Murder by the Slice (31 page)

Carolyn’s Low-Fat Pizza Rolls

1 package Pillsbury
2 tablespoons grated

low-fat croissants
parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons pizza sauce
4 tablespoons diced
4 tablespoons grated
turkey pepperoni

mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 375° F. Carefully open and unroll the croissant dough until you have a rectangle. Be careful not to separate the dough at the perforations. If it does separate, just pinch it back together. Spread the pizza sauce evenly over the dough; then sprinkle the cheeses and pepperoni on the sauce. Reroll the dough like it was before. Cut the roll into 8 even slices. Lay the slices about 2 inches apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet and serve warm.

Jack-O’-Lantern Cake

3 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1
¹
⁄2 cups butter
1

6 eggs
2 drops red food coloring
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
4 drops yellow food coloring
4
¹
⁄2 cups all-purpose flour

1⁄2 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350° F for metal or glass pans, 325° F for dark or coated pans. Grease and flour 2 12-cup Bundt pans and 1 individual muffin tin. In a large bowl, cream the sugar and butter; then beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla. In a medium bowl, combine flour and baking powder, then add to the creamed mixture and blend well. Add the milk and food coloring, mixing until batter is smooth and a light creamy orange. Fill the 2 muffin tins
²
⁄3 full. Split the rest of the mixture between the 2 Bundt pans. Bake muffins for 12–18 minutes and the Bundt cakes 35–40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely.

Orange and Green Frosting

8 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (2 sticks) softened
8 drops red food coloring

butter or margarine
16 drops yellow food coloring
1 cup shortening
6 drops green food coloring
1

⁄4 cup milk

In a large bowl, beat the powdered sugar, butter, and shortening at low speed until blended. Beat in the milk and vanilla on medium speed until smooth. If necessary, stir in the milk a few drops at a time. Remove and reserve
¹
⁄3 cup of the frosting. Add red and yellow food coloring to the remaining frosting; blend well to make orange frosting. To make pumpkin shape, place 1 cake, rounded side down, on a serving plate. If necessary, before assembling, trim cakes to form flat surfaces. Spread the top with some of the orange frosting. Place second cake, rounded side up, on top of first cake. Frost cakes with orange frosting. Add green food coloring to the reserved frosting. Blend green frosting well. Frost the bottom of the cupcake and position on top, forming the stem of the pumpkin.

Chocolate Frosting for Face

1 square (1 ounce)
1 cup powdered sugar

unsweetened chocolate, 1–2 tablespoons boiling

chopped
water

1 teaspoon butter or

margarine

Heat the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over low heat until melted, stirring constantly. Blend in powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon water. Beat until smooth. Add additional water, a teaspoon at a time until it’s the proper spreading consistency. Cool until less than body temperature while planning face details. Use a toothpick to make light indentions into the orange frosting to sketch out the face. Fill a plain-tipped pastry bag with the frosting. Create your own unique jack-o’-lantern face with the chocolate frosting.

Carolyn’s Giant Hostess Cupcake

2 dark chocolate
1 jar (7 ounces)
cake mixes
marshmallow creme

Preheat oven to 350° F for metal or glass pans, 325° F for dark or coated pans. Grease the sides and bottom of a 10inch angel food cake pan and a 10-inch springform pan. Prepare cake mixes using instructions on backs of boxes. After beating the batter, pour ⁄ of the batter into the angel food 4 cake pan. Pour the remaining ⁄ into the springform pan. 4 Bake cake in springform pan 15 minutes. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Bake cake in angel food cake pan for 45–50 minutes. Again check with toothpick. (Dark or coated pans may take 3–5 minutes longer.) Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Trim tops of both cakes to make completely flat surfaces. Place cake from angel food cake pan on plate with trimmed top up. Fill the center hole with marshmallow creme. Use some of the excess creme to ice the top, being careful to not get too close to the edge. The layers should stick together, but you don’t want to be able to see any of the creme once the top layer is on. The cake from the springform pan goes on top, bottom up. This should be a thin layer to give a good, flat surface for the icing and to cover the marshmallow creme.

Ganache Chocolate Icing

4 squares (4 ounces) semisweet chocolate, chopped
1

⁄2 cup whipping cream

1

⁄4 cup powdered sugar

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, bring whipping cream to a boil. Pour the cream into chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted. Let frosting cool until it doesn’t feel warm to the touch. Pour icing on top of cake, covering the top completely and letting it run off the edges. Spread some along the edges, covering where the small top layer joins the main cake. If too much icing has drizzled onto the edges of the cake, just wipe off the excess with a paper towel. You want the icing just along the top like a Hostess cupcake. Put the cake in the refrigerator until the icing is firm.

White Icing

1

⁄3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon milk

Mix powdered sugar and milk in a small bowl until smooth. Add drops of milk if needed to get the right consistency. Fill a plain-tipped pastry bag with the white frosting and decorate with a squiggle across the top of the cake.

Note: Freeze leftover cake trimmed from the top of cakes to use later, crumbled on ice cream or pudding.

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