Guest BJ Daniels joins the Clan of the Cake -- #recipe, #romanticsuspense

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Out here in Montana, there are so few writers that most of us know each other, and I'm delighted to say many of us have become good friends. Romantic suspense writer BJ---Barb---Daniels and I first met at Bouchercon, the mystery convention, many years ago, and have seen each other at numerous writers' conferences and fan events in the years since. One of the highlights of last summer was teaching with her at the Get Published! Conference in Bozeman, and another was a book talk in Billings, where we interviewed each other!

For those of you tracking such things, she is definitely Clan of the Cake---and her recipe might even convert me!

Leave a comment below for a chance to win a signed copy of INTO DUST.

B.J. DANIELS: I love cooking and food, so of course my characters EAT. I once read a book where the villain was making his famous enchiladas. I couldn’t believe the heroine escaped before she got to taste them. That would never happen in my books. Food is so important that I was writing one day and my character had just taken a bite of my Oatmeal Cake, a favorite of mine. I stopped typing to reach for a bite of the cake myself and realized, regretfully, that my character was the only one who had the cake!

I got this recipe from an old college friend and it has become a family favorite. I love the coconut in the frosting, but you can leave it out. Same with the nuts. It’s still delicious even without the oatmeal in the frosting. The cake is so wonderful that I once served it warm to friends who’d just walked in the door with no coconut, oatmeal or nuts in the frosting. They loved it and had to have the recipe.

OATMEAL CAKE

In a bowl put:

1 ½ cups hot water

1 cup old fashioned oats

Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream:

½ cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

Add and mix:

2 eggs

Add:

1 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

Add the oats and water mixture. Pour into a 9x13 cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Frosting:

½ cup butter

1 ½ cups brown sugar

4 tablespoons evaporated milk

1 cup coconut

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup chopped walnuts (I used pecans because I had them)

Boil butter, sugar and milk for 1 min. Add coconut, oatmeal and nuts. Pour over warm baked cake and return to the oven for a few minutes.

Cool as long as you can stand it before eating --- but don't wait too long, or all your neighbors will drop by and eat it first!

Leave a comment below with your favorite cake or a favorite food from a book, for a chance to win a signed copy of INTO DUST. Contest open till midnight, Monday, August 1. 

From INTO DUST, part of the Montana Hamiltons series:

As the daughter of a presidential candidate, Cassidy Hamilton left the Montana family ranch to escape notoriety. But when someone tries to abduct her off a Houston sidewalk, tall, dark cowboy Jack Durand saves her. Only Jack knows more about her kidnapping that he is letting on. On the run, they expose a plot years in the making, but it comes at a price neither could have known.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author B.J. Daniels lives in Montana with her husband, Parker, and three Springer Spaniels, Spot, Jem and Ace. When she isn’t writing, she quilts or spends the summer on the water.  

Daniels writes both series and single title books for Harlequin Intrigue and HQN, and has sold just short of 100 books.

To contact her, write: B.J. Daniels, P.O. Box 1173, Malta, MT 59538 or email her at bjdaniels@mtintouch.net Check out her webpage and blog at www.bjdaniels.com or visit her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/BJ-Daniels/127936587217837 or on twitter at bjdanielsauthor.

Sexy Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

 

That got your interest, didn't it?  Lovely Joan Swan is our guest today.  Joan is a triple RWA® Golden Heart finalist and writes sexy romantic suspense with a paranormal twist.  Her debut novel with Kensington Brava, FEVER, released February 28, 2012.  Her second novel, BLAZE, follows in October, 2012.

In her day job, she works as a sonographer for one of the top ten medical facilities in the nation and lives on the California central coast in beautiful wine country with her husband and two daughters.

FEVER is currently available for sale, to be followed by BLAZE in October.  I can't imagine that they'll be able to top the FEVER cover!

Dr. Alyssa Foster will admit to a bad boy fetish…

But when she finds herself face to face with a convicted murderer with determination for freedom and an eye on her as his get out of jail free card, Alyssa knows she’s in deep trouble…. Not just because Teague Creek is a prisoner desperate for freedom, but because his every touch makes her desperate for more.

A man with a life sentence has nothing to lose…

Teague Creek has one shot at freedom, but his plan to escape with a hostage develops a fatal flaw: Alyssa. On the run from both the law and deadly undercover operatives who know of his strange abilities, he needs to avoid trouble, but every heated kiss tells him the fire between them could be just as devastating as the flames that changed him forever.

Joan is very kindly offering a copy of FEVER to one lucky reader.  Just leave a comment here today to enter!

In addition, you can enter her giveaway of either a COLOR NOOK or KINDLE FIRE!  Enter here: http://joanswan.com/giveaways/blog-tour-ereader/

Welcome, Joan!

A big thanks to Mystery Lover’s Kitchen for having me over.  I’m a follower and a big fan, sharing many of their luscious recipe posts Twitter while wishing I had time to try more of them out myself!  So I’m exciting to be there to share one of my own.

Not much eating goes on in my debut paranormal romantic suspense, FEVER.  My hero and heroine are too busy running—from cops, undercover operatives, private investigators.  Who has time to eat?

