You can be successful in the big city and then go home again. Which place is better to stay in is not the only mystery Sophia has to solve. She also needs to solve a murder that has taken place in her parents country club.
Maymee Bell’s Cake & Punishment
Cozy Mystery Novel with Recipes
Book Review
Outline and Tone:
This book proves once again that you can indeed go home again. Sophia Cummings left small town Rumford, KY for New York to become a highly successful pastry chef. After having her heart broken by an unfaithful boyfriend, she goes back to her parents home in Rumford to lick her wounds and get away from the drama. Unfortunately for Sophia, she left one dramatic scene for another. Her mom is old fashioned southern and has strict expectations for Sophia’s behavior. She runs into old friends from high school dealing with their own life issues. And then of course there is the day she stumbles across a dead body. Can she help the handsome Sheriff Carter solve this mystery and decide what her next step in life will be? Well this is a cozy mystery so I have faith she will. I enjoyed reading this book, in fact I listened to the audio version of the book. If you want a treat listen to the audio book, the performer Tiffany Morgan does a wonderful job with southern accents. It is like taking a vacation to the south.
The author: Maymee Bell is a pen name for Tonya Kappes. Her website boasts the tagline “Southern Hospitality with a Smidgen of Homicide.” That seems a perfect summary for this book and this series. She has been an Amazon All Star Author and been on best selling lists such as USA Today. According to her website, as a child she was a reluctant reader and now she has authored numerous series for adults and children. You can connect with Ms. Kappes on Facebook and Instagram. She also has a Pinterest page that she puts some of her content and links to her TikTok videos.
What is not to like?:
Some plot points were predictable, but that did not make it less enjoyable. It did take me a bit to get used to the southern accent while listening to the book, but by the end, I was ready for more and excited to read the next book.
The verdict:
Why don’t y’all just sit on the front porch and sip some sweet tea and stay a while so’is I can tell you about a cozy mystery with more southern charm than you can shake a stick at!
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).
Red Velvet Crunchies Recipe
Assemble the ingredients
Do not preheat the oven because the dough has to be chilled for one hour.
Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
Use a mixer to beat the butter on high speed until creamy. Beat in the brown sugar and granulated sugar until combined and creamy. Beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla extract. Once mixed, add the food coloring and beat until combined.
It is worth it to get the larger stand mixer. This is big enough to handle any recipe and most recipes when doubled!
Turn the mixer off to add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix on low and slowly beat until a very soft dough is formed.
At this point the recipe says you can add more food coloring if you like. Here is the food coloring I used.
I used a little less than one tablespoon (as the recipe calls for) and found it made it a bright red.
I used my favorite OXO Good Grips Stackable Beaker Measuring Cups for the liquid,
but used OXO Good Grips Measuring Spoons for the food coloring since to be able to scrape it out easier.
As you can see the batter is a great bright red color.
Keep in mind though that once you add the dry ingredients, it will dull the brightness. 
Here is the dough with all the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips added. It is still clearly red and baked into a dark red color.
Cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour. It has to be chilled.
After the dough is chilled roll 2 inch balls and place on cookie sheet. The recipe called for parchment paper, but I used an OXO Good Grips Silicone Baking Mat and it worked great.
One more word of advice, the dough will still be a bit sticky and you are likely to get red food coloring on your hands unless you use gloves. The dye did wash right off and did not end up staining my skin.
Bake each batch for 10-11 minutes. The cookies may have only spread slightly because the center will be nice and moist. If you want to press down the warm baked cookie, you can, and it will make crinkles on top. I stick a few chocolate chips on top and in the crinkles for decoration only.
Red Velvet Crunchies from: Cake and Punishment
Ingredients
- 1½ cups cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup packed light or dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 Tbsp whole milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp red food coloring, liquid or gel (you might need more, depending on how red you want your cookies to look)
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips plus ½ cup for after baking to stick on top for decorations
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Use a mixer to beat the butter on high speed until creamy.
- Beat in the brown sugar and granulated sugar until combined and creamy.
- Beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla extract.
- Once mixed, add the food coloring and beat until combined.
- Turn the mixer off to add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
- Mix on low and slowly beat until a very soft dough is formed.
- Add more food coloring if you'd like the dough to be brighter red, which I do. I eyeball this.
- On low speed, beat in the chocolate chips.
- The dough will be sticky.
- Cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour. It has to be chilled.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Put parchment paper [or silicone baking mat] on two baking sheets and set aside so they are ready for you to place the dough on once you've rolled it into balls.
- Scoop up 2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. (If you need a photo,please check out Tonyakappes.com, where you will find a photo under "Maymee Bell Recipes.")
- Place nine balls on each baking sheet. Bake each batch for 10-11 minutes.
- The cookies may have only spread slightly because the center will be nice and moist. If you want to press down the warm cookie, you can, and it will make crinkles on top. I stick a few chocolate chips on top and in the crinkles for decoration only.
What would I do differently next time?
The recipe is easy to follow and the cookies baked up how I like them, soft and melty chocolate chips. The only thing I would do differently next time is make a double batch.
If you are a cookie fan, I also recommend Chocolate Chip Crunch Cookies from Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder and Cocoa Snaps from Raspberry Danish Murder.
