Bready or Not Guest: K. Bird Lincoln with Spicy Mocha Chocolate Mochi Cake
I’m excited to welcome author K. Bird Lincoln with a special Bready or Not guest post! I’ve read over 130 urban fantasies and it’s hard to wow me these days, but the first book in her Portland Hafu series was a delight. She’s here today to celebrate the release of her second book, Black Pearl Dreaming, with a multicultural chocolate cake.
Plus, you can enter a Rafflecopter giveaway for her first book, Dream Eater! Read the recipe, and you might win yourself a great book to pair with this special chocolate cake.
The Portland Hafu Urban Fantasy series features a Japanese American young woman named Koi. She finds out her father isn’t entirely human and has to battle evil professors and dragons. The second in the series, Black Pearl Dreaming, has Koi traveling to Japan to seek answers for her father’s mental decline.
Chocolate is a huge part of Koi’s world. Like really important. So important that when love interest, Kitsune trickster Ken, wants to apologize for getting her in trouble in Tokyo, he gives her Oregon Chocolatier Dagoba’s Xocolatl Chocolate bar, invoking rosy childhood memories of the only chocolate Koi’s father ever deigned to consume.
So Xocolatl, possibly “bitter water” from the Mayan language, is the flavor I thought I’d play with for this recipe. Drawing on Koi’s happa haole heritage (she’s Japanese on her father’s side and Caucasian-Hawaiian on her mother’s) I thought it fitting to turn Hawaiian Butter Mochi into an homage to my favorite Oregon Chocolatier.
Butter mochi isn’t the same thing at all as Japanese mochi celebrated at New Year’s and used in making daifuku. Butter mochi is a Hawaiian cake incorporating Mochi flour (sweet rice flour or glutinous rice flour not to be confused with ye olde plain rice flour) milk, and butter to make a squishy, bouncy, chewy rich cake like deliciousness.
Don’t be scared off by the mochi flour. All the rest of the ingredients in this are pretty easy to get, and I even found Mochiko Flour (Koda Farms Brand) at my local Hy-Vee grocery store here in the Southeastern Prairie of Minnesota in the Asian Foods section. And of course, you can order Mochiko on Amazon.
This is Hawaiian soul food with a spicy chocolate twist, y’all. One bite, and you’ll be hooked, I promise.
Bready or Not Guest Recipe: BLACK PEARL DREAMING Spicy Mocha Chocolate Mochi Cake from K. Bird Lincoln
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 16 oz Mochiko Flour sweet or glutinous rice flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup cacao powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 12 oz coconut milk
- 1 1/2 cup milk if you don’t mind the sugar, use 1 cup condensed milk
- Cayenne pepper to taste I used 1/4 tsp
- Cinnamon to taste I used 1 Tb
Instructions
- Grease or insert parchment paper into a 9×13 pan.
- Melt the butter and chocolate together. Mix in sugar and vanilla. In a different bowl, mix Mochiko flour, cacao powder, baking powder, cinnamon, and cayenne. Beat in 1/2 of the Mochiko flour mixture, eggs, and coconut milk. Add in another 1/2 of the Mochiko flour mixture, 11/2 cup milk and beat until all flour and milk is added and mixed in until smooth.
- Pour into pan and cook at 350 deg F for 45-55 minutes.
- Let cool completely. Cut with a plastic knife or wet your knife between cuts.
Koi visits Japan looking for answers and instead is forced to make an impossible choice.
With the help of powerful new friends, Koi defeated her dragon enemy in Portland. Now, no longer able to deny her dream-eating powers or the real reason for her father’s mental decline, she flies to Tokyo with her new Kitsune love, Ken, and the trickster Kwaskwi, seeking answers. But secrets from Ken’s past and Kind politics threaten to unravel their newfound trust and someone in Tokyo is desperate to kidnap a Baku. Koi must untangle a long history of pain and deceit in order to save her father, an imprisoned dragon, and herself.
