She just won’t admit that she’s made a mistake and let me tell everybody that this crazy story that she concocted is not true. Imagine, some television star coming to Hope Springs and judging this silly cake contest.”

“She wouldn’t go for the cash prize from the church?” Jessie asked.

“Are you kidding?” Louise responded. “She said that she could never let the winner receive money for her contest.”

“Let me guess,” Jessie interrupted, “because it looks bad for a church?”

“You got it,” Louise replied.

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