Thursday's guest blogger, Janet Rudolph, has been blogging about Agatha all week on different sites. I'll post details of those, too, so you will have a Janet Rudolph Agatha Christie buffet!
Janet is all over:
Janet Rudolph is the editor of the Mystery Readers Journal and creative director/writer at Murder on the Menu and TeamBuilding Unlimited. She blogs daily at Mystery Fanfare and DyingforChocolate.com, facilitates a weekly mystery bookgroup, hosts literary salons with mystery authors, and has been a committee member on numerous mystery conventions.
A long time contributor to the mystery genre, she received her Ph.D. in religious mystery fiction. She lives in the Berkeley (CA) hills with her husband, a golden retriever, and two cats.
Her websites are:
www.teambuilding-unlimited.com
and Blogs:
Mystery Fanfare http://mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/
and DyingforChocolate www.dyingforchocolate.com
This is from Janet's DYING FOR CHOCOLATE blog:
Agatha Christie Cake: Delicious Death
So many Celebrations in honor of Agatha Christie's 120th birthday this week. I posted a bit about Agatha Christie yesterday on my other blog, Mystery Fanfare. Be sure and check it out. It includes a link to a 1955 BBC interview with the Queen of Crime. I will be posting more about Agatha Christie this week as part of two Agatha Christie Blog Tours.
As many of you know, I collect 'literary' cookbooks, tie-in cookbooks and the like. There is sadly no Agatha Christie cookbook, and if there were, I doubt there would be a lot of chocolate cakes in the cookbooks. Lots of scones and finger sandwiches, perhaps, an omelet or two, but not many that I would consider deliciously chocolate, although certainly for Poirot there might be some Belgian chocolate.
However, in honor of Agatha Christie's 120th birthday celebration, Jane Asher has created a chocolate cake she calls Delicious Death. Jane Asher, a long-time fan of Agatha Christie and actor in many Christie productions, was asked by Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, to create a recipe for the celebration.
"There is nothing more indulgent than afternoon tea. I have particularly fond memories of the lazy afternoons spent with my grandmother at Greenway as she tried out her latest ideas on us over a pot of tea and delicious cakes," said Prichard, calling Asher's invention "truly decadent".
Asher's cake was inspired by a passage in Christie's Miss Marple novel A Murder is Announced in which émigré housekeeper Mitzi bakes it for Dora Bunner's birthday tea. "'Impossible to make such a cake. I need for it chocolate and much butter, and sugar and raisins,'" she tells her employer, Miss Blacklock, who suggests using a tin of butter sent from America and raisins that were being kept for Christmas, along with a "slab of chocolate and a pound of sugar".
Mitzi is delighted. "'It will be rich, rich, of a melting richness! And on top I will put the icing – chocolate icing – I make him so nice – and write on it Good Wishes. These English people with their cakes that tastes of sand, never never, will they have tasted such a cake. Delicious, they will say – delicious'" - but is not so impressed with the name which is dubbed Delicious Death because it's so rich. It becomes an apt name though when Dora Bunner is found dead from poisoning after her birthday tea.
Basing her recipe on the ingredients mentioned in the 1950 novel, Jane Asher created her own version ofDelicious Death. From the Guardian: "It has an intense, forbidding dark Belgian chocolate centre which is lifted by the unexpected sharp zing of its brandy-soaked cherry and ginger filling," she said. "The glorious assault on the senses doesn't end there: the cake is decorated with flecks of pure gold, sprinklings of crystallised rose and violet petals, and swirls of ganache piping. This paragon of a cake is as beautiful to look at as it is delicious – and deadly? – to eat."
This cake will be served at Greenway in Devon throughout Agatha Christie Week (September 12-19, 2010), as well as being available at Greenway and the opening of the Torquay festival. It will also be on the menu at Brown's Hotel in Mayfair, said to be the inspiration for At Bertram's Hotel.
(from DYING FOR CHOCOLATE, continued)
Agatha Christie's Delicious Death by Jane Asher
Ingredients
175g dark chocolate drops (50-55% cocoa solids)
100g softened or spreadable butter
100g golden caster sugar
5 large eggs
½ tsp vanilla extract
100g ground almonds
½ tsp baking powder
For the filling:
150ml rum, brandy or orange juice
150g raisins
55g soft dark brown sugar
6-8 glacé cherries
4-6 pieces crystallised ginger
1 tsp lemon juice
For the decoration:
175g dark chocolate drops (50-55% cocoa solids)
150ml double cream
2 tsps apricot jam
10g crystallized violet petals
10g crystallized rose petals
A small quantity of gold leaf
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 150C, (300F, 135C fan-assisted).