“I absolutely got sucked in by the way several mythologies were mixed with modern-day and WWII history to form a cool, surprising, and action packed plot. ”
— Pat Esden, author of The Dark Heart and Northern Circle Coven series.
“In Black Pearl Dreaming, Koi is a delightfully watchable heroine in way over her head. She struggles to figure out whom to trust, where she can get good coffee, and what exactly she should do about this enormous sleeping dragon, in this fast paced paranormal intrigue set
in a vividly detailed contemporary Japan.”
— Tina Connolly, author of Ironskin and Seriously Wicked series.
World Weaver Press
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
iTunes/Apple iBooks
Kobo
K. Bird Lincoln is an ESL professional and writer living on the windswept Minnesota Prairie with family and a huge addiction to frou-frou coffee. Also dark chocolate– without which, the world is a howling void. Originally from Cleveland, she has spent more years living on the edges of the Pacific Ocean than in the Midwest. Her speculative short stories are published in various online & paper publications such as Strange Horizons. Her medieval Japanese fantasy series, Tiger Lily, is available from Amazon. World Weaver Press released Dream Eater, the first novel in an exciting, multi-cultural Urban Fantasy trilogy set in Portland and Japan, in 2017 and will release the sequel, Black Pearl Dreaming, October 2018. She also writes tasty speculative fiction reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Check her out on Facebook, join her newsletter for chances to win chocolate and ebooks, or stalk her online at kblincoln.com
Read MoreBready or Not: No-Bake Mummy Biscoff Buckeyes
Here’s a great recipe to make with kids! These No-Bake Mummy Biscoff Buckeyes are quick, cute, and secretly healthy.
Buckeye treats typically include peanut butter and brown chocolate. I switched in Biscoff (aka cookie butter, available by the peanut butter in most American grocery stores these days) but you can use peanut butter instead.
What makes these secretly healthy, you ask, since I made them unhealthier with cookie butter? Well, the base ingredient of this recipe is… CHICKPEAS. Also known as garbanzo beans.
You cannot tell there are beans in this. All you taste is Biscoff and chocolate. They keep in the fridge for up to a week, too; they get a little sweaty, that’s it.
The white chocolate drizzle is pretty fun. There’s no art to it. Just drizzle every which way, then very quickly add the mini chocolate chip eyes. (Hopefully your mini chips won’t have bloomed like mine did! That means the chocolate has a white cast to it. Perfectly fine to eat, it just doesn’t look as pretty. FYI Mummies don’t care about being pretty.)
Modified from Cooking Light October 2017.
Bready or Not: No-Bake Mummy Biscoff Buckeyes
Ingredients
- 15 1/2 ounce chickpeas rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup cookie butter Biscoff, Speculoos, store brand, etc
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/3 cup white chocolate chips
- 2 teaspoons mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Pulse chickpeas in a food processor until smooth. Add cookie butter, honey, vanilla, and salt, and pulse more. Use a teaspoon scoop to measure out the dough; place on a wax paper-lined baking sheet that will fit in the fridge. Use hands to smooth out each ball. Chill until firm, at least 30 minutes.
- Carefully melt white chocolate in the microwave at 20% power in 15 second bursts, stirring well between each pass, until it's smooth. Dip fork prongs in the chocolate and drizzle back and forth over the buckeyes to create a mummy bandage effect. Immediately place two mini chocolate chips for eyes on each mummy head. If need be, melt white chocolate again to use some dots of it as glue for the eyes.
- Store in the fridge for up to a week, but expect them to sweat and get moister.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Pumpkin Cookies with Penuche Frosting
October is here, and that means pumpkin recipes! Let’s kick things off right with Pumpkin Cookies with Penuche Frosting!
What is penuche, you ask? It’s a fudge-like candy made from brown sugar, butter, and milk. It has a very caramel-like vibe going on.
