Still $1.99
The ebook sale for The Clockwork Dagger is ongoing through Christmas! It’s for $1.99 at:
In other news this week, I have a new story published at Perihelion SF: “A Mother’s Touch,” a story of medical advancement, dragons, and death with dignity.
I’m also over at Rhonda Parrish’s blog with a very true cat Christmas tale.
If you’re looking for more recipes for this week, I might be able to help. Not only do I have a lot here on my site, but on Pinterest I have over 6,000 pins, many of those being recipes. That includes a board of my Bready or Not recipes, a collection on non-baked desserts, and a full repertoire of sweets that require glorious, glorious maple. Plenty of om-nom-noms to be had.
Read MoreSigning tonight!
My first ever booksigning will take place tonight at 7pm at the Tempe location of Changing Hands. I’ll talk! Read! Likely with a stupid grin the whole time!
Oh yeah, and FOOD. Have you drooled over my Bready or Not recipes? Tonight you can stuff your face. The offerings (subject to substitution if quality control issues arise):
– MAPLE FUDGE BITES. Because I had to serve something maple.
– A whole new recipe for Candy-Stuffed Cookie Cups. Imagine chocolate chip cookie dough, with a Rolo or mini Milky Way stuffed inside, baked in a mini muffin pan. I’ll do a special feature with the recipe soon. I want to see how people like them tonight.
– Also, for the gluten-free folks, I’m doing a batch of brownies using Cup 4 Cup Brownie Mix, which looks like it has great taste reviews from Amazon, though I bought mine at Sprouts.
If you’re in the Phoenix area, do come by. Say hi. Just remember I’m at the TEMPE location. If you go to the Changing Hands in Phoenix, they are doing a signing with a dude who makes all kinds of food in a waffle maker. It looks downright awesome. So yeah, if you to the wrong store I’ll be sad, but you get to find out how to make dinner in a waffle press so you don’t really lose.
Read MoreBready or Not: Cinnamon Bundt Cake
Am I still alive? Did I survive The Clockwork Dagger’s launch into the world?
I don’t know. In the interest of my sanity (hahahaha) I am scheduling this far in advance. I suspect I will be 1) exhausted, 2) exhilarated, and 3) terrified, with a potpourri of other emotions mixed in.
I mean, MY BOOK IS OUT. How crazy is that? I’ve only wanted to publish a book of my own since I was, oh, four. Thirty years later, here I am.
Pardon me while I go to hug my book again. It’s real.
… ahem. Well, it’s Wednesday, and it’s Cake Month, so I suspect you want to see that Cinnamon Bundt Cake mentioned in the title, right? (I can shut up about the book for a little while. Honest.)
This is a gorgeous cake that’ll slap you upside the head with cinnamon goodness.
The recipe doesn’t produce a large bundt cake, but it’ll still feed a crowd. This is one of those cakes that’s awesome for breakfast, coffee breaks, dessert, or whatever other occasion you want to stuff a slice of cake in your face.
Now, you have a few options for the liquid in the recipe. The original version used Cinnabon creamer; instead, I used heavy cream and greatly increased the cinnamon. Therefore, toggle the cinnamon to your tastes. I love using flavored creamers in recipes like this, so I imagine the Cinnabon-branded one or any other would be delicious here, too.
I guess I should make this again to test that theory out. Oh, darn.
Also, let’s talk about the glaze. Please.
Okay, I really don’t have much to say about the glaze. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
Modified from Cinnabon Bundt Cake at Shari Blogs.
Bready or Not: Cinnamon Bundt Cake
Ingredients
For the Batter:
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1 cup heavy cream OR cinnamon-flavored creamer
- 3 eggs room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon [reduce if using flavored creamer]
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
For the Streusel:
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
For the Glaze:
- 1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
- 4-6 Tablespoons heavy cream or cinnamon-flavored creamer
- 1-3 teaspoons cinnamon to preference
Instructions
To make the bundt:
- Preheat oven to 325-degrees. Thoroughly coat a bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the sugar, oil, cream/creamer, and eggs.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients: the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and flour.
- Gradually add the flour mix into the wet batter until just combined.
- In another small bowl, mix up the brown sugar and cinnamon for the streusel.
- Pour half of the batter into the greased bundt pan. As evenly as possible, sprinkle the streusel all the way around the batter later. Top it off with the rest of the batter.
- Bake the bundt cake for 45-50 minutes, until it passes the toothpick test. Let it cool for 15 minutes and then carefully tip the cake onto a plate. Transfer it to a wire rack to completely cool.
To make the glaze:
- Once the cake is cool, mix up the glaze until it's at just a pourable consistency. Add the cinnamon to suit your tastes; sample it and check.
- Dribble glaze all over the cake.
Store the cake covered in the fridge.
OM NOM NOM.
Bready or Not: Maple Walnut Cake
For the week leading into the release of The Clockwork Dagger, I am presenting the most awesome of cakes.
Three layers. Maple infused every which way. Oh yeah, baby.
My one fear was that sweetness of the cake would be overkill like the way Cadbury eggs are to me now. I’m often asked if a recipe can be modified to omit the nuts. In this case, no. The nuts–in taste and texture–do a lot here to balance out the sweetness. They prevent that overkill.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that since I love maple, that delight has also worked its way into The Clockwork Dagger. Since the geography in my book is loosely modeled on Western Washington state, it’s only right that the country to the north is likewise based on Canada. Frengia is known for its maple production.
[Hrm. Maybe in a year when the sequel comes out, I should do a maple theme for Bready or Not. There’s an idea! Or maybe no one will notice because I do so much maple already…]
If you love maple as I do, this is your epic cake. Print this out. Make it now, or save it for the holidays. Just bake it up at some point.
