The Merchant's Love has been out in the world for five years today! This book is a cozy fantasy romance (though I hadn't heard the term then!) and has always felt like a warm hug in book form to me. In it, Faelen, a bookish, demisexual royal, and Maxen, a devoted, bisexual merchant, fall in love over books and baked goods. So every year, I feel the need to bake to commemorate the anniversary. This year, I made some chocolate chocolate chip muffins and thought I would share the recipe.

The original recipe came from the Food Network website, but I changed it a bit, adding more chocolate and salt and a pinch (or more, depending on my mood) of cinnamon and using olive oil when it called for vegetable oil. It's super easy and quick, and reliably delicious: 

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch (or more) cinnamon
1 cup milk
1/3 cup + 2 teaspoons olive oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with liners (or spray the pan).

Mix the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and mix until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Spoon into the muffin pan evenly (the cups will be fairly full). Bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

​Makes 12 muffins.

You can find more about The Merchant's Love and buy links here. Also, The Merchant's Love (and my other books!) is 50% off with code PRIDE23 at NineStar Press this month—it's a perfect time to pick up some fantasy romance!

I thought I'd do one more The Merchant's Love and baked goods post to round out the month, though I will probably end up doing another when the paperbacks arrive. I'm sure I won't be able to resist pretty pictures with the paperback.

Today, I have a white wine bundt cake for you. I had some fun using a fancy bundt pan—and then realized after it was in the oven that I have a castle bundt pan that I forgot about and that absolutely would've been more appropriate, so maybe another cake next time. I really love this cake. The wine gives it a unique flavor, and it smells so good.

Usually I set up a prettier picture, or try to, but it's been not a great week, and that cake wasn't going to last uncut off the cooling rack. So a not so fancy picture this time!

White Wine Cake

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup oil (I used olive, but another vegetable oil would be fine)
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon lime zest
1 cup white wine (I used pinot grigio, but a different white wine would work too)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease and flour a 10 cup bundt pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. In a medium bowl, whisk together oil, eggs, lemon zest, lime zest, wine, and both extracts. 

Slowly pour the wine mixture into the flour mixture while whisking constantly. Mix until the batter is smooth and no streaks of flour remain. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Serves 10-12.

Bundled up against the cold night, they walked hand in hand toward Maxen’s house. They didn’t stop in at any of the taverns along the way. By mutual agreement, it seemed they wanted something else. Faelen did anyway—to be alone with Maxen somewhere quieter. But Maxen tugged him into a bakery that was still open and bought two pastries, swirled through with cinnamon and spices and topped with sweet sugary icing.

Faelen hadn’t thought he’d be hungry after the filling stew, but the pastry was warm and smelled delicious...perhaps he might have room for something sweet.

Outside, Maxen grinned and pressed a kiss to his temple. “I know how you love your sweets. Go ahead.”

Faelen blushed, even as a delightful shiver traveled through him from the place Maxen’s lips had been so briefly. He ducked his head, letting his hair fall forward to shield his face. -The Merchant's Love

​

The Merchant's Love came out on Monday (yay!), but with the way the world has been this week, I haven't had it in me to promote it too much, which is probably not good. Romance novels are where I turn for comfort and escape and hope that things get better. I'm sure many of you do too, and I hope this book can maybe do that for you. So I thought it might be a good time for more books and baking. 

This week, I made cinnamon rolls, which seem so appropriate for Faelen and Maxen (if you've read about these two, I think you'll agree!). Someone sent me this recipe a while ago and I hadn't tried it yet, so I decided to give it a go. While I was doing it, I realized that might not have been the best idea, since the recipe was a bit vague here and there, but they came out pretty well, I think. I tried to clarify the recipe for you a little.

Cinnamon Rolls
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/3 cup and a pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup softened butter
1 cup hot milk
1 egg
3 cups all purpose flour

Stir together the warm water, yeast, and the a pinch of sugar. Let the mixture sit for a 5-8 minutes until foamy.

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, salt, butter, and milk. Stir everything together and then allow to cool to room temperature. Stir in the egg, then stir in the yeast mixture. Stir in the flour, 1 cup at a time until a very soft dough forms. Continue to knead for a few minutes (or use the dough hook if you're using a stand mixer). The dough will be very soft but should hold together. If it doesn't, add another tablespoon of flour. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and allow to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. It should double in size.

Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly butter a pan (the recipe doesn't specify what kind, but I used a 9 by 9 inch square pan and that worked fine).

Turn the dough out on a floured surface and roll out into a long rectangle (about 15 by 9 inches maybe). Melt 3 tablespoons of butter and brush the butter all over the dough. Sprinkle the dough with sugar and cinnamon. The recipe called for 1/3 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon. I didn't measure, but I'm sure I used more than that! Roll up from the long side and slice into 12 pieces. Place the rolls in the pan and bake for 25-27 minutes until the edges are brown. 