That makes it the perfect complement for these incredible cookies. The pumpkin-filled base is soft and cakey, with fragrant fall spices.
These are really, really good. Pumpkin, spices, penuche. Oh yeah.
The recipe makes about 60 cookies if you use a teaspoon scoop, and they hold up best if eaten in one day. They get softer after that, but are still good.
Recipe modified from Taste of Home magazine.
Bready or Not: Pumpkin Cookies with Penuche Frosting
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, softened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup pecans chopped
Frosting
- 1/4 cup brown sugar packed
- 3 Tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup milk or half & half
- 2 1/2 - 3 cups confectioners' sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars together until they are light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, pumpkin, and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet. Fold in the pecans.
- Spread parchment paper on two large baking sheets. Drop dough by rounded teaspoon scoops spaced out to allow for a small amount of spreading. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes. Move cookies to wire racks to cool, which won't take long.
- Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the brown sugar and butter to a boil. Keep on medium heat for 1 minute, continuing to stir, then remove from heat. Cool for 10 minutes. Transfer to a larger bowl and beat in the milk. Slowly add in enough confectioners' sugar to reach a spreadable consistency. Immediately frost cookies. Let set for an hour or so before packing up.
- Makes about 60 cookies. Best eaten within 1 day; they will still taste okay after that, but will soften more. Store cookies between wax paper layers in sealed containers.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Original: Mini Fruitcake Loaves
Welcome to MACADAMIA NUT MONTH! Why is this Macadamia Nut Month? Because next month on the 23rd, the final book in my Blood of Earth trilogy comes out! Macadamia nuts are a big product of Hawaii, and Hawaii is a major setting in Roar of Sky. Plus, macadamia nuts are awesome.
If you love these nuts, get ready to bliss out. This month includes recipes for:
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Pie
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Lemony Macadamia Nut Bars
Mini Fruit Cake Loaves to make now for the holidays (macadamia nuts optional) (today)
Fruitcake is one of the most maligned holiday foods out there, but people do love it. My dad sure does. I wanted to make him a fruitcake that proved how awesome they could be.
The recipe you see today is one I’ve been experimenting with for a few years now. One problem that I had with a lot of existing recipes is that they make a ton of fruitcakes. Therefore, I wanted to find the right recipe to cut in half for easier fridge storage and eventual transportation to California.
I used a highly-rated King Arthur Flour recipe and tweaked it a ton. I printed out guides of fruitcake-making advice and incorporated that information, too.
My dad doesn’t like fruitcakes that are heavy on nuts. Therefore, I place more emphasis on the fruit. Customize the kinds of fruits and nuts to your preference. I often use a combination of pre-made “fruitcake mixes” from the grocery store along with dried golden raisins, chopped apricots and dates, etc. Whatever I have in my cupboard or can grab on sale.
The same with the nuts. If you hate walnuts, don’t use walnuts. Include just one nut or use a wide variety, just make sure they are chopped up. You don’t want huge pieces.
The use of cocoa powder seems odd, but it’s there to add color. That’s a holdover from the original King Arthur Flour recipe. I was afraid that it would add a chocolate flavor, but it doesn’t at all. There are so many other complex flavors going on, it doesn’t stand out.
The liquid to macerate the fruit can be alcohol or standard fruit juice. My preference is to get some help from good old Captain Morgan. In the simple syrup, you can also omit the rum, if you so choose.
If you have any questions about this fruitcake recipe, feel free to comment on this page or reach out via social media. Just don’t wait too long–if you want these loaves ready for the holidays, you’ll need to bake them soon!
