Diet Killers: Recipes for Readers – Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodle Cake from Molly MacRae

 

The chocolate chips are hiding like little sneak thieves.

To my mind, good short stories are jewels. They’re small, intense, and brilliant. That makes the new anthology from the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime, Gone Fishin’: Crime Takes a Holiday, a cache of glittering gems. This is the eighth Guppy anthology, to date, and I think it’s the best. The bloggers of Writers Who Kill are well-represented in the volume. James M. Jackson is the editor, Connie Berry wrote the introduction, Mary Dutta, Margaret S. Hamilton, and KM Rockwood each have a story in the book, and Grace Topping coordinated the whole shebang—she herded writers to get their stories in on time, lined up judges made sure they turned in their results on time, edited, etc. (that “etc.” covers a LOT more work). In all, there are twenty-three stories, and they offer a wide variety of crime fiction for your reading pleasure.

Just as Gone Fishin’ has something for everyone, so does Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodle Cake. For cookie-lovers it has the familiar taste of the classic cookie the recipe is based on. For cake-lovers it has a lovely, moist texture. For those who like surprises a sneaky crunch of sugary cinnamon covers the top and bottom (and the sides if you’re lucky enough to score a corner or edge piece). And, of course, there’s chocolate. A slice of Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodle Cake is perfect for dessert or with a cup of tea or coffee while you’re reading Gone Fishin’.  You’ll find buy links at the bottom of this post to catch your own copy.

 

Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodle Cake

(Adapted from the King Arthur Baking Company which adapted it from Snacking Bakes by Yasameen Arefi-Afshar.) 

Ingredients

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 eggs

3/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 cup chocolate chips (or more. Next time I’ll use more.) 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F with rack in center. Grease 8-inch square pan then line with 2 pieces of parchment paper, making a sling (really, you don’t want to skip this step) and lightly grease parchment (again, you really want to do this).

In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the sugar and the cinnamon. Sprinkle bottom and sides of pan with about half of this mixture.

In a large bowl, whisk remaining sugar and eggs until pale and foamy (takes only a minute). Add sour cream, oil, and salt and whisk until mixed and smooth.

Whisk in baking powder and baking soda (I always rub the powder and soda through a fine mesh strainer in case of lumps – seems like there are always lumps in one or the other). Fold in flour and chocolate chips, mixing until combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan, smooth top, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until puffed and golden, and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (or with a bit of melted chocolate on it). Let cake cook in pan on a rack about 15 minutes. Use the parchment paper sling to lift the cake out of the pan and onto the rack to finish cooling before cutting.

 

Get your copy of Gone Fishin’: Crime Takes a Holiday at Barnes & Noble or Amazon, or find it at an independent bookstore through Bookshop.org.