A cupcake sneak peek …

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It starts with gourmet apples that are high in acidity.
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Core, peel, and chop …
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Cook down into applesauce with a dash of cinnamon …
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Spoon apple sauce-infused batter into a lined muffin tin …
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Bake for 20 – 25 minutes …
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Add some honey to the butter and icing sugar …
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And what do you get?

Find the recipe in my next monthly newsletter on November 1, 2016. Not signed up yet? Pop your email into this form to get my monthly missives directly in your inbox on the first Tuesday of every month.

Dowser 6: Delight in a Cup

delightinacup_dowser6_meme

“I’ll bake a batch just for her. I’m pretty sure her favorite is Delight in a Cup.

“Lemon buttercream?” Warner smacked his lips, sleepily appreciative.

I laughed quietly. “And white cake.”

“Fluffy … sweet … moist cake.” Warner grunted his approval. – Artifacts, Dragons, and Other Lethal Magic (Dowser 6)

DELIGHTinaCup_recipe

Download the PDF recipe here: Delight in a Cup PDF

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– DOWSER 6 PREORDER NOW AVAILABLE –

Release date: May 5, 2016

Preorders currently available on AmazonKoboiBooksBarnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

Charm in a Cup

Here is Charm in a Cup from Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1) and  Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser 5).

This is a super dense, but moist, sponge cake. The cake is also the base for Sunshine in a Cup and Joy in a Cup. The frosting is also the icing for Love in a Cup.

charminacup

yellowcirtus_cake_RECIPE

strawberry_buttercream_icing_RECIPE

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The Dowser 5 ebook will be available THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015 on Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, B&N, and Smashwords. The paperback will follow about two weeks later. The preorders are now available.

To help celebrate there will be two large giveaways. One the week before (July 15 – 18) and one the week of the release (July 20 – 23).

Don’t want to miss the release day? Please make sure you are signed up for my mailing list.

Don’t want to miss the giveaways? Please subscribe to my blog via the link second from the top on the righthand side of this page.

Love in a Cup

So this is one of those recipes I swear I’ve posted before, but now I can’t seem to find it.

Love in a Cup from Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1) as well as Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser 5).

loveinacup

dark_chocolate_cake_RECIPE

strawberry_buttercream_icing_RECIPE<3 <3 <3

The Dowser 5 ebook will be available THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015 on Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, B&N, and Smashwords. The paperback will follow about two weeks later. The preorders are now available.

To help celebrate there will be two large giveaways. One the week before (July 15 – 18) and one the week of the release (July 20 – 23).

Don’t want to miss the release day? Please make sure you are signed up for my mailing list.

Don’t want to miss the giveaways? Please subscribe to my blog via the link second from the top on the righthand side of this page.

Dowser 5: Buzz in a Cup

Updated recipe: April 18, 2016

BuzzinaCup_postcardsize_recipe

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Original Post:

I did a poll to ask readers of the Dowser Series what cupcake Drake should eat in Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser 5).

Buzz in a Cup won.

ETA: as a noncoffee drinker I found these very strong, as a regular coffee drinker (who drinks his coffee black) Michael found these tasty, but not overly strong.

Without further ado here is the recipe:
Buzz in a Cup

Mocha Fudge Cake RECIPE

Mocha_buttercream_icing_RECIPE

 

<3 <3 <3

The Dowser 5 ebook will be available THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015 on Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, B&N, and Smashwords. The paperback will follow about two weeks later. The preorders should start going live around July 9 or 10th.

To help celebrate there will be two large giveaways. One the week before (July 15 – 18) and one the week of the release (July 20 – 23).

Don’t want to miss the release day? Please make sure you are signed up for my mailing list.

Don’t want to miss the giveaways? Please subscribe to my blog via the link second from the top on the righthand side of this page.

Bake a cupcake and win five paperbacks

CONTEST CLOSED! Winner: CORI from NEW YORK, USA. Lucky #4

I still have a few of those misprinted paperbacks hanging around in a box in my office. It’s a handy box, because it raises my laptop up when I’m working from the treadmill desk, but it isn’t very pretty. I should replace it with something in the nearish future, so the books need to go! Plus it feels like a long time since I’ve hosted a giveaway.

This is the final full set of misprints. The books are slightly streaked with pink lines. The files/printings have all been corrected, so once these are gone there won’t be any more. I’d be happy to sign them, personalized or not.

IMG_0372Do you want to win all FIVE of these paperbacks?

Yes?

Then, to enter:

1. Bake some cupcakes inspired by one of the cupcake creations in the Dowser books. You can use one of my recipes or your own – from scratch or a mix, your choice.

2. Take a picture of your cupcake(s) and post that picture in the comments as a .jpg (if possible).

Unfortunately, there isn’t mechanism that allows you to post a picture directly in the comments, but you can link a .jpg. The comment thread should embed it automatically — direct links to the .jpg are best for this. If this isn’t possible for you then you can link to a post on Instagram/Flickr/Facebook/Twitter/etc. This will just show up as the link, not the picture though.

3.  Tell me about your cupcake. Which Dowser cupcake inspired yours – Lust in a Cup, Sunshine in a Cup, Buzz in a Cup, etc?

This is not a baking or beauty contest. Even with how much I bake I cannot manage bake/frost a ‘pretty’ cupcake.

FUN! FUN!

Notes/Rules: OPEN INTERNATIONALLY. Each cupcake/picture will be assigned an entry number. The winning entry will then be selected via random number generator. One entry per person. Please make sure to fill out a valid email address in the comment form. Email addresses are not collected for any purpose other than notifying the contest winner.

If you haven’t commented on the blog before, or you comment from a different IP address, the comments are moderated. So don’t worry if you don’t see your entry right away. I will approve it, then assign it an entry number. 

Contest closes SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 2015 at 8 p.m. PDT.

NEW TO THE DOWSER SERIES BUT YOU STILL WANT TO PLAY ALONG? Dowser 1 is currently perma-free on all retailers.

What cupcake should be featured in Dowser 5?

At the beginning of Dowser 5 *spoiler alert* Drake eats three different cupcakes. Two are new creations of Jade’s, and the fledgling has previously tasted the third one.

Dowser Series cupcake Masterlist
                                                          The Cupcake Masterlist for the Dowser Series

As I was working through the third draft today, I thought it might be fun if readers of the Dowser Series decided on the ‘previously tasted’ cupcake.

To that end, I have embedded a poll below – which I seriously hope works – with five possibilities. All of the cupcakes on the poll were mentioned in Dowser 1, and therefore could have previously been consumed by Drake (which is the main criteria).

Pick one. Majority rules.

I promise to release the cupcake recipe a couple of weeks before I release Dowser 5. Yum!

Gertie’s Cupcakes…

I’m not too sure that I want to share Gertie’s cupcake photo, because her version of Charm in a Cup looks so much better than mine ever do. Nice frosting job, Gertie!

Gertie's Charm in Cup = lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting
Gertie’s Charm in Cup = lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting

Gertie just emailed this photo and note a few minutes ago and I couldn’t wait to share it. She wrote, “I made sure to eat two, the second one was yours. Let’s just say I was your cupcake-eating proxy, shall we?”

Hmmm, they look rather yummy, not sure I’m all over the proxy idea!

I’m beginning to really, really need to bake more cupcakes all for myself … I’m thinking about some Rapture in a Cup. I’m also getting a feeling there might be some reader payback going on around here … not sure I need the encouragement to bake more than I already do.