1. This post from Kody Keplinger is a MUST READ. Must. And not just if you are a writer. This is a must read if you are a human being. Which I suspect you are. If you are not, please let me know, because I’m intrigued.

2. RECIPES!

Quite some time ago, I mentioned that I was trying a new sugar cookie and glace icing recipe to help me achieve pretty, pretty cookies without icky, icky royal icing. I love the recipe and have used it more times since then than I care to admit…but I forgot to share. So I will now.This is the only sugar cookie recipe you will ever need again. And the icing? Divine.

Make these sugar cookies.

Decorate them with this icing.

Yum!

People started asking for the recipe, so I promised I’d put it up on my blog. As you can see, that was on October 9th. Oops.

I don’t have much time, so instead of typing the recipe all out, I’m going to give you a little direction and a linky-loo party.

I used this cake recipe, because it’s my favorite.

Then I made this cookie dough recipe, because it’s egg-less, so it’s no biggie that it goes into these babies uncooked. Put a lot of flour in – you want the cookie dough pretty dry for this. Not so dry its going to crumble apart now, but you don’t want it sticky.

After your cupcakes are all baked and cooled, you want to scoop out little holes for the cookie dough. It helps if you use a sharp knife to carve a circle on the top of the cupcake before spooning out the rest (this recipe gives it a bit of a crust, so it crumbles if you just use a spoon). You can keep that little circle to close things back up if you want, but if you put any kind of icing on them, that’s not necessary.

Got your hole scooped out? Good. Now roll up a ball of cookie dough the right size for your hole and stick it down in there. Put the circle back on if you want (I did, but only because I’m anal like that).

You can use any kind of icing you want, but here’s what I did: take what cookie dough is left over at the end and add more milk to it. Stir, stir, stir. Now you have a much thinner version of the cookie dough (you will need to get a mixer out if you don’t want any lumps). Spread it on with a knife and ta-da! you have delicious, sinful cupcakes.

Now go enjoy!

I posted a picture on Twitter last night of a cake I made this weekend. I got a few people asking how I did it, so while I was hesitant to share (so y’all wouldn’t see how deceptively easy it actually is), but I decided to be nice, so here it is.

For this cake you can use any white or yellow cake recipe. Or a box mix, if you would rather. (If you are looking for a great white cake recipe, go ahead and try this one out.) Here’s the method:

• Split the batter into six equal portions (or as many parts as you want colors in your cake).
• Dye each bit of batter a different color. You can use any colors you want…I used red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple because I wanted a traditional rainbow.
• Pour the batter: start with one cup of each color. To make sure the two layers are even, put a cup of three colors in one layer, a cup of the three other colors in the other layer, then finish off with the rest of what’s left of each color*. Pour the colors directly on top of each other so they make concentric circles. No need to swirl or anything, the colors will make pretty swirls all on their own.
• Bake as normal and decorate as you will!

*For example, this is how I did it, so I could keep rainbow order: in pan #1, I poured a cup of red, then a cup of orange, then a cup of yellow all right on top of each other. In pan #2 I reversed the rainbow, so I poured a cup of purple, then a cup of blue, then a cup of green right on top of each other. Going back to pan #1, I poured the remainder of the green, blue, and purple batters on top. In pan #2 I poured the remainder of the yellow, orange, and red batters.

Easy-peasy!

Coconut Cake

Cake

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups self-rising flour
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Filling

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup sour cream
• 4 Tbsp milk
• 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Frosting

