The Coffee Magnate!
I had so much fun with this book because it was filled with so many things I love! My hero, Zack Parsons owns a chain of coffee shops that’s made it huge on the level of Starbucks, with thousands of locations worldwide. The heroine, Clara Davis, has been with him since the early days of the company and she is in charge of conceptualizing desserts, with a heavy emphasis on the almighty cupcake. Zack and Clara are also best friends, which is another one of my favorite things…Friends to lovers! So there was caffeine, sugar, and friends becoming more. Yes, this book made me happy. 😉
I won’t lie, I went and ate cupcakes as research for this book. 😉 But not only did I eat cupcakes…I made them. And ate more.
There are several points in the book where Clara is experimenting with new flavors of cupcakes. So..well, I had to experiment too! We came up with a recipe for Clara’s Orange Cream Cupcakes (though, unlike in the book, I didn’t fill mine with cream…I’m not that fancy!)
Everyone got involved. (and by that I mean my youngest ate a bunch of food coloring.)
Partway through, I realized I didn’t have a way to do decorative frosting, and we ended up using the Harlequin water bottle I’d gotten at RWA. My husband even made a few.
Clara’s Orange Cream Cupcakes
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 tsp orange extract
2 tsp orange zest
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups milk
Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. In a separate, larger bowl, mix the butter and sugar until fluffy, add eggs, vanilla, orange and flour/baking powder/salt mixture in slowly. Pour into individual baking cups. Bake 10-15 minutes.
Frosting: 1lb confectioner’s sugar
2 tsp of vanilla extract
one stick of butter (1/2 a cup)
(You could add orange to the frosting too, flavoring or, like we did, food coloring.)
And you should have a batch of Clara’s Orange Cream Cupcakes to eat while you read the book! (I had to make two batches before I got it just right. The things I do for my art!)
Or, if you can’t wait, you can make cupcakes and read the excerpt.
Comments
7 Responses | TrackBack URL | Comments Feed
… >.> I think you should have a contest.
Where the winner gets the book and cupcakes.
Come on – GENIUS!!!
(Also — ooo for the frosting, you should try it again and add orange zest to that as well! You know – for the sake of the book + experimenting and all. It’s **science**!)
Lime, for real! I was going for a vanilla frosting cuz…the cream. But in the end, yeah, it could have used some…I may have to make them AGAIN!!!
Maybe a contest where the winner gets the dry ingredients?
That’s some awesome research! 🙂
They are gorgeous Maisey!!! Especially the pic of your hubby doing the icing 🙂 And I can’t wait to read this book. LOVE cupcakes!!
I love the friends to lovers premise – one of my favs. Cupcakes and coffee – how can you go wrong? Perfect combination 🙂
I can’t wait to read your new book 🙂 BTW – love the cover!
Ohhhh…cupcakes….(said in a Homer Simpson sort of a’way). I’m on a diet. Do you know of a low cal version of cupcakes? Or is that silly? Caroline x
Sabrina, no kidding!
Rach, thanks! I think he has sexy hands. 😉
Joanne, thank you! Friends to lovers is one of my favorites too. 🙂
Caroline, YES! There are definitely low cal ways to do it! Of hand I would say, egg whites rather than eggs, plain yogurt or applesauce as an oil/butter substitute. If you’re hardcore you can substitute sugar for a sugar substitute like Splenda or Stevia. And coconut milk is lower cal than milk! *helpful Maisey is helpful*