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The yuletide season in Lake Eden, Minnesota, guarantees a white Christmas, delectable holiday goodies from Hannah Swensen\'s bakery, The Cookie Jar--and murder. As a shadow hangs over her friends\' Christmas wedding, Hannah\'s determined to cook a killer\'s goose before anyone else gets burned...

The Cookie Jar\'s busiest time of the year also happens to be the most wonderful time...for Christmas cookies, Hannah\'s own special plum pudding--and romance! Holiday orders are high, and Hannah\'s slated to provide dessert at the Reverend Knudsen\'s upcoming nuptials. She\'s busy as can be and loving it. She also gets a kick out of \"Lunatic Larry Jaeger\'s Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot,\" a kitschy carnival taking place smack-dab in the middle of the village green. Larry thinks he\'s crazy like a fox with his wild business schemes, but this time, the entrepreneur may have bitten off more than he can chew. Rumor has it that Larry\'s in the red--an idea that takes a sinister turn when Hannah discovers the man himself dead as a doornail in his own office...

It seems quite a few people would have liked to fill Larry\'s stocking with coal and then bash him with it--including his bitter ex-wife, his ex-partner\'s daughter, a woman he was wooing, and the Crazy Elf Tree lot\'s extremely exasperated investors...

Now, with so many suspects to investigate and the twelve days of Christmas ticking away, Hannah\'s running out of time to nab a murderous Scrooge who doesn\'t want her to see the New Year...

Includes Hannah\'s favorite Christmas dinner recipes!


Dixie Lee\'s German Apple Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack
in the middle position.
4 cups peeled and sliced apples (4 or 5 medium size apples)
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white (granulated) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

Grease (or spray with Pam or another nonstick baking spray) the inside of a 9-inch by 13-inch cake pan. (I used Pam baking spray, the kind with flour in it.)

Peel, core, and slice the apples as you would for a pie. Place the sliced apples on the bottom of the prepared cake pan.

Hannah\'s Note: You can mix the cake batter by hand or with an electric mixer. We use our electric mixer down at The Cookie Jar because we quadruple the recipe and make 4 apple cakes at once.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk the eggs with the oil until they\'re thick. Then add the sugar and beat it in.

Mix in the vanilla, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Mix thoroughly.

Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing after each cup.

Scrape down the bowl, give a final stir with a spoon, and then drop the batter over the apples in spoonfuls. (Don\'t worry if it doesn\'t completely cover the apples – the batter will spread out during baking.)

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 60 minutes. (Mine took only 50 minutes.) Cool the cake in the pan on a cold burner or a wire rack.

Dixie Lee\'s German Apple Cake Frosting:

8-ounce package softened cream cheese (the brick kind not the whipped)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon lemon juice (freshly squeezed is best of course)
4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) melted butter
2 cups confectioner\'s (powdered) sugar (no need to sift unless it\'s got big lumps)

If you forgot to take the cream cheese out of the refrigerator to soften naturally, unwrap it, place it in a microwave safe bowl and heat it for 20 seconds on HIGH. Check it to see if it\'s soft. If it\'s not, give it another 15 seconds or so, until it is.

Stir the vanilla extract into your cream cheese. Then add the lemon juice and the melted butter. Mix until it\'s smooth.

Beat in the confectioner\'s sugar in half-cup ...

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