Brace yourself for the maple-induced ecstasy.
Modified from Maple Walnut Cake at Taste of Home.
Bready or Not: Maple Walnut Cake
Ingredients
THE CAKE [NOT A LIE]
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1-1/2 cups light brown sugar packed
- 3 eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon maple flavor
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk or sour milk: milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar
CANDIED NUTS:
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1-1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
- 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
FROSTING:
- 2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
- 5 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1 teaspoon maple flavor
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup half-and-half cream or milk
- 3 + tablespoons maple syrup divided
Instructions
To make the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°. Use nonstick spray or butter on three 9-inch round cake pans. Cut out rounds of parchment paper for the bottoms of the pans, then grease the paper.
- In a large bowl, cream softened butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs and beat well after each addition. Add the maple flavor.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, alternating with the buttermilk, until everything is just blended.
- Pour batter into each prepared pan as evenly as you can. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then gently tip them onto a wire racks. Remove parchment. Cool cake layers completely. [Note: at this point you can even freeze the layers between wax paper, then wrap well in plastic wrap, to assemble the cake days or weeks later.]
To make candied walnuts:
- Grab a small cookie sheet or platter and cover it with aluminum foil. Set aside.
- In a large skillet, melt the tablespoon of butter. Add nuts and stir over medium heat until toasted, about 5 minutes. Watch the heat, as they can burn fast. Stir in the tablespoon maple syrup and salt; stir for 1 minute longer. Spread the nuts on the foil to cool completely.
For frosting:
- In a large bowl, beat the softened butter until creamy. Slowly add in confectioners' sugar, maple flavor, salt and enough cream/milk to reach desired consistency. [If it ends up too wet, add more powdered sugar.]
- Set out your serving platter. Add a few dabs of frosting; this will be like glue to help your bottom layer stay in place.
- Place the cake layer on top. Spread with one cup of frosting. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of candied nuts over the frosting and then drizzle about a tablespoon of maple syrup.
- Repeat this with the next layer.
- Place the top layer. Frost the very top and sides of cake, then add the remaining nuts and another healthy (ahem) drizzle of maple syrup.
OM NOM NOM and try not to die of sugar coma.
Trade Paperback & eBook
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-06-231384-3
ebook ASIN (Amazon): B00HLIYZ5U
ebook ISBN (Nook): 978-0-06-231385-0
Release: September 16, 2014
Amazon Barnes & Noble Powell’s Books-A-Million Poisoned Pen Changing Hands Mysterious Galaxy
Read MoreBready or Not: Maple Ginger Fudge
I would like to present to you the best fudge in the history of the world.
Maple ginger fudge. Sweetness with just the slightest zing.
The origin of the recipe brings sweet connotations for me, too. One of my very favorite authors, C. E. Murphy, posted about this recipe last Christmas. We started a conversation about it.
This somehow resulted in her reading The Clockwork Dagger, loving it, and providing a blurb.
BEST. FUDGE. EVER.
That blurb:
“The Clockwork Dagger had me at hello and kept me with unexpected twists, intriguing magic and splendid betrayals. At the satisfying conclusion, my immediate impulse was to inquire in tones of gentle inquiry, when do I get to read the sequel!?!?” ~C. E. Murphy
C. E. Murphy’s Walker Papers series is my very favorite set of urban fantasy books. They were the first series I got into, and most importantly, they taught me how to write. I found them during that time when I realized my writing was wretched. I read through Urban Shaman on a technical level so I could figure out how to write first person and just plain why the books worked.
To have her love my book… it makes me get teary-eyed.
Make some of this fudge. Maybe some wonderful things will happen in your life, too.
Recipe modified from a modified version by C.E. Murphy, who originally found the recipe on Candy.About.Com. In case you didn’t notice, there was some modifying going on.
Bready or Not: Maple Ginger Fudge
Ingredients
- 3 cups white sugar
- 3/4 cup butter
- 2/3 cup evaporated milk small can
- 10 oz white chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 teaspoons maple flavor
- 7 oz marshmallow cream
- 4 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup candied ginger finely chopped
- 1/2 cup toasted pecans coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Prepare a pan: 9x9 if you want it thick, or 13x9 if you want it thin. Line pan with aluminum foil and apply nonstick cooking spray. Measure out of the other ingredients so they are staged and ready to go.
- In a larger saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, and evaporated milk. Cook at medium-high heat and stir until the butter and sugar melt. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture boils.
- Keep the candy at a rolling boil, stirring constantly, for five minutes. (If you have a candy thermometer and want to use it, you will be cooking the candy to soft-ball stage, 240 degrees.)
- After five minutes, take the pot off the burner and immediately add the white chocolate chips. Stir until they are melted and smooth. Work fast so that everything stays hot.
- Quickly add the marshmallow cream, maple flavor, vanilla, ground ginger, salt, pecans, and chopped candied ginger, and stir. Once the marshmallow cream has melted and all of the ingredients are incorporated, pour the fudge into the prepared pan. Smooth out the top; an offset spatula works well.
- Allow the fudge to set at room temperature for several hours. Once set, lift it out of the pan using the foil as handles. Use a large, sharp knife to cut the fudge into small one-inch pieces.
OM NOM NOM.
Trade Paperback & eBook
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-06-231384-3
ebook ASIN (Amazon): B00HLIYZ5U
ebook ISBN (Nook): 978-0-06-231385-0
Release: September 16, 2014
Amazon Barnes & Noble Powell’s Books-A-Million Poisoned Pen Changing Hands
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