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar or 1 Tbsp white corn syrup
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 egg whites
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Cream butter until fluffy
2. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6-8 minutes
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each
4. Add flour and milk, alternately, beginning and ending with flour
5. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed
6. Bake in 3 prepared 9″ cake pans at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes
7. Cool in pans 5-10 minutes then invert onto cooling racks
8. Prepare filling: stir together sugar, sour cream, milk, and coconut
9. To fill: poke holes in the first layer; spread 1/3 of the filling over the cake, leaving a 1/2″ border around the edges; repeat with 2nd and 3rd layers
10. Frosting time! Place sugar, Cream of Tartar (or corn syrup), salt, water, and egg whites in top of a double boiler. Beat with a hand held electric mixer for one minute. Place pan over boiling water (make sure no water touches bottom of pan). Beat constantly on high speed for 7 minutes, then beat in vanilla.
11. Frost the sides of the cake first, then the top. This will be very messy, thus….
12. Gently cover the cake with shredded coconut (if you want pretty colors like mine, just put a little food dye in a bag with the coconut and squish everything around until it is colored -gel dyes work the best).
13. Cover loosely and refrigerate for 3 days before serving.

This is a messy, messy, goopy cake.  I always destroy my kitchen making it. But man is it worth it!

And random history lesson for the day: the frosting for this cake is called 7 minute icing or boiled icing. Coconut cake is a decidedly southern treat, and boiled icing is quite popular down south. Why? Well, it has a great flavor, for one, but what really seals the deal is that is doesn’t melt and run in the heat and humidity like a nice buttercream will.

And…we are done with my week of recipes! I will try to post fun recipes on a more consistent basis in the future.

I did finish making an Orange Crush Cake about 5 minutes ago, though, so I figured it would be a great recipe to share today.

Orange Crush Cake

• 1 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 3/4 cups sugar
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 1 bottle Orange Crush (12 oz)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp orange flavoring

 

 
Icing

• 1/4 cup butter
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• about 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp orange flavoring

Directions:

1. Cream together butter, shortening, and sugar
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly between each
3. Alternately add Orange Crush and flour; beat well
4. Add flavoring
5. Bake in a greased tube pan 1 hour and 10 minutes at 350 degrees
6. For icing, mix all ingredients and spread on cake (it won’t take a full 3 cups of powdered sugar – stop when it is the consistency you like)

Enjoy!

Today’s recipe is for Apple Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes. I made these last Friday, and they are divine! I have already had some requests for the recipe, so here it is: (I found the original recipe on the Paula Deen website and then modified it a bit for our tastes.)

Apple Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

Cinnamon Roll Ingredients:

• 2 cups milk
• 1 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 6 1/2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup butter, softened

Filling Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp cinnamon
• 3 cups finely chopped tart apples*

Apple Cider Glaze Ingredients:

• Just over 2 Tbsp apple cider
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Heat the milk in the microwave for about 1 minute (you can heat on the stovetop, if you would rather – get it up to about 110 degrees)
2. Add yeast and sugar; stir until dissolved
3. Add 2 cups of the flour and the salt and beat for 2 full minutes
4. Add butter and eggs and continue to beat until well combined
5. Add rest of the flour, half cup at a time; beat well after each addition
6. Knead dough on a floured surface for about five minutes
7. Cover dough with a kitchen towel and let rise for 40 minutes**
8. Roll dough out on counter in a rectangle shape – 1/4″ thick
9. Brush half the melted butter over the surface of the dough
10. Make the filling by combining sugars, apples, and cinnamon in bowl
11. Spread filling over dough, leaving about 1″ border all the way around
12. Roll into a log (long way) – tuck long edge over filling to start
13. Cut log into 24-30 pieces a place one inside each cupcake cup***
14. Cover cupcakes with towel and let them rise for another 40 minutes
15. Heat oven to 350. Brush remaining melted butter over cupcakes
16. Bake for about 20 minutes – until tops are golden brown
17. Make the glaze: mix cider and powdered sugar; drizzle over cupcakes
18. ENJOY!

*You can use 2 cups apple and 1 cup chopped nuts as well…

**Or, if you live in a house as cold as mine, let rise for eternity, or until the dough has doubled its size.

***These have to rise in the actual muffin tin (use liners). If you don’t have enough muffin tins for all of the slices, just put the rest of them on a cookie sheet and make regular cinnamon rolls out of them. If you try to let them rise in paper liners without the rigid pan, you will just end up with a mess.