Bready or Not Original: Mini Fruitcake Loaves
Ingredients
Fruit:
- 1 lb + 4 ounces fruit 20 ounces total, dried and/or candied, including fruitcake mixes, raisins, chopped dates, cherries, apricots, crystallized ginger, etc
- 6 Tablespoons rum or brandy, apple juice, or cranberry juice
Batter:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 stick
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon cocoa optional, for color
- 2 Tablespoons corn syrup
- 1/4 cup apple juice or water
- 1 cup nuts chopped, one kind or a variety: almonds, pecans, walnuts, macadamia nuts, etc
Simple Syrup Glaze:
- 1 cup white sugar or caster; or for deeper flavor, turbinado
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 Tablespoon rum optional
Instructions
Prepare the fruit:
- Combine the fruit with the liquid of choice in a non-reactive bowl; cover and let rest overnight, at minimum.
Prepare simple syrup:
- Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the liquor, if using. Cool completely. Keep stored in jar in fridge to brush the loaves over the coming weeks.
Make loaves:
- Preheat oven at 300-degrees. Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat together, followed by the salt, spices, and baking powder.
- Beat in the eggs, scraping the bowl after each addition.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and cocoa.
- Add the flour mixture and the corn syrup to the butter mix. Scrape bowl well, then add the juice, the fruit with its liquid, and the nuts.
- Apply nonstick spray to the mini loaf pans; pan measurements vary, but this recipe should use 3 to 4 pans. Spoon batter into the pans, filling them about 3/4 full.
- Bake for about 1 hour to an 15 minutes. Cakes are done when a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. If desired, poke the cakes throughout with a skewer to allow more liquid to seep in. Brush tops with simple syrup for the first time.
- Allow loaves to completely cool, then wrap them tightly in plastic wrap. Store in the fridge or in a cool, dark location.
After baking:
- Once a week for the next six weeks, unwrap loaves to brush with more simple syrup (making more in needed).
- After 6 weeks of ripening, the cakes can be eaten, stored in fridge longer, or frozen.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Lemony Macadamia Nut Blondies
Welcome to MACADAMIA NUT MONTH! Why is this Macadamia Nut Month? Because next month on the 23rd, the final book in my Blood of Earth trilogy comes out! Macadamia nuts are a big product of Hawaii, and Hawaii is a major setting in Roar of Sky. Plus, macadamia nuts are awesome.
If you love these nuts, get ready to bliss out. This month includes recipes for:
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Pie
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Lemony Macadamia Nut Bars (today)
Mini Fruit Cake Loaves to make now for the holidays (macadamia nuts optional)
Sweet, tart, crunchy, fresh: these Lemony Macadamia Nut Blondies have it all going on.
My husband loves good lemon treats, and these met his whole-hearted approval–and his co-workers apparently went bonkers for them, too.
I’m honestly surprised there aren’t more goodies out there that combine lemon and macadamia nuts. It’s such an awesome combination.
Here, the chewiness of the blondies is amped up by a very thin glaze that soaks into the bars while they are still hot. I was afraid the glaze might make them too sweet, but it turned out perfect.
If you have leftover macadamia nuts around, do remember to store them in the fridge! Their high fat content can cause them to spoil at room temperature, whereas they will keep for ages in the fridge.
Trust me, no one wants to eat rancid nuts.
Modified from Epicuricloud.
Come back next week for a recipe with optional macadamia nuts: mini fruit cake loaves, quite customizable with the dried fruit and nuts! And please preorder Roar of Sky!
Bready or Not: Lemony Macadamia Nut Blondies
Ingredients
Bars
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, softened
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 3 lemons zested, setting aside a pinch for the glaze
- 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup macadamia nuts
Glaze
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- lemon zest
- 1/4 cup macadamia nuts finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13x9-inch pan with foil and apply nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and white sugar. Add eggs one at a time followed by the lemon zest, lemon juice, and lemon extract. Stir in the flour and salt. When those are just incorporated, add the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.
- Pour the batter into the ready pan. Bake for 25-35 minutes, until it passes the toothpick test in the middle.
