Diet Killers: Recipes for Readers – Date, Walnut, Chocolate Chip Cake from Molly MacRae

Welcome back to Diet Killers: Recipes for Readers. In this month’s edition we’re straying a bit. Rather than talk about one or several mystery writers, we’ll celebrate acclaimed narrator Barbara Rosenblat, a woman whom AudioFile named a Golden Voice. 

Rosenblat, also a stage and screen actor, has narrated more than 400 books in a wide range of genres, from classics such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, to the popular Stink series for children by Megan McDonald, to short story collections by Kurt Vonnegut and Eudora Welty.

Even better for mystery lovers, Rosenblat is known for her narrations of well-loved mystery series such as the Mrs. Pollifax books by Dorothy Gilman, Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon books, Elizabeth Peters‘s Amelia Peabody series, Vicky Bliss series, and Jacqueline Kirby series, and books by Lisa Scottoline, Linda Fairstein, Carol O’Connell, Diane Mott Davidson, and Amanda Quick, among others.

Using a virtuosic range of accents. Rosenblat voices believable females and males  from small children to crotchety, aged seniors. Without being over-the-top, her characters are charming, smarmy, snide, sniveling, pompous, calming, threatening, naïve, and everything between. Her voice is warm, engaging and always welcome. I’d happily sit back with a piece of Date, Walnut, Chocolate Chip Cake and listen to her read a dictionary. Or two pieces if she chooses an unabridged dictionary.

Writers Who Kill member Grace Topping introduced me to Barbara Roseblat. Thank you, Grace. This cake, also rich, warm, and always welcome, is for Barbara and you.   

Date, Walnut, Chocolate Chip Cake

A moist cake with plenty of dates and a topping of chocolate chips, walnuts, and lots of crunchy white sugar—one of the best pieces of cake you’ll ever have. 

Ingredients for the cake

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda (divided)

1 ½ cups boiling water

½ pound chopped pitted dates

¾ cup unsalted butter at room temperature

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar

2 eggs

¾ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour 

Ingredients for the topping

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup chopped walnuts

8 ounces chocolate chips 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350℉ and grease a 9”x13” pan.

In a medium bowl, pour boiling water over dates and one teaspoon of the baking soda. Set aside to cool. (If you don’t let it cool, the butter will melt when you add it. Then the batter will be runny and the topping will sink out of sight. The cake will taste just fine but the crunchy topping is a lovely feature.)

In a second medium bowl, mix flour, salt, and remaining ¼ teaspoon of baking soda.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, stirring until thoroughly mixed.

Alternately add flour and date mixture to the butter mixture, stirring until just combined. Pour into prepared pan, spreading batter evenly to the corners.

Sprinkle top with the walnuts, then the chocolate chips. Stir the sugar and salt together and sprinkle over walnuts and chocolate chips.

Bake about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool, cut, and serve. MMMmmmm.

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She writes the award-winning Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries, the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries, and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. MacRae’s short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. She’s a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and is a past president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society.