A new book, and a new recipe!

As of last Saturday, Within the Essence is officially for sale! You can pick up your copy here, here, or here!

One other thing that happened this weekend was that I tried a new baking recipe with two of my nieces. It’s one of the things we do together, so much that the eldest credits me for teaching her how to crack an egg. I don’t necessarily remember it, but it’s kind of cool that a tiny detail like that sticks out so much in her mind. My heart melts! Metaphorically, at least. Otherwise, that could be a problem…

Anyway, as I said earlier on this blog, I want to try and post more often for a number of reasons, and I figure adding in some baking details here and there would be a good concept to bring to the blog. So, with that in mind, I’m going to try and review some recipes that I go through—and/or ones I come up with—with a 1 out of 5 rating system. Right now, we’re going with sprinkles, but that label could change should I choose something more fitting!

So how about we dive right into the first recipe?

Recipe: Mini Doughnut Cupcakes from this book

Ingredients:

1 cup of sugar

1 ½ teaspoons of ground cinnamon

1 package of white or yellow cake mix (and the listed ingredients)

1 tablespoon of ground nutmeg

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease muffin pan.
• Combine sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl.
• Make the cake as the cake box says, but add in the nutmeg.
• Add the batter to the pan and bake for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean.
• Roll warm cupcakes in the sugar and cinnamon until they’re coated.

Rating: 3 out of 5 sprinkles

Now, originally, I’d planned to give this recipe the lowest rating possible, but to be fair, the first one I tried wasn’t quite done. It’s entirely possible that it took me a moment to adjust to give them a fair shake after that! Once I retried them later, they weren’t that bad! They were just… different! I could even get a sense of the doughnut flavor in them with the blended nutmeg, though I might’ve called these “muffins” instead of cupcakes if the recipe were mine. The blended ingredients came together into a fair, but admittedly unique, tasting dessert. Still, there was nothing knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark that makes me plan to remake these, so it’s hard to give them anything above a 3/5 rating.

If you want a new twist on a muffin though, this blend of nutmeg and cinnamon is an interesting way to go!

2017 Goal!

It’s been a little while, but one of my goals this year is to be a better blogger. For one thing, that could help with this whole author thing. For another, I have very real desires of gathering a number of freelance writing opportunities, and I think one good way to help that happen is to have examples of certain writing types and to keep a consistent blogging presence. Sure, I have the sewing blog, but it’s very tailored for one general topic.  I’m thinking I could explore more topic choices through blogs,  and hopefully doing so will provide me with a wide range of writing samples I could use for freelance positions.

It also is a recommendation when trying to better yourself through health choices to keep a journal. So, for both of those reasons, I’ve opened up a new blog (no posts yet!) that will ideally just be for that specific category of posts—a healthy lifestyle. Or, healthier anyway! The rest—less-than-healthy recipes, non-sewing crafts, nerdness—those could all show up here. I can’t guarantee weekly posts or anything right now since I’m so deep in needing to edit two more novels, but I figured it was worth the update to let you know what’s happening.

Blogging more is a 2017 goal, and you can expect to see evidence of that through both of these blogs throughout the year!

One more detail: My upcoming book, Within the Essence, is available for pre-order through Amazon!