When Tate Harper tells his best friends and business partners that two football stars want to franchise one of their Fairy Tale Cupcakes bakeries, Mel DiLauria and Angie–who also happens to be Tate’s wife as well as Mel’s sister-in-law–think he’s playing a prank on them. So when Arizona Scorpions’ Tyler Matthews and Keogh Graham–the quarterback Mel jokingly refers to as her football husband–actually show up on their doorstep, the women are both astounded and starstruck.

Turns out that Keogh and Tyler really are looking to invest in a cupcake bakery, with an eye towards their careers and lives post-football. Certain parties, however, are not at all happy that the pair already have retirement plans in mind, including Chad Dayton, the owner of their football team who has a very public altercation with Keogh at the new bakery’s grand opening. He wants Keogh to be laser focused on training for a run at the Super Bowl and thinks that anything else, including the bakery, is an unnecessary distraction.

So when Chad is found dead inside Keogh’s bakery soon afterwards, the victim of what was clearly a well-planned homicide, all eyes turn to Keogh as prime suspect. Suspicion isn’t due to just the public blow-up, though. It’s no secret that Kendall, Chad’s wife of a little over a year, was dating Keogh before she suddenly married Chad. Keogh says he’s okay with it, but incriminating evidence keeps mounting against him.

Mel doesn’t believe any of it–and not just because she’s a fan. Since first meeting to discuss franchising, she and Keogh have struck up a friendship, and she knows that this thoughtful, kind man would never be capable of premeditated murder. But which of Chad’s many enemies hated him enough to kill him? And will Mel be able to figure it all out while also dealing with a very personal surprise?

I’ve been reading the Cupcake Bakery mysteries for a while now and firmly believe that this is my favorite installment of the series so far! The 16th book expertly combines mystery, a touch of sports glamor, family warmth, and humor into one terrific package. The way that Mel foiled the killer in the end was set up in a way that both grounded and enhanced what could have been a wholly absurd situation in the hands of a lesser writer. In fact, the only thing I would change about this book is the well-meaning-but-misguided commitment to color blindness. I think it’s a disservice to the reader to not explicitly state that Keogh and his mom are black, as they are quite obviously coded to be. Diversity and representation are important, especially since some readers assume that every character they read about is white unless stated otherwise. That aside, I was thoroughly entertained by this novel from start to finish.

There were four delectable cupcake recipes included here of flavors all deliciously described in the book. I decided to try out this one, a specialty of Keogh’s mom.

Peach Cobbler Cupcakes

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup sour cream

⅔ cup whole milk

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 ½ cups peach cobbler filling, pureed

Cobbler Filling and Topping

Ingredients

3 15-ounce cans of peaches in light syrup

½ cup sugar

3 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons cornstarch

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Put paper liners in the cupcake pan. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix the sour cream into the milk and set aside.

Using a large bowl, mix the butter until creamy. Add sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs until fluffy. Alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk mixture, do not over incorporate. Set aside and make the cobbler filling.

In a medium saucepan, add the peaches, sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla extract. On medium heat, cook for 10 minutes. Once the mixture starts to bubble, add the cornstarch. When the filling has thickened, remove 1 ½ cups of the mixture and puree it in a blender.

Mix the pureed peach filling into the cake batter until well convinced.

Fill the cupcake liners half-full and bake for approximately 18 to 22 minutes until tops are golden brown. When completely cooled, first with a swirl of buttercream. Garnish with a cooked peach slice from the cobbler filling and drizzle the sauce over the cupcakes. Makes 24.

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract

4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Instructions

In large bowl, cream butter and vanilla. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed and adding milk as needed. Scrape sides of bowl often. Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes in big swirls using a pastry bag.

I have never had a bad cupcake from a Jenn McKinlay recipe, and this was no exception. They are a little labor-intensive to make, but the results are absolutely worth it. As usual, I cut back significantly on the sugar content, using about a quarter less than asked for in each step, and don’t think the flavor was at all harmed as a result. The only thing I would consider changing is adding maybe two cups of the peach puree to the cupcake batter to give it a stronger peach flavor or perhaps using peach extract instead of vanilla. Speaking of extract, I used regular vanilla extract instead of clear for the frosting and don’t believe it affected the color at all.

I did have quite a bit of batter left over after half-filling 24 regular cupcake liners, so I made a small round cake with the leftovers. Once baked, I topped the cake with the extra frosting and puree, then froze it to keep while the cupcakes were being eaten. It pleases me to know that I have that waiting to defrost when next I’m ready for more delicious peach cobbler cake flavors.

Next week, we travel all the way to the West Coast to investigate the death of an influencer, while baking up a savory treat. Do join me!

See also: Cooking the Books: Three Fudges and a Baby by Nancy Coco