These cupcakes might be the stickiest, goopiest, messiest ones I have ever made, but they are SO worth it!

The birthday girl added the princesses for me

2. And the leftovers…

Yes, there's cake in those cones

1. Yummy

When I was a sophomore in high school, I decided I wanted to open a restaurant someday. It was going to be a big restaurant in Wilmington, North Carolina. Then it was going to be a smaller sushi joint in Wilmington. Then it was going to be a small cafe (this is where Bubba started to try to talk be away from Wilmington)….something with a lot of focus on desserts, ’cause really that’s the most fun part about eating.

Over the last few weeks, I have thought it would be nice to start small, doing a desserts-exclusive business out of the home. I could consign my goodies through local restaurants and coffee shops and hire-out services for parties and weddings. Then someday, I could even open a little storefront.

Yeah, the vision has changed over the years, but the ultimate goal remains the same: I would like to open some sort of eatery at some point. Yes, I would need to narrow that goal down before actually diving into such a venture. For now it is just something nice to dream about.

Besides, how great would it be to be able to do this for a living? :

This was my birthday cake last year.

2. Home, home on the range…

Or, um, something like that. Another dream I have is to someday own a home with a bit of land. Ideally, it would be a home that Bubba and I put a lot of work into building it on our own (yeah, so looking at house plans is one of our favorite pastimes). We would like enough land to have a couple horses, a few chickens, and an alpaca or two. And also some pygmy goats. And a giant garden

Now, if I am talking really ideal, my dream is to have this house and this land in a place that has a creek or small river running through it. A creek that leads to a lake so I could row the creek to the lake in the mornings for some exercise and time to think. Also, it would be great if this place was in an area where it is possible to row on creeks for more than three months of the year. So, yeah…someplace warmer than this.

“Two For Tuesday” is a blog meme that I just made up last night when I was trying to fall asleep.

What is it? Post two of anything: book reviews, pictures, quotes, poems, songs, videos, rants, shout outs, whatever floats your boat. Just connect them somehow. That’s it.

Today, I have two pictures that inspire me. The first has to do with my writing, the second definitely doesn’t.

You might remember that I recently started rewriting Incubus completely from scratch. It is proving harder to write than anything else I have ever tackled (including earlier drafts of the same book). I have added some elements that make it a much deeper, more emotional novel than it was before. When I find myself struggling with the writing (which is near constantly these days), I just think about the bird necklace, and it helps me push on.

In Incubus, both Kyle and Jayne have a necklace much like this one. The necklaces hold a special place in each girl’s heart, and both girls cling to the necklaces as a sort of symbol for hope.  I won’t go into detail as to why, but now you know why the necklace is motivating to me. It is woven into the story and helps me remember the importance of the story I am trying to tell.

After I worked the necklace element into the story, I realized that–holy cow!–I have a very similar necklace of my own. I had forgotten all about it (though I imagine deep down I remembered, or I wouldn’t have described such a similar one in the book). So now, when I am feeling particularly stuck in writing Incubus, I put on my own bird necklace and make myself get back to work.

Okay, moving on…

My second bit of inspiration is this:

I was just asked (um…maybe 4 hours ago) if I would make a princess castle cake for a friend’s daughter’s 6th birthday. Of course!

Now, I will be honest: my cake won’t be this nice (um…this cake comes from a bakery with a minimum price of $250–we just aren’t $250 cake kind of people). My cake will probably have two round layers and turrets made out of ice cream cones. Much simpler.

But this one sure is nice to look at!

So, there really isn’t a recipe to accompany the picture this month. But, the picture is fun, so all is good!

After the cake was out of the oven I had the brilliant idea of crushing some mints and mixing them in the batter. So, if you decide to try this cake, consider doing that. I am sure it would be awesome, I just had my stroke of genius too late to try it out.