Grease an 8" deep cake tin and line the bottom with baking parchment or silicone.
Prepare the filling: in a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients and stir over heat until the mixture is bubbling. Allow to simmer gently, while stirring, for at least two minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is thickened. Allow to cool.
In a small heatproof bowl, melt the chocolate drops over simmering water or in a microwave, being careful not to let it overheat. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until very pale and fluffy. Separate the eggs, setting aside the whites in a large mixing bowl, and, one by one, add 4 of the yolks to the butter/sugar mix, beating well between each one.
Add the melted chocolate and fold in carefully, then stir in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, mix together the ground almonds and baking powder, then stir them into the cake mix.
Whisk the egg whites until peaked and stiff, then fold gently into the chocolate cake mix.
Spoon the mix into the prepared cake tin, leveling the top, and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 55-65 minutes, or until firm and well risen. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning it out on to a rack to cool completely.
Using a serrated knife, slice the cake in half horizontally. Spread the cooled fruit filling onto one half and sandwich the two halves back together.
To decorate: put the chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl and melt them together over simmering water or in a microwave. Spread the cake all over with warmed apricot jam and place on a rack over a baking tray. Keeping back a couple of tablespoonfuls, pour the icing over the whole cake, making sure it covers the top and the sides completely, scooping up the excess from the tray with a palette knife as necessary. Add any surplus to the kept back icing. Carefully transfer the cake to a 10" cake board or pretty plate.
Once the reserved icing is firm enough to pipe, place it in a piping bag with no. 8 star nozzle and pipe a scrolling line around the top and bottom edges of the cake. Leave for two to three hours to set.
Place the violet and rose petals into a plastic bag and crush them into small flakes. Sprinkle these liberally around the chocolate scrolls. Finally, with a cocktail stick, pull off some small flakes of gold leaf and gently add them to the top of the cake.
This is from Janet's MYSTERY FANFARE blog:
Agatha Christie Google Doodle
Continuing the posts and celebrations of Agatha Christie this month,Google UK treated its users to a Google Doodle in honor of Agatha Christie's 120th Birthday. Alas, it didn't appear on the US Google search page. The Google logo crime scene includes the mustaches of Hercule Poirot and so much more!
Other Agatha Christie news today. From the Guardian: "HarperCollins Publishers is taking over the exclusive worldwide English rights to Agatha Christie's work including digital and audio formats ... This is the first time since the 1980s that all of Christie's books have been with a single publisher in the U.S. and the only time the program has been with one publisher worldwide.
Lift a glass of champagne or have a tea and scone in honor of Agatha Christie, Queen of Crime!!! Happy Birthday, Agatha Christie!
More from MYSTERY FANFARE:
Re-Reading Agatha Christie: Alternate Titles
As I mentioned the other day, September 15 is the 120th anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth, and there are big doings in Torquay and elsewhere.
I've been blogging this week about Agatha Christie, both here and on my other Blog, DyingforChocolate.com. Check out my other Agatha Christie, Queen of Crime, posts on Mystery Fanfare andDying for Chocolate. More to come.
Today is Day 14 of the Agatha Christie 120 Blog Tour that Kerrie Smith of Mysteries in Paradise has organized. Kerrie identifies Agatha Christie posts all year round at the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge. Be sure and check out the posts on theAgatha Christie 120 Blog Carnival Tour, a different blog site every day.Links here. This is a great way to find new Crime Fiction Blogs, too!
I’m a huge fan of Agatha Christie, and I’ve been celebrating her 120th birthday this month by re-reading many of her novels. As I started to do this, I was reminded that I’ve read many of her 75+ novels more than once, not always by design. Sometimes I’ve read a specific Christie mystery because I was using it in a course or bookgroup. Very legitimate reason. Sometimes I've reread one of her novesl because it was so good I thought it deserved a second or third reading.
Alas, there have been other reasons. Sometimes I just forget I read the novel. Agatha Christie is such a fine plotter that I rarely remember what happens, so I can re-read the book as if it's brand new. Oh yes, occasionally bits and pieces fall into place, but rarely the endings. This reason moved to number one as I got older, but really it’s all about Christie and her writing that keeps me intrigued. When you’re reading one of her novels, no matter if a Poirot, a Marple, or whatever, you turn the page and say, aha! Then you turn the page again, and there’s a completely different ‘turn of events’, and so it goes. She’s truly theQueen of Crime. Her plots are intricate, unexpected and witty!
