After finally learning how to take her rightful place in her family’s long tradition of magical baking, Felicity Jin is excited to use her newfound abilities – culinary or otherwise – in helping to cater a wedding. Colton Wu and Leanne Lum are celebrating their Chinese heritage with an American twist by holding their nuptials in nearby Pixie Park. Their officiant-led exchange of vows will be held outdoors, right after the tea ceremony which will take place in a private tent. Felicity and her mom are thrilled to be providing the desserts, including a wedding cake made up of stacked egg tarts that Felicity carefully constructs in the larger dining tent.

Felicity is a little less certain of being put in charge of brewing the tea for the tea ceremony, though. It doesn’t help that the engaged couple’s parents prove less than enthusiastic about participating. When that’s only the first in a series of events that threaten to ruin the wedding, Felicity and her best friend, florist Kelvin Love, have to step in time and time again to make sure that everything runs smoothly.

When Colton and Leanne are successfully married and the wedding banquet begins, the best friends both heave a sigh of relief. Their happiness at saving the wedding ends, however, when Felicity discovers a blood-soaked rose petal behind the egg tart display. Kelvin checks under the table for her, and finds the fresh corpse of one of the wedding attendants. Worse, he has Kelvin’s pruning shears jammed into his neck.

With Kelvin as prime suspect in the dead man’s murder, Felicity will have to pull out all the stops in order to clear her best friend’s name. It helps that she has an in with the investigating Detective Rylan Sun, who views Felicity’s mom as a second mother. Complicating matters, though, is the sudden reappearance of the father who abandoned Felicity’s family when she was just a baby. Also, are her feelings for Kelvin starting to get a little – or a lot – more than friendly?

This entertaining culinary cozy murder mystery covers a lot of ground in the personal lives of everyone involved, as Felicity uses her powers of clairvoyance to help her solve the crime. Felicity’s fortune-telling ability, her cute rabbit Whiskers, and Jennifer J Chow’s commitment to diversity really make this series stand out. Felicity’s relationship with Kelvin is also delightful, as are her interactions with her mom.

There was only one recipe included here, but it’s a good one:

Auspicious Almond Cookies

Makes about 24 (2 dozen) cookies

Ingredients:

1 ⅓ cups sifted all-purpose flour

⅝ cup white sugar

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

½ cup butter

1 ½ tsp almond extract (1 tsp if less almond flavor is desired)

1 egg

24 almond slices

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Put parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together into a bowl.

Cut in the butter (very important, don’t skip this) until mixture resembles cornmeal.

Add the almond extract. Combine white and yolk of egg; add half of it to the bowl. Mix well. The dough will appear too crumbly in the beginning, but when you mix it long enough, it will get the right consistency (that’s why you only need half an egg).

Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Set them 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Press down with your thumb to flatten each cookie slightly. Place an almond slice in the middle of each cookie.

Combine the other half of the egg and ½ tbsp water to make a light egg wash glaze. Using a basting brush, cover the tops of the cookies with the glaze. You can adjust the amount of glaze on each cookie depending on how much almond cookie shine you want.

Bake in oven until the edges of the cookies are golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.

Note: They taste even better the second day with the almond flavor has set in.

These were so delicious, and disappeared from my home so quickly! They did spread a bit further in the oven than I expected but the flavor was perfect, especially with just the slightest hint of saltiness to balance out the cookie’s sweetness. When it came time to make the dough come together after adding half of the egg, I found that just using my hand to incorporate the crumbs into the larger mass of dough was more efficient than any other method. I was also glad that I topped each cookie with more than one almond slice, as it really was a prettier presentation with multiple slices.

Next week, we make a breakfast treat while investigating suspicious deaths in a case of traveling lawyers. Do join me!