15

Heavenly Cloud Cakes

Sour cream, eggs, and flour make pancakes as light as air-so light that at Bette’s Diner in Berkeley, California, these ethereal offerings are called Cloud Cakes. Serve with warm Berry Sauce or Raspberry Maple Syrup.

3 large eggs

2 cups sour cream

cup unbleached all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Berry Sauce or Raspberry Maple Syrup (recipes follow)

1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until they are thick and light in color. Gradually stir in the sour cream until blended. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the egg mixture.

2. Heat a large nonstick griddle or skillet over medium heat until hot enough to sizzle a drop of water. Brush with a thin film of vegetable oil, or spray with nonstick cooking spray. For each pancake, pour a scant ¼ cup batter onto the griddle or into the skillet. Adjust the heat to medium-low. Cook until the tops are covered with small bubbles and the bottoms are lightly browned. Carefully turn and cook until the other side is golden brown. Repeat with the remaining batter.

3. Serve with Berry Sauce or Raspberry Maple Syrup.

MAKES ABOUT EIGHTEEN 3- TO 4-INCH PANCAKES.

Berry Sauce: Combine ¼ cup water and 1 tablespoon cornstarch in a small saucepan and stir until the cornstarch is dissolved. Add one 10-ounce box thawed frozen strawberries or raspberries in sweetened syrup. Heat, stirring, until the mixture boils and thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in 2 tablespoons orange liqueur, if desired.

Raspberry Maple Syrup: Combine 1 cup maple syrup and ½ cup unsweetened frozen (or fresh) raspberries in a small saucepan. Heat until the mixture begins to boil. Cool slightly. Press through a sieve to puree the berries into the syrup. Serve warm.

16

“Because she killed my dad!” Elias’s voice thundered through the treetops.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Miss Yoder, do you have a hearing problem?”

I jiggled pinkies in both ears to make sure they were clear of wax. “No. But this is the first time I’ve heard about this.”

“That woman-Miss Jay-was a slut, pardon my crude use of language, Miss Yoder. Anyway, she and my father were having an affair while my father was drinking himself into an early grave. All the while she was trying to get him to marry her so that she could get her hands on his share of BUM. Of course it didn’t work. He used her, just as she was using him, and he died of cirrhosis of the liver without ever intending to pop the question. How did she contribute to his death, you might ask?”

“Indeed I might.”

“You see, he tried to go on the wagon a number of times. However, the scheming Miss Jay did everything she could to derail him-if I might mix a metaphor.”

“Why not? Everyone else does.”

“He’d check himself into a rehab facility, but then halfway through his treatment she’d come up with some horrific-sounding emergency that would compel him to quit, so he’d have to start all over again. On one occasion she had a message smuggled in that said she’d been diagnosed with stage-four lymphoma and had less than a month to live. Could they please spend that month together in Acapulco, because she wanted to die on a tropical beach? Being the romantic drunk that he was, he bought it.”

“That’s awful! But surely-”

“Surely what? Surely my father should bear some responsibility for not being able to withstand the wiles of Minerva J. Jay?”

“Men are not helpless creatures, dear; if they are, then they have no business running the government.”

“No disrespect intended, Miss Yoder, but women should not be involved in positions that give them power over men. If you doubt me, then look up what the apostle Paul has to say on the subject.”

“What about Deborah the judge? That was like being president back then.”

“Whatever you say, Miss Yoder. Are we through here?”

“Almost, but first let me say that I choose to interpret your sarcastic rejoinder as complete acquiescence. That said, how did you deliver the poison to her pancakes and no one else’s?”

That shocked him into a moment of silence. “I could ask you the same thing, you know,” he said at last.

“Yes, but I’m the interrogator. Now, please answer.”

“It wasn’t me. But I can answer that for you; the pills were dropped into a single bowl of batter, and then Miss Jay with her enormous appetite ate that entire batch.”

“Hmm. I suppose that would work-if the killer knew the cakes were headed out to a specific customer. But we were working at breakneck speed. We were all taking turns, dashing about madly, filling in as needed. What you’re suggesting would have taken some planning.”

“You were dashing about at breakneck speed, Miss Yoder, because that’s your modus operandi.”

“It’s genetic; I can’t help it! It’s a disease.”

“Nevertheless, any one of the rest of us, by keeping a calmer head, could have planned an entire griddle full of cakes for that glutton. It was a given that she would show. Oh, and by the way, before you point out that I have one of the calmest heads-which I do-I must likewise point out that your maniacal behavior would also make a perfect cover for that insidious crime.”

“How dare-”

“Good night, Miss Yoder. Please watch your step going down the spiral staircase. And peace be with you.”

“He’s awesome,” Alison said.

It was less than an hour later, and we were sitting around the kitchen table enjoying a hearty supper of beef cabbage soup and corn bread. Little Jacob, of course, was growing fat on his own special diet. Freni had been driven home by her husband, Mose, via horse and buggy, so my dearly beloved was the only other adult there.

“He’s a murder suspect,” I said.

“And no, you can’t date him,” Gabriel said.

Alison slammed her spoon down on the table, sending specks of broth out into the universe. “Aw, man, you guys are like the meanest parents there are.”

Oh, what music to my ears. That my pseudo-stepdaughter should refer to my husband and me as her parents, even in a fit of anger, meant that she had truly come to accept us as such. Biologically she was the fruit of my quasi-first husband’s loins. Aaron, you see, was the cause of my inadvertent bigamy because he was legally married to, but separated from, a strumpet up in Minnesota, one to whom he is still hitched. They, however, neither wanted to raise Alison, nor cared enough about the child to turn custody of her over to me. Thank heaven all that would change in just eight weeks when the court could declare Alison officially abandoned and our petition to adopt her would be finalized.

I flashed our future full-daughter a placating smile. “When you turn eighteen, you may date anyone you wish. Although I must warn you that in the meantime you should work really hard on developing a taste for Christian rock music. He plays it for a couple of hours every night for the benefit of his groupies.”

“Yuck. I don’t like religious music-no offense, Mom. And whatcha mean by groupies?”

Gabe winked at me. “She means the girls that hang around him, right, hon?”

“Yes, but I’m not making this up. Alison, dear, before you came to live with me-with us-I had big-name stars stay here at the inn, and none of them had quite this guy’s charisma.”

“Oh, man,” Alison said as she lurched for her spoon, “this reeks big-time. How come you had big stars stay here before I come along, and since then only piddly people like what’s her name?”