The second reason that I’ve unwittingly re-read some of her novels is that there are alternate titles for many of them. Many times years ago when I was traveling abroad or at the bookstore looking for a good read, knowing that Christie would foot the bill, I would come across these, buy them, and read them (for the second time). Many of the Agatha Christie Mysteries were retitled for the American Market and at other times retitled even in the U.K. because of changed sensibilities. And, sometimes, I've bought and read copies that where bootlegs with different titles altogether (Indian editions). Sometimes I bought them in another language (Meutre au champagne: Sparkling Cyanide). Such an easy mistake.
Alternate Titles, Continued:
So to save you the trouble, here are some of my favorite Christies and their alternate titles. But maybe you’re like me, it doesn’t really matter. Agatha Christie mysteries are always worth re-reading.
Th Sittaford Mystery: Alternate Title: The Murder at Hazelmoor
Lord Edgware Dies: Alternate Title Thirteen At Dinner
Murder in the Calais Coach: Alternate Title:Murder on the Orient Express:
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?: Alternate Title: The Boomerang Clue
Three Act Tragedy: Alternate Title: Murder In Three Acts
The ABC Murders: Alternate Title: The Alphabet Murders
Dumb Witness: Alternate Titles: Poirot Loses A Client, Murder At Littlegreen House, and Mystery at Littlegreen House
Hercule Poirot's Christmas: Alternate Titles:A Holiday for Murder, Murder For Christmas
Murder Is Easy: Alternate Title: Easy to Kill
Ten Little Niggers: Alternate Titles: And Then There Were None, Ten Little Indians
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe: Alternate Titles: The Patriotic Murders; An Overdose of Death
Murder in Retrospect: Alternate Title Hercule Poirot Five Little Pigs
Towards Zero Alternate Title: Come and Be Hanged
Remembered Death: Alternate Title: Sparkling Cyanide
The Hollow: Alternate Title: Murder After Hours
Taken At The Flood: Alternate Title: There Is A Tide
Mrs. McGinty's Dead: Alternate Title: Blood Will Tell
Murder with Mirrors Alternate Title: They Do It With Mirrors
Funerals are Fatal: Alternate Titles: Murder at the Gallop
Destination Unknown: Alternate Title: So Many Steps To Death:
Hickory, Dickory, Dock: Alternate Title: Hickory, Dickory, Death
4.50 from Paddington: Alternate Titles: Murder She Said, What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!
The Mirror Crack'd: Alternate Title: The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side
Another Mystery Fanfare blog:
Agatha Christie 120 Years
So many celebrations in honor of Agatha Christie's 120th birthday this year.
Over the years, I've read just about every novel and story, play and reference book on the Grande Dame of Crime Fiction. I've taught classes on Agatha Christie at UCB, Santa Cruz, St. Mary's College, as well as focused on Agatha Christie in my mystery bookgroup.
Agatha Christie visited the UC Botanical Garden and was particularly taken by the Peruvian Lily. Poisonous? In honor of that long-ago visit, I organized a poison tour of the UC Botanical Garden with a very knowledgeable guide for my bookgroup.
For Agatha Christie's Centennial, I attended the CWA (Crime Writers UK) conference in Torquay which included the Agatha Christie Centennial Celebration Banquet. Everyone was there, and by that, I mean all my favorite British crime writers and many of the actors who portrayed Christie's characters over the years. David Suchet sat at the next table. I saw Joan Hickson in the Ladies Room. During that same trip, I went with CWA to visit Greenway, the long before it was opened to the public. The family was in residence at the time, and either they forgot that a group of mystery writers was stopping by or they didn’t care. It was a very lovely (and intimate) tour of the house.
When I returned to the States that year, I was on the organizing committee of the U.S. Agatha Christie Centennial. There were reading challenges, library talks, courses and lectures, and I wrote an 'Agatha-Christie inspired' interactive mystery event. It was great fun!
If you happen to be in England this week, check out the Festivities at the Agatha Christie Festival. Full Program of the Agatha Christie Festival. Can't be there? You can read an Agatha Christie, but to guide you, there are several Blog Tours this month celebratingAgatha Christie, the Queen of Crime.
Kerrie Smith of Mysteries in Paradise who identifies Agatha Christie posts all year round (Agatha Christie Reading Challenge) has organized a wonderful Agatha Christie 120 Blog Tour this month. Be sure and check out the posts, a different blog site every day. Links here. This is also a great way to be introduced to wonderful Crime Fiction Blogs, too! Mystery Fanfare will be part of the Blog Tour, and I'll be posting later this week.
