It's

Cozy Food Friday!

That means it's time to share a recipe from 

another great cozy mystery!

This week it's

DEATH BY YULE LOG

by Lee Hollis

From the 

YULE LOG MURDER anthology

by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Barbara Ross

YULE LOG MURDER by LESLIE MEIER
Lucy Stone is thrilled to be cast as an extra in a festive period film—until the set becomes a murder scene decorated in blood and buttercream icing. Returning to her role as sleuth, Lucy dashes to restore peace to Tinker’s Cove, unwrap a cold-hearted criminal’s MO, and reveal how one ornate Yule log cake could possibly cause so much drama. 
 
DEATH BY YULE LOG by LEE HOLLIS
Hayley Powell’s holidays aren’t off to a very merry start. Not only has her daughter brought Conner—an infuriatingly perfect new beau—home to Bar Harbor, but a local troublemaker has been found dead with traces of her signature Yule log cake on his body. As Conner becomes the prime murder suspect, Hayley must put aside her mixed feelings to identify the real killjoy.
 
LOGGED ON by BARBARA ROSS
Realizing she can’t make a decent Bûche de Noël to save her life, Julia Snowden enlists the help of her eccentric neighbor, Mrs. St. Onge, in hopes of mastering the dessert for Christmas. With everyone in the old woman’s circle missing or deceased, however, it’s up to Julia to stop the deadly tidings before she’s the next Busman’s Harbor resident to meet a not-so-jolly fate.
 
Kick back with something sweet and indulge in three bite-sized Yuletide tales too good to resist!

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HAYLEY'S CHRISTMAS YULE LOG

Photo Property of www.thevintagenews.com

Photos  found via Google Images and or Pintrest, and their contributors, with many thanks. Your finished dish will vary in appearance.

Ingredients

For the Yule Log:

½ cup butter

1 cup semisweet chocolate chip

5 eggs

1¼ cups sugar

1¼ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ cup water

For the Filling:

6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar (more for your towel later)

1½ cups your favorite whipped cream

   Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 11 x 17 pan or a half-sheet cake pan by spraying it with cooking spray or greasing pan and adding parchment paper. 

   In a microwave bowl, melt your butter and chocolate chips in 30-second increments, stirring until smooth and set aside. 

   In a stand mixer, beat the eggs on high until nice and frothy. Keep the mixer on low and slowly add the sugar. Now slowly add the chocolate mixture and mix until blended.

   Sift the baking soda with the flour, then on low speed alternate adding the flour mixture and water a little bit at a time, ending with the flour, and mix until it is just incorporated, you don't want to overly mix. 

   While your cake is baking, sprinkle lots of powdered sugar on a clean dish towel. 

   When the cake is done, remove it from oven. Do not cool, but immediately turn it out onto the dish towel. Starting on the short end of the towel, roll the towel and cake up together. Now allow to cool completely. 

   Prepare your filling by mixing your cream cheese on high for four to five minutes. Gradually add the powdered sugar until well blended. Fold in your whipped cream.

   Carefully unroll your cake. Remove towel and spread the filling all over cake and gently roll it back up (without towel). Refrigerate at least one hour before slicing and serving with some warm mulled wine (recipe also in DEATH BY YULE LOG) with your friends.

Note: This is the basic cake, but please feel free to frost and/or decorate your rolled cake any way you want and to be as creative as you like!

Photo property of www.strongertogether.coop

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Please keep reading to check out my 

installments of 

Book Beginnings on Fridays

and

The Friday 56

Both the BB and 56 are from

DEATH BY YULE LOG

By Lee Hollis

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a meme hosted by Rose City Reader

Share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading.

The Friday 56 is a meme hosted by Freda's Voice

Rules: *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that's okay.) *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grab you. *Post it.

My Book Beginnings

As Hayley stood in her kitchen, a glass of red wine in one hand, and her cell phone in the other, which was pressed to her ear, she found herself fighting back a flood of tears.

My 56

(page 181 in this anthology)

Given how loathed the deceased was by many locals, it wasn't a surprise his funeral was so sparsely attended.

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