The frosting is just a basic buttercream (1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup Crisco, 4 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, a splash of milk), and the decorations are pretty self explanatory. There are also some crushed mints with the frosting in between the layers. That seemed to add just the right amount of zing to the cake.

All in all, it turned out great. Or, at least the people at our event thought it did-for the second month in a row, I had no leftovers to bring home.

Our recipe this month comes courtesy of Mary DeMuth. When she shared it on her Twitter account last month, I immediately knew I would have to try it out. I was not disappointed; this cake is awesome. It was the hit of the party. Thanks, Mary, for another great recipe to add to my collection.

TWITTER CAKE

• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups flour

Mix all ingredients in order listed. Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar on greased bundt pan. Add half of the batter. Top with 1 cup chocolate chips and more cinnamon-sugar. Add rest of the batter. Top with more cinnamon-sugar.

Bake at 350 for 55 minutes.

SOUR CREAM GLAZE

• sour cream
• vanilla
• powdered sugar

Heat sour cream (a large dollop) in a small saucepan, over medium-low heat, until fluid. Add teaspoon of vanilla. Stir in powdered sugar (oh, about a cup or so to start–add more as you go) until desired consistency is reached. I do this part by taste; when it tastes how you want it, you are done! If you want more glaze, add more sour cream and powdered sugar.

Let glaze cool a bit to thicken before drizzling it over cake. Before you drizzle, place the cake over a cookie sheet–this will get messy otherwise.

This is a really simple, quick cake to make. I recommend it for any occasion that calls for a cake in a jiffy.

In my church, the first Sunday of (almost) every month is fast Sunday. For two meals (or ideally 24 hours-if you remember the day before…), we fast. Each month, my old ward has a “Break Fast” potluck in the afternoon. Bubba and I still go, even though the ward is technically for the young NON-married kiddos. Really, the Bishop is one of my best friends, and who can turn down free food?

My favorite part about break fast is that it gives me an opportunity every month to try out a new recipe. So, without further ado, here is the recipe of the month:

turned out okay for such a quick decorating job...

SUPER AWESOME WHITE CAKE

• 2 1/4 cup cake flour
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoon white vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup buttermilk (add the vanilla to this)

• 5 egg whites
• 1/3 cup sugar

Cream shortening and butter. Mix all dry ingredients together and add to creamed butter/shortening. Add the buttermilk (with vanilla) and mix until smooth.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they turn white; add the sugar and beat until meringue-like.

Fold meringue into batter until evenly mixed.

Bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean (ovens are all too different to be timed).

BEST EVER BUTTERCREAM

• 1 cup shortening
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon white vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 8 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons meringue powder

Cream together shortening, butter, vanilla, butter flavoring, almond extract, and milk until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar and meringue powder. If it’s too stiff, add more milk; if it’s too thin, add powdered sugar until you reach a comfortable consistency.

Now, there is good news and there is bad news. Which do you want first? The bad? I thought so.

Bad news: I broke. I was determined to finish my current work-in-progress longhand. I was doing a great job. Everything was going well. Until today. Today, my mind got overloaded with the story. My brain kept trying to put more and more on the page, but my poor little cramped hand just couldn’t keep up.

Good news: I really think the writing by hand exercise has been effective. I am thinking more about the words I write, so my draft is in better form than previous first drafts were.

Bad news: Now that I am back to typing my first draft, I might also slip back to typing out the first thing that comes to mind. That is not a terrible thing-edits and rewrites exist for a reason-but I am enjoying cleaner prose.

Good news: I type much faster than I write longhand. Typing, I will be able to finish this draft way faster than using the good old pen. Which is good, ’cause I want to be done by the end of October. I fully intent to participate in NaNoWriMo this year.

Bad news: I will no longer have notebooks full of scribbles to put on the shelf labeled “First draft”. I suppose I will have to relinquish the Jo March title also.

Good news: With faster writing, I will have more time to spend on my other passion: