Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Begin a Zola novel. That's sweet! [10]

With last pieces of pizza, racket big shot beginning to eat goody that godfather might have spiked (10)

last pieces of pizza: ZA
racket: BAG (interest, field, specialty)
big shot: LION
beginning to eat: E
goody that godfather might have spiked: a Mafia boss might have (eat) it, and it's often made with alcohol, but also could be read as might have spiked it (contaminated, poisoned)

The zebras began it and the elephants who surrounded a big cat and backward gaboon(nearly).- they got their dessert(10)

Z A E
LION
GAB==BAG
Dessert=DEF

Apologies SKW

Italian fluff story in BOLD Magazine scooped Daily Mail initially (10)

Italian fluff - definition
story in - anagram indicator
BOLD Magazine - anagram fodder
scooped - removal indicator
Daily Mail initially - DM

BOLD Magazine is a Canadian publication

Re @ 7 no punctuation

From Zion, a bagel that's sweet (10)

Dessert? Whisked Gino and ablaze! (10)

Custer (they say) defiant initially - whipped ultimately, of course! (10)

Custer - custar(d)
whipped - made frothy with a whisk, defeated
ultimately, of course - defn

I hope that no-one will mind if I post the result a few minutes earlier than I said - I need to go and cook.

I make it about 21 actual entries – usual high standard.

I particularly liked: skyewalker @4, BBM2 @8, seamus @15, stevea @19, paul @20, and fieryjack @26, but by a short head my favourite is:

tatters @21

It crossed my mind to set “burns”, given the date, but I had more or less committed myself to setting the first “Z” when it was next my go.

Your prize is an expert making it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bohY8z1Wt5w

I used to make this quite often back in the 70s. Marsala wasn’t as readily available then, but I had read somewhere that a mixture of sherry and whisky would substitute. One evening I didn’t have any sherry either, so used neat whisky. One guest asked for ice with his; I haven’t made it since!

Congrats tatters. Thanks, chrise, for the challenge (quite a challenge, but a good one!) and for the mention.