StoryBundle includes 12 books (including mine) for $15!
Here’s how easy this is: pay at least $15. If you can, throw in a few more bucks to support authors. Get 12 ebooks, no DRM. Your summer reading is set! The theme is Crossing the Veil, so expect transferred souls, ghosts, and all kinds of supernatural goodness.
This deal won’t be available for long.
#SFWAPro
Read MoreBready or Not Original: Apple Cinnamon Loaf Cake
This Apple Cinnamon Loaf Cake is tender and delicious, perfect for breakfast, snack, or dessert.
This loaf cake is a lot like my small casserole-sized Easy Apple Cinnamon Cake. If you like one, you’ll like the other!
My husband, see, looooves apple pie and apple cake. Apples in baked goods, period. And yes, he loved this loaf cake.
One of the great things about this recipe is that this loaf kept for about a week, all wrapped up and stored in a safe place at room temperature.
(In my house, that means tucked inside my stainless steel breadbox, as otherwise my cats would tear their way inside the plastic wrap. Because my cats are weird.)
Bready or Not Original: Apple Cinnamon Loaf Cake
Equipment
- 9x5 loaf pan
Ingredients
- 2 medium apples such as Gala, peeled, cored, and chopped
- 1/3 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2/3 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 cup milk or half & half
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Cut parchment paper to fit long-ways in a loaf pan, sticking up on either side as a sling. Apply nonstick spray into pan, place paper, then spray again. Set aside.
- Prepare apples. Add brown sugar and cinnamon to bowl and toss with chopped apples to coat.
- In a big bowl, mix white sugar and applesauce until smooth and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, then the vanilla extract.
- In another small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually stir this into the egg mixture, followed by the milk.
- Spoon about half of the batter into the prepared pan. Layer about half of the apples on top. Scoop the remaining batter over it, and add the rest of the apples. Pat them into the top.
- Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick stuck into the middle emerges clean.
- Use parchment sling to immediately lift loaf onto a rack to completely cool. Once the loaf is at room temperature, shroud in plastic wrap and store at room temperature--or freeze all or part of loaf for later.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Original: Golden Syrup Snack Cake
Golden Syrup Snack Cake! This delicious, sticky, sweet-but-not-too-sweet cake delivers a taste of the UK wherever you may live.
I see golden syrup all the time in British recipes. I debated trying those recipes, but wondered if I could finagle some kind of American equivalent to golden syrup. Nope.
Accept no substitutes. Golden syrup is kinda between honey and maple syrup, but has its own unique kind of sweetness. The good news is, if you’re in America, it can be found on the shelf in grocery stores. I live in the boonies on the far western fringe of Phoenix, and I can even find it here… though it is kind of expensive.
The grocery gods did smile upon me, though. I scored TWO bottles of Lyle’s Golden Syrup for half off in the clearance area. I actually squealed out loud.
This cake has a soft, tender crumb that is gently sweet throughout. The glaze of extra syrup brushed on top adds a perfect finish. This is the perfect treat to serve up for a binge-watch of British telly!
Recipe heavily modified and converted in measurement from a recipe found at the BBC.
Bready or Not Original: Golden Syrup Snack Cake
Equipment
- 8x8 or 9x9 pan
Ingredients
Cake
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 cube
- 1/2 cup turbinado or other raw sugar
- 3/4 cup golden syrup such as Lyle's, but not the squeeze bottle version
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup milk or half & half
Glaze
- 2 Tablespoons golden syrup
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat butter, golden syrup, and turbinado sugar until melted and combined. Set aside to cool.
- Preheat oven at 325-degrees. Line an 8x8 or 9x9-square cake pan with foil and apply nonstick spray or butter.
- In a bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. Mix with the contents of the large pot.
- Into this pot, add the baking powder, ground ginger, and salt, followed by the flour. Pour into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 40 to 50 mins, until the middle passes the toothpick test. Measure the golden syrup for glazing into a bowl and brush it atop the warm cake.
- Let cool at least 20 minutes before slicing. Store covered by foil or sliced up in a sealed container at room temperature.
OM NOM NOM!
Surviving Tomorrow: An all-star charity anthology to fight COVID-19
I am genuinely proud to be part of this incredible new anthology in which 95% of profits are being donated directly to charities that are providing testing to communities in need–and you get to choose the charity.
Surviving Tomorrow is a collection of 29 stories about survivors by writers like Neil Gaiman. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Cory Doctorow, Robert Silverberg, Jonathan Maberry, Seanan McGuire, Andrew Mayne, Scott Sigler, Orson Scott Card, Alan Dean Foster, A.C. Crispin… and me! The book is available to preorder now to ship in the coming months. There is a special edition, a hardcover, a trade paperback, and an ebook.
Preorder Surviving Tomorrow.
Find out more about the charities here.
#SFWAPro
Read MoreBready or Not Original: Blueberry Crumble Bars
Nothing says summer to me quite like blueberry bars, and this version has a delectable crumb topping and loads of blueberries!
This is really the best kind of fruit and shortbread combo. The bottom and top acquire a buttery crispness as they bake, the perfect contrast for the oozy, sweet berries.
I am frustrated when recipes only list blueberries by cup measurement, which is useless when I’m in the grocery store trying to figure out how much to buy in pints or ounces. I can say that 4 cups or 20 ounces is what you need for this recipe.
Be careful at the final stage when it’s time to slice into bars. The blueberries can stick to the foil quite a bit. Therefore, be sure to generously grease the pan prior to baking, and gently pry the foil away when ready to slice.
The recipe makes a full 9×13 pan, so be sure you have a lot of people present to eat them. These would be very dangerous treats to keep around when home alone, just sayin’.
Bready or Not Original: Blueberry Crumble Bars
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white sugar divided
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- pinch ground cinnamon
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
- 1 egg
- 3 teaspoons cornstarch
- 4 cups fresh blueberries 20 ounces
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 375-degrees. Line a 9x13 pan with foil and apply nonstick spray. Wash the blueberries and remove any stems or smashed berries, then gently blot dry with a towel.
- In a big bowl, mix together the flour, 1/2 cup white sugar, the brown sugar, and baking powder. Add the salt and cinnamon. Add the butter and mix until it forms crumbly dough.
- Pat about 2/3 of the dough into the prepared pan. A piece of waxed paper and a heavy glass will help compress it into an even layer.
- In another bowl, stir together the remaining 1/2 cup white sugar and cornstarch. Gently stir the blueberries to coat. Sprinkle the blueberries over the bottom crust, then crumble the remaining dough evenly over the top.
- Bake for 45 minutes, but check at the 30 minute point. If it's looking golden on top, cover it with foil then continue to bake.
- Cool at room temperature, then chill in fridge to make it even more cohesive to cut. Use the foil to lift the contents onto a cutting board. Carefully peel back the foil from the edges; a knife might help to hold the bars in place if the blueberry layer is being especially sticky.
- Slice into bars. Store in a sealed container in the fridge, with waxed paper between the stacked layers.
OM NOM NOM!