I'll also be blogging about Nursery Rhymes and Agatha Christie on the Barnes & Noble Mystery Bookclub site this week. Be sure and follow the daily postings from Christie experts and crime writers.Becke Davis is the Mystery Book Club Coordinator, and a big Agatha Christie Fan.
On my DyingforChocolate blog this week, I'll be posting a special recipe for chocolate cake called Delicious Death developed by Jane Asher for the Official Agatha Christie Celebration.
Stop by all of these sites for everything and anything Agatha Christie. Let me know about any others!
And here's a real treat: A Video of a 1955 interview with Agatha Christie from the BBC Archives in which Agatha Christie talks about her lack of formal education and how boredom during childhood led her to write 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles'. She outlines her working methods and discusses why it is much easier to write plays than novels.
Raise a glass on September 15 to the Queen of Crime!
Here's a Mystery Fanfare blog from last year:
Original Agatha Christie story, Incident of the Dog's Ball
Strand Magazine will be publishing a "found" Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot 5000 word story, "Incident of the Dog's Ball". This story that was one of two found in the attic at Greenway, Christie's home. It eventually became the 1937 novel Dumb Witness. I overheard this 'rumor' at Bouchercon, and it was confirmed by Andrew Gulli, the editor of The Strand. However, I wanted to wait until it was official to mention it. Very exciting.
This is the first appearance of a new Agatha Christie story in the U.S. since 1975. This story was published in the U.K. in September, in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks (HarperCollins).
John Curran, an "arch-fan" found this story and "The Capture of Cerberus" in the attic. Both stories also appear in his book Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks (HarperCollins). In this wonderful book (a must for Christie fans), Curran reproduces notes, stories, sketches of St. Mary Mead, as well as information about and from Agatha Christie. Curran previously published pieces in Christie fan magazines. There were 73 notebooks covering her working life from the 20s until the year of her death. What a job!
AGATHA CHRISTIE BLOG TOUR:
Our host today on the Agatha Christie Blog Tour is JANET RUDOLPH. This year on Mystery Fanfare, hosted by Janet Rudolph, we celebrated the 75th birthday of the paperback.
Janet is certainly someone who keeps her finger on the pulse of crime fiction!
Pop over to Mystery Fanfare to join the Agatha Christie birthday celebrations there.
Today Janet talks about why she has sometimes read Agatha Christie titles two or three times.
Make sure oyu also check her post from a couple of days ago.
Previous stops on this year's Agatha Christie Blog Tour:
Previous stops on this year's Agatha Christie Blog Tour:
- Blog tour launch: MYSTERIES in PARADISE - Kerrie
- Agatha Christie Mile
- Julia Mckenzie’s first on set interview as Miss Marple
- Read THE CAPTURE OF CERBERUS on line
- Dear Ms. Christie, I regret to say...
- A Library is a hospital for the mind - Sarah
- Caviglia's Cabinet of Curiosities
- Confessions of a Mystery Novelist - Margot
- Unfinished Person - Bryan
- Art Deco Inspiration
- David Suchet on the Orient Express
- Agatha Christie on AudioFile
- Miss Lemon's Mysteries - Elizabeth
Hi, Janet, and welcome! You've written lots of great stuff about Agatha Christie!
I have always been aware of the alternate titles of Christie's books. When I was buying the paperbacks back in the 70s, they had the American titles, but would often note on the cover what the original title was. You did come up with a couple that I hadn't heard of, though, so I've learned something new. I had never heard of Come and Be Hanged as an alternate for Towards Zero, and I thought that Murder at the Gallop (aka Funerals Are Fatal) was only the name of one of the Margaret Rutherford Marple movies (although it actually is a Poirot novel); I did know another alternate title for it was After the Funeral. Interesting!
I do love Christie's use of nursery rhymes. I am currently rereading Hallowe'en Party, and while I was reading last night, "Ding dong dell; **bleep**'s in the well" popped up a few times, in different contexts, which indicates some significance. LOL - I see I have been edited!!! Well, hopefully most who read this will be familiar with the rhyme and know what that "obscene" word was! Shades of Mrs. Slocumbe!!! 
I can't help but be curious - is Jane Asher, who concocted the sinful chocolate cake, the same Jane Asher who is sister to Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon, and ex-girlfriend of Paul McCartney?
Thanks for joining us!
