MADDIE here, with a sweet recipe on a bittersweet day.
My wonderful mother died ten years ago yesterday. Marilyn Flaherty Maxwell Muller was eighty-six.
She was the one who taught me to sew, to bake - and to love mysteries. Her shelves full of crime fiction were always available to me, and I read Agatha Christie, Earle Stanley Gardner, Arthur Conan Doyle, even Poe, from an early age.
Apropos of my history, I'm at the Malice Domestic convention in North Bethesda right now, where tomorrow night I'll pick up my two-year-old teapot celebrating Charity's Burden (my fourth Quaker Midwife Mystery, written as Edith Maxwell) winning the Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel. I owe it all to my mother.
Marilyn was also a brilliant seamstress, sewing all of her three daughters' clothes and ballet costumes (for three or four dances each every spring) when we were young.
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| Edith (Maddie) and her sister Janet in tutus Marilyn sewed. |
She also sewed more than one beautiful quilt for each family member in her retirement, plus others for charity projects. Here is a lovely quilt she designed and began for me but wasn't able to finish. I completed the assembly and got it machine quilted a few years ago.
Still, this is a recipe blog, so let's talk about Mommy's sweet tooth and her love of baking. I can't remember a time when I wasn't at her side as she baked pies, cookies, and cakes. She wasn't an inspired savory cook, although she always put a balanced dinner on the table for our family of six. But it was sweets she excelled at.
After the Ukraine invasion began and Leslie Budewitz mentioned in her blog post here a few dining options inspired by that beleaguered nation, I went looking for something to bake. When Google uncovered mention of Ukranians loving desserts with poppyseeds and sour cream, I remembered the poppyseed cake my mom used to bake. I searched my recipe box, which sadly didn't include an old 3x5 card with the recipe on it. But that's what sisters are for!
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| Janet, Barbara, and Edith with Marilyn two months before she left us, with one of her quilted wall hangings behind. |
Sure enough, Janet had the poppyseed cake recipe and emailed it to Barbara and me. I tweaked it only by adding some lemon zest in the batter and a lemon glaze on top.
So, without further ado, I share our mom's poppyseed cake recipe. It's easy and tasty and you can bake it in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, who still need all the help we can give them.
Marilyn's Poppy Seed Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Fahrenheit. Grease a bundt or angel food cake pan.
Ingredients
Cake:
½ pound (two sticks) butter
1 ½ cup sugar
4 egg yolks
½ pt. sour cream
1 package poppy seeds
1 tablespoon lemon zest (finally
grated lemon peel)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups unbleached flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
4 egg whites, beaten stiff
Glaze:
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup lemon juice (juice
of 2 lemons)
Directions
Cream butter and sugar. Add yolks
and mix well.
Stir in sour cream, poppy seeds, lemon zest, and vanilla.
Stir in flour and baking soda. Fold in egg whites.
Gently spoon into prepared pan.
Bake for one hour or until toothpick
comes out clean. Cool in pan for ten minutes, then upend on a cooling rack.
For the glaze, in a microwave-safe bowl, combine melted butter, powdered sugar, and lemon juice until smooth. Warm for fifteen seconds and whisk to remove any clumps.
Poke holes in the cake with a
chopstick. Drizzle the glaze all over.
Allow glaze to set before slicing. Enjoy with a cup of tea or an after-dinner liqueur.
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Readers: what's your favorite celebration cake - or a baked good your own mom made?
My most recent release is Batter Off Dead, Country Store Mystery #10, out now!