Though, during a breather at a mountain cabin, my hero makes breakfast.  Blueberry pancakes are on the menu, so I thought I’d bring you an awesome blueberry pancake recipe, along with a few tips for perfecting your own pancakes. 

But first…a little excerpt from that section of FEVER:

“How could you possibly…?  Where did you get all this…?”  Alyssa’s stomach rumbled so loud it drowned out the still-sizzling griddle.  She put a hand over her belly, her cheeks pinking to a beautiful hue.  “Oh, my God.  I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I saw this food.”

Teague sat and forked steaming pancakes onto his plate.  Alyssa set her brush on the counter and pulled out a chair.  She heaped two ladlefuls of scrambled eggs onto her plate, plucked up four strips of thick-sliced bacon then started in on the pancakes.

 “Eggs,” she mumbled around her food.  “Where did you get eggs?”

“They’re powdered.  You’ve got to be damn good and hungry if you’re eating those without noticing.  Your eyes are about times the size of your stomach.”

She pointed at the dark circles embedded in the hotcakes.  “What are these?”

“Blueberries.”

She smirked at him.  “These can’t be from a powder.”

“No, those are from the freezer.  You don’t get out much, do you doctor?”

“Ha-ha.”  Alyssa clopped off a chunk of butter and slathered it over the cakes, gushed on syrup and butchered them as she tried to cut them into bite-sized pieces.  Then she heavily salted her eggs.  Once the preparations were done, she started eating.  Or rather devouring. 

With a strip of bacon in one hand, her fork in the other, she started a two-handed method of eating Teague had never seen outside a firehouse.  A lopsided grin pulled at his lips as he watched. 

She flicked and absent glance his way.  “What?”

He chuckled, reached across the table and wiped a smudge of syrup from the corner of her mouth with his knuckle.  “You look like a chipmunk hording for winter.”

She scowled.  “Mind your own food and leave me alone.”

Once she’d demolished the quadruple stack of cakes, she reached for more. 

“For a doctor, you aren’t very heart healthy.” 

She looked up at him through her lashes with a don’t-start expression.  “At the moment, the longevity of my life based on my diet isn’t among my top concerns.”

Her quip brought their reality into focus and punched a hole in Teague’s distraction. He set down his fork and started clearing the table.

“Hey.”  Alyssa grabbed the edge of the bowl holding the scrambled eggs.  “I’m not done with that.”

He set it back down, shaking his head.  “You eat as much as two of my biggest firefighters.  You’re going to make yourself sick.”

Teague’s Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

INGREDIENTS

Dry Ingredients:

·       2 cups all purpose flour (you can also divide this among all purpose and cake flour)

·       ½ teaspoon salt

·       ½ teaspoon baking soda

·       ½ teaspoon baking powder

·       2 Tbsp sugar

·       1 teaspoon cinnamon

·       ½ teaspoon nutmeg

Other ingredients:

·       2 large eggs

·       1 ½ cups buttermilk

·       3 Tbsp warm melted butter

·       1 cup blueberries

·       Cooking spray or vegetable oil

METHOD

Step 1

·       Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

·       In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, then whisk in the buttermilk. *Perfect pancake tip #1*

·       Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and combine with whisk.

·       Mix only until the batter just comes together.

·       Whisk in the melted butter.

·       Do not over-mix! *Perfect pancake tip #2*

·        

Step 2

·       Heat a flat griddle or large pan. *Perfect pancake tip #3*

·       Spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray or brush with vegetable oil. *Perfect pancake tip #4*

·       Ladle the pancake batter onto the griddle to the desired size *Perfect pancake tip #5*

·       Sprinkle the blueberries into the pancake on the griddle. *Perfect pancake tip #6*

·       Flip when cooked on that side *Perfect pancake tip #7*

·       Cook another minute or two

·       Serve hot

Perfect Pancake Tips

1.     Use a large whisk to mix the ingredients until the dry ingredients are just mixed in. The large whisk allows for more air to be whipped into the batter resulting in light and fluffy pancakes.

2.     Don't overbeat the batter or you will have flat, tough, chewy cakes. If you have time, refrigerate the batter for 30 minutes before you start cooking the pancakes.

3.     Heat the griddle until drops of water dance and evaporate immediately. If your griddle has a temperature control, heat it to 375 degrees F.

4.     Using butter in your batter and cooking spray on your pan will result in a golden brown, buttery pancake without any burning.

5.     Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour the batter onto the hot griddle. Pour quickly, keeping at least a 2" space between each pancake. 

6.     Wait to add blueberries until the batter has already been poured on the griddle - this will keep them from bleeding into batter.

7.     Let the pancakes cook until the edges start to look dry and bubbles form on the uncooked surface. Don't move the pancakes before this, because they will just break apart. Handling the pancake too much with make it tough.

8.     Use a long handled spatula and carefully slide it under each pancake. Using your wrist, quickly flip the pancakes.

9.     Serve with melted butter, real maple syrup and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

If you weren’t counting calories, what would your all time favorite breakfast be?