I Have So Much Baking To Do!

When I decided to do a newsletter (if you’re a writer it is THE THING that everyone tells you that you absolutely need) I knew I was going to be talking about cooking a lot.

I love to cook. I especially love to host and you can ask any of my friends, I sometimes take things a little too far. (The time I had 10 people in my tiny apartment and fed them an 8 course tapas menu…) So I was absolutely thrilled when I settled in to watch With Love, Meghan and found that not only was it a cooking show, it was specifically about cooking to entertain, I lost my mind.

I’m a big fan of The Duchess of Sussex, and her husband. My fascination with the Windsors baffles my Irish-American family, but they at least understand why my romance writer heart is drawn to Meghan and Harry. (Also Spare is a really good memoir that’s worth checking out.)

With Love, Meghan is a delight of television show and it got me really excited to do some baking, and intentional food prep. (I’ve planned a brunch…my friends are excited. As they should be. I kick ass at brunch)

It’s also Lent, which means I’m back on my vegetarian cooking vibe. This week I made Tofu Tacos, rice and beans and it was a delight. I’ll share those recipes in a week or so. Today, let’s focus on the baking.

What I’m Watching

With Love, Meghan as noted. I think the episode cooking fish with her girlfriends is my favorite, but I’d watch Abigail Spencer watch paint dry. I’m considering salt baking a fish…but then I remember how much deboning a fish terrifies me…

The Bear and Julie & Julia

So, I was hitting writers block and for whatever reason, stories about the storytelling of cooking tend to break it. They did help, though I’ve stilled slowed down.

The Color Purple

Not a great movie. Oprah Whinfrey, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover are AMAZING and it saves the movie from being a disasterdespite the fact that Spielberg is out of his depth and the script misses everything that makes Alice Walker’s novel so beautiful and special. Whoopi earned her Oscar, she is transfixing as Seeley.

What I’m Cooking

Lemon Olive Oil Bundt Cake With Honey Glaze

Cake

I started with this base recipe, but made a few modifications. Also, as I’m US based, these are all US Imperial measurements. I apologize to all of my international readers. You probably know better than I how to do the conversions though!

1 box Yellow Cake Mix (I used Duncan Hines)

1 packet French Vanilla Pudding Mix (I used Jello)

1 Cup Lemon Juice

½ Cup of Olive Oil

4 large Eggs

Glaze

1 ¼ Cup of Confectioner’s Sugar

1 tbl of Honey

2 Tbls Milk

Decoration

Cornflower Fireworks Edible Flower Sprinkles (I got them at Whole Foods, you can get them on Amazon, or use a totally different decoration)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 Celsius), grease a bundt cake pan with shortening and coat with flour.

2. Mix Cake Mix, Pudding Mix (still dry, DO NOT make pudding), lemon juice, olive oil and eggs with electric mixer until smooth. Pour into prepped cake pan.

3. Bake for 35 minutes and test with a toothpick to see if fully baked. If it isn’t return for 5 minutes at a time until pick comes out clean

4. Remove from oven and let sit in pan for 10 minutes, remove to wire rack and let cool completely before glazing

Glaze & Decorate

Blend Sugar, Milk & Honey with electric mixer until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cake. Sprinkle the flower sprinkles over the glaze before it dries. Let dry before cutting.

THOUGHTS

OK, I’m going to be honest here. I like how this cake came out, especially as an experiment. I’m not in love with it. It was a little too lemon forward, so I think when I try again, I might go ½ a cup lemon juice, ½ a cup of water, just to balance the flavor a little. I will update as I shift the proportions. The problem is, I did really like the consistency of it. The crumb is nice and dense, which I love in a bundt, and it held moisture super well. And any adjustment might throw that off…

The glaze is perfect. The recipe I found online as a starter was a disaster and I’m not even linking to it because it is irresponsible. It was far too dry and advised hand whisking with no heat. I shifted the proportions enough that I feel like it was something new. Also, I have a stand mixer, I don’t hand whisk anything that will take longer than a minute or two. (Pancakes are about all that get the hand treatment from me)

I used to go nuts about making scratch cakes, and then my friend Jessica Ryan-Bone, a true blue culinary school trained, high pressure New York City big restaurant veteran pastry chef, told me there was no reason to. (The cook book Jess co authored is out in a few weeks. You should pre order it. We WILL be talking about that cruller on the cover because I was obsessed with it and the shop is now closed and I miss it dearly) Cake Mixes do the job. They need help, but there’s no reason to fuss. Using water and vegetable oil as described in the instructions usually won’t yield you anything special, but start messing with your fat and liquids and you’ll have fun. For standard cakes she recommends melted butter instead of oil, and milk instead of water. Adding the pudding mix for a bundt to thicken was in the linked based recipe I was messing with, but was something I knew from my mother, who makes a cinnamon cake I’ve never been able to replicate but I devour. For this one, I used the Olive Oil instead of Vegetable Oil, again to cut the harshness of the citrus (I did not succeed, I WILL GET THERE) and to gain some smoothness.

I’m having some friends over in a few weeks, and plan to try an adjusted version, I will update. But it’s damn pretty.

What I’m Reading:

Before I Fell by Kennedy Ryan - A gorgeous and emotional second chance romance. It’s also steamy hot. I loved it’s frank conversations about mental health, family trauma, and the way love grows and shifts over a lifetime. I loved it so much, and I’m really looking forward to recommending it to other women in my family. (I think my mom and sister in law will particularly like it) It’s the perfect balance between the “women’s fiction” I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember and the “contemporary romance” I’ve been reading for the past few years.

Link

Wheel of Fate And Freedom is available on Thursday. I’m incredibly emotional about saying goodbye to The Marina Chronicle and I’m having trouble reminding people. But it will be out. Say goodnight, not goodbye

Rise Of The Chosen and Dreams of The Lost are now available on Kindle Unlimited.

Anything Other Than You will be available on May 6! My first ARC review came in, do what you will with it:

I am continually active on Threads, getting there on Instagram….and really sorry about Bluesky…I post when I remember