I GOT MY COVER!!!!!

No recipes today. Life has gone haywire for me in recent weeks and my days have been spent taking care of my aging mother instead of cooking. Well, I am cooking, just not taking pictures or doing anything fancy. Which is also why I haven't been around much lately.

However, I couldn't miss whisking into the cafe today with some news. Can you guess what it is?

Yeah, okay, so the title of this post probably gave it away. Seeing my very first cover--with my name actually on it--was definitely a bright spot among the chaos of last week. Suddenly, it was real. I actually wrote a book that is going to be on the shelves of many a bookstore. Maybe someone will even buy a copy. Maybe they'll even read it!

So without further ado...



I absolutely love it. And I can't wait to hear what y'all think.

The story takes place in the tiny town of Ouray, Colorado. I had sent my publisher a couple of snapshots I had taken.

Of course, they tweaked them to make it, well, perfect, but kept the essence of Ouray--the Victorian buildings along Main Street and the proximity of the mountains.

Want to hear something funny? When I pitched this story to Melissa Endlich, I first showed her some pictures of my setting. One of which was the first snapshot above. She pointed to it and said, "That's an LI book cover right there."

Who knew her words would so prophetic?

Red Velvet Sheet Cake and A Surprise

Tex here, and as promised I'm sharing a recipe for red velvet sheet cake, the delectable treats I plied you all with last week.

This is another one of those recipes I borrowed from the PW, so let's hit it.

For the cake, you're going to need:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 1.5 fluid ounces red food coloring
• 1 cup shortening
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray a large sheet/jelly roll pan with nonstick baking spray. That's the kind with the flour in it.

Now, sift together the flour and salt and set aside. In a separate bowl, stir together the buttermilk, vanilla, baking soda, and eggs. Add the vinegar and stir. Set aside.

In a separate small bowl, mix together the cocoa and red food coloring. Set aside.

This is the set aside gang on the left.

I want to add here that if you like your red velvet cake with a little more cocoa flavor, go ahead and add more than the recipe calls for.

Now, cream together the shortening and sugar until fluffy.

Alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk/egg mixture until all combined.

 

Pour in the red mixture and beat until combined. Yes, it does look kind of like blood.

Suspense writers oughta love that :-)

Pour your batter into the prepared sheet pan.

 

You'll want to use something to spread the batter and even out the surface.

Then bake that puppy for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 20 minutes.

 

Cool cake completely before icing.

Now the recipe says to remove the cake from the pan, but you don't have to. I did because I was cutting mine into squares for a party and I wanted them to be perfect. So, after it was frosted, I trimmed off the edges and then cut nice, somewhat precise squares.

 

But what about the frosting?

This is a classic red velvet frosting. This is what I had the first time I ever had red velvet cake.

It's light, it's fluffy....

But you gotta make it. So here we go.

 

Combine 1 cup whole milk and 5 tablespoons all purpose flour in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk constantly until thick.



 

Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

This step is good to do while your cake is baking.

 

In a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer--if you have a KitchenAid mixer, you'll want the paddle attachment, not the whisk attachment), cream 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter and 1 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy.

 

Add the cooled milk mixture and beat and beat and beat. It may look like it's not working, it may look like it's separating, but that just means you have to keep beating...

 

Until everything is fully combined.

It should be light and fluffy, similar to whipped cream.

 

This is before I trimmed those less-than-perfect edges.

 

You've seen this before, haven't you?

 

If you were going to a potluck/covered dish gathering, you might want to just frost it in the pan for easy transporting.

And, like I said, this doesn't have the cocoa flavor that some recipes do. As is, it has a light texture with a mild flavor.

 

By now you've probably scrolled and scrolled wondering what my surprise might be.

Well...

 

I now have a title for my September LI release.

 

THE DOCTOR'S FAMILY REUNION

(coming soon to a Walmart near you:-)

 

Happy Tuesday, everyone!