A Zombie Festival will surely bring out all the crazy people. Mel and Angie are hoping the zombies will be hungry for sweet, if spooky, cupcakes too. Not all of the zombies are walking at this festival. Mel finds one zombie that is really truly dead. Was this poor woman the real target? Could the killer have actually been after Melanie or Angie?
Book #7 of one of my favorite cozy mystery series. This main characters in this series are dynamic and their personal lives are just as interesting as the murder mysteries in each book. Another reason this is a favorite series are the no-fail cupcake recipes. Every cupcake I have made has been amazing!
Dark Chocolate Demise by Jenn McKinlay
Cozy Mystery Novel with Recipes
Book Review
Murder Mystery Books🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪
Book Review: Outline and Tone
Another perfect novel for the spooky season. The novel opens with Mel, Angie, Tate, Oz, and Marty selling cupcakes at the Zombie Festival. Their offerings include eyeball cupcakes, brain cupcakes and chocolate demise cupcakes with a chocolate casket lid on the top. They even borrowed a casket to set in front of their cupcake truck to draw people in and for people to take pictures in. A surprise announcement distracts from the fun, Roach’s band has been hired to play at the festival making Angie uncomfortable to be around both him and her fiancé. If that is not enough, Mel finds a real dead zombie inside their coffin.
Once again this cozy mystery series offers a big hit. There are enough surprise revelations to keep the reader guessing until the very end. The characters (as well as the recipes) are the real highlights of this series. Mel struggles with real life issues that the reader can relate to. Anyone with a big family can understand Angie’s struggles. And there are no plot holes that make the reader question how real the storyline could possibly be. This is hands down one of my absolute favorite series and I am positive you will enjoy it too!
The author:
Jenn McKinlay is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her website not only lists all of her books but has a pretty fascinating bio page. She is a skateboarder, has been in a glider plane, and has lived both on the east coast and in the west. I would tell you more, but I would rather encourage you to check out her website. Jenn McKinlay has an active presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Give her a shout out on social media and let her know what you think of her books and desserts.
What is not to like?:
Whenever I review books from the Cupcake Café series, this is a difficult section for me to write because I enjoy this series. So if I have to be really nit-picky, the part of the novel that I didn’t like is that they brought back Roach. I felt that that was a dead storyline. Apparently, like a zombie, it still had some walking to do.
The verdict:
Mel and Angie are great leading characters. I would read this even if it didn’t have recipes for some of the best cupcakes I have ever had.
Books to Read
Read It! 5/5 Books 📚📚📚📚📚
Disclaimer: In the name of full transparency, please be aware that this blog post contains affiliate links and any purchases made through such links will result in a small commission for me (at no extra cost for you).
Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
Assemble the Ingredients
Easy dessert to make: 5/5 on the Easy as Pie scale 🥧🥧🥧🥧🥧
Dessert Recipe 📖📖📖📖📖
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Put liners in muffin tin and set aside or as I prefer, use These never need to be greased and can be cleaned in the dishwasher. I love them!
Reusable, oven and dishwasher safe comes in many colors.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt.
I have and oldie but a goodie flour sifter that I found at a garage sale. Not only is this good for mixing the dry ingredients but also eliminating clumps that may be in the cocoa powder or the baking soda. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until well blended.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in vanilla.
Whether you are measuring liquids like the vanilla or the milk, I always use this
As an added bonus, I use one of the larger measuring cups and break the eggs into it. This makes adding the eggs one at a time by pouring them from the measuring cup super easy.
Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well.
Baking Tip
Whenever you need to add an ingredient to a baked good (like, cupcakes, sweetbreads, or cakes), first mix the add-in with flour. Here I tossed chocolate chips with flour and then add to the mixture. Do the same thing when adding fruits and nuts too. The flour helps to keep the added ingredients from sinking to the bottom.
Use a cookie scoop to fill the cupcake liners.
This set has small, medium, and large scoops. Perfect for even cookies or filling cupcake liners.
Bake for 15-17 minutes. Makes 12.
While the cupcakes cool, make the frosting.
In a large bowl, sift sugar and cocoa powder together and set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream butter and vanilla.
Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed.
Scrape sides of bowl often. Add milk, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
Makes 3 cups of icing.
Good Grips, no slip when mixing. Each bowl has a spout for easy pouring. Dishwasher safe.
So delicious 😋😋😋😋😋
Dark Chocolate Demise Cupcakes from a cozy mystery novel
Ingredients
- ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp butter, softened
- 1½ cups white sugar
- 2 eggs
- ¾ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk
- 1 bag semisweet chocolate chips
Chocolate Frosting
- ½ cup salted butter. softened
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 cups confectioners' sugar
- 6 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 Tbsp milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- Put liners in muffin tin and set aside.
- Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt.
- Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until well blended.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in vanilla.
- Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well.
- Toss chocolate chips with flour and then add to the mixture.
- Bake for 15-17 minutes. Makes 12.
Chocolate Frosting
- In a large bowl, sift sugar and cocoa powder together and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, cream butter and vanilla.
- Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed.
- Scrape sides of bowl often.
- Add milk, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Makes 3 cups of icing.
What would I do differently next time?
The cupcakes are perfect. However, I found the frosting to be too stiff. I could have easily (and I will next time) add more mild to thin it out. I didn’t do that this time because I wanted to follow the recipe exactly.
Will I make it again?: Absolutely Yes! 😋😋😋😋😋
I love cupcakes! Try these delicious cupcakes from Fairy Tale Cupcake Bakery Series.
Salted Caramel Cupcakes from Sugar and Iced by Jenn McKinlay
Pistachio Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Fig Frosting from Going Going Ganache by Jenn McKinlay
Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes from Sprinkle with Murder by Jenn McKinlay
French Toast Cupcakes from Red Velvet Revenge by Jenn McKinlay
Orange Dreamsicle Cupcakes from Buttercream Bump Off by Jenn McKinlay
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes from Pumpkin Spice Peril by Jenn McKinlay