- Immediately after that is done baking, make the glaze by stirring together the confectioners' sugar and reserved lemon juice and zest. Use a chopstick or similar tool to poke small holes across the top of the blondies. Pour the glaze over the top and use a spoon to distribute it evenly. Sprinkle the remaining nuts on top.
- Let pan cool completely. Use the foil to lift the contents onto a cutting board. Slice into bars. Store in a sealed container with wax paper or parchment between the layers.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Guest: DETOX IN LETTERS Sugar Cookies with Avocado Frosting by Cheryl Low
I’m happy to welcome Cheryl Low with a Bready or Not guest post today! The second book in her Crowns & Ash series, Detox in Letters, is out TODAY. Her unique take on cookies here includes a frosting that mixes powdered sugar and avocado. That sounds like my kind of alchemy! Read on to find out more about her cookies and her series from World Weaver Press.
SUGAR COOKIES WITH AVOCADO FROSTING & PIXIE DUST
&
DETOX IN LETTERS
Sweet, unexpected, and addictive. One is never enough.
The Crowns & Ash series takes place in a fantasy world where magic is a drug steeping in every cup of tea and baked into the cakes eaten at every meal. The characters are indulgent, born in a city with few rules and too much time filled with parties and duels. But they quickly realize that their comfort is orchestrated by the Queen, their magic stolen and fed back to them in drugs to keep them sedate.
The fine veneer of their posh city is cracking and soon not even Vaun, Prince of the Realm, can turn a blind eye to the mounting dangers in their midst. Flesh-eating pixies, poisoned dust, soul-snatching wolves and so much more.
The first book in the series, Vanity in Dust, introduces the Realm, the prince, and a deadly ploy to undermine the Queen’s monopoly on the city’s dust.
And the second, Detox in Letters, is available now! The Realm finds out exactly where their magic comes from, Prince Vaun tries to survive his mother’s terrible demands, a rebel group threatens the High, and Princess Fay eyes the Queen’s throne.
All while eating cake and sipping tea, because some things just never change.
Detox in Letters – About the book:
Welcome to the Realm, where magic is your drug, your poison, and your only hope.
An illness is spreading through the city, marking the sick in mysterious letters scrawled across their skin. What is first thought to be madness reveals itself to be an awakening as residents rediscover themselves, their pasts, and their long-forgotten magic… things the Queen wants to remain buried. Things she will sacrifice her own children to suppress.
Mercy has never been a staple of the Realm. Treachery, blood, and magic steeps the city as the rebel leader, Red, seeks to topple the Tower, Princess Fay eyes her mother’s throne, and Prince Vaun must decide whether to submit to his mother’s terrible demand.
Where to buy Detox in Letters:
Amazon
Amazon UK
Goodreads
World Weaver Press
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
iBooks
Bready or Not Guest Recipe: DETOX IN LETTERS Sugar Cookies with Avocado Frosting by Cheryl Low
Ingredients
Cookie Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Frosting Ingredients:
- 1 avocado
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- Cake dust
Instructions
- Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add flour mixture to butter mixture and then chill at least 1 hour in the refrigerator.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Roll out dough onto a floured surface and cut into cookie shapes.
- Bake 8-10 minutes. I take them out before the edges brown so they’ll be super soft. Let cool.
- Mash avocado and mix with powdered sugar into a frosting.
- Frost cookies. Let the frosting harden and then dust with glittery cake dust so you can pretend their coated in magic pixie dust.
About the Author:
Cheryl Low might be a dragon with a habit of destroying heroes, lounging in piles of shiny treasure, and abducting royals—a job she fell into after a short, failed attempt at being a mermaid. She can’t swim and eventually the other mermaids figured it out. She can, though, breathe fire and crush bones, so being a dragon suited her just fine.
…Or she might be a woman with a very active imagination, no desire to be outdoors, and more notebooks than she’ll ever know what to do with.
Find out by following her on social media @cherylwlow or check her webpage, CherylLow.com. The answer might surprise you! But it probably won’t.