I iced my cinnamon rolls with bourbon cream cheese frosting. Here's the recipe for that:

Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
confectioner's sugar
bourbon

Beat together the butter and cream cheese until creamy. Add in confectioner's sugar and bourbon and beat until smooth. The original recipe that I have called for 4 cups of sugar and 5 tablespoons of bourbon, but I didn't use that much. I tend to add sugar by the cup a little at a time until it's as sweet as I want it to be, and then add the bourdon to taste as well. You can leave out the bourbon easily if you want them to be nonalcoholic.  

I have another The Merchant's Love with baked goods photo for you today. Faelen has such a weakness for books and baked goods (and who can blame him?), and so much of the bonding courtship in this book involves the two that it seemed like fun to take some photos and share recipes and snippets from the book. I hope you're enjoying it. Today's recipe is for brownies. They're really fudgy and chocolatey and flourless, so gluten free. This has become my go-to brownie recipe. Let me know what you think if you try it.

Fudgy Gluten Free Brownies

1/2 butter
2 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350. Line an 8x8 inch pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a small microwave-safe bowl. Stir until smooth. Allow to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder, and cornstarch. Add in the butter/chocolate mixture, and whisk until well-combined. Whisk in the vanilla and salt. Whisk in the eggs on at a time. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 to 33 minutes until the brownies are set around the edges. Cool completely in the pan before slicing.

Faelen, cousin to the prince and son of a diplomat, has finally come home to Tournai after years away. The pull to return was almost tangible, and the sense of rightness at being back is absolute. He wants nothing more than to put down roots and build a life among family while pursuing his linguistic studies. Becoming involved in magic meant to protect Tournai isn’t part of his plans…and falling in love is even more unexpected and unfamiliar, but he finds himself doing just that as his friendship with Maxen deepens into something more.

Maxen, second son of a wealthy merchant family, longs to leave Tournai and visit everywhere he can. All his life, he’s found places on maps and dreamed, planning out routes to get to them. For now, he’s tied to Tournai’s capital city by family obligations and his position in their shipping business. Someday, though, he’ll be able to travel. His sudden attraction to Faelen shocks him, but their friendship soon becomes a necessary part of his life. Love, however, has no place in his plans, especially not love for a royal cousin with secrets who wants nothing more than to stay in one place.

For Faelen and Maxen to build something real between them, they must resolve their differences, but when magic goes awry and all Faelen’s secrets are revealed, will Maxen remain at his side?



Add The Merchant's Love to your Goodreads shelf.

Preorder The Merchant's Love:
NineStar Press
Amazon
Apple
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords
Kobo

The Merchant's Love will be out one week from today, and even sooner, for those of you who preordered at NineStar. (How did that happen? How is it so soon?) It's also Monday, and I think that means we all need cookies. So for today's baked goods and The Merchant's Love photo (if you've missed any of the previous posts and don't know why I'm doing this, catch up here and here), I'm giving you hazelnut chocolate chip cookies. And I wish I could actually give you some because they're really yummy.

There actually are cookies in the book, as you can see in the snippet above. It's part of a scene I really love, especially for what it makes Faelen realize. I don't specify what kind of cookies they're eating that night, but it might very well be these. They're a favorite of mine, and I think Faelen and Maxen would enjoy them. I hope you do too.

Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 2/3 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons Nutella (or other brand of hazelnut spread)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts (optional; the Nutella gives a nice hazelnut flavor even without these)

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in Nutella, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Add the flour mixture and incorporate at low speed until not streaks of flour remain. Stir in chocolate chips and hazelnuts (if using). Form the dough into 1 inch balls.

Before baking, I refrigerate cookie dough for 12-24 hours or freeze it at least overnight (You can make the dough much farther ahead and freeze it too. I always have cookie dough in my freezer for emergencies. Cookie emergencies are absolutely a thing). Chilling the dough makes the cookies puffier, but you don't have to with this recipe (The original recipe didn't call for it; this is just my trick for almost all cookie baking). If you do freeze the dough, there's no need to defrost it before baking.

Preheat the oven 375, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes (possible a few minutes longer if the dough is frozen) until the cookies are a light golden brown around the edges.

Let cool for 2-3 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen.

Faelen, cousin to the prince and son of a diplomat, has finally come home to Tournai after years away. The pull to return was almost tangible, and the sense of rightness at being back is absolute. He wants nothing more than to put down roots and build a life among family while pursuing his linguistic studies. Becoming involved in magic meant to protect Tournai isn’t part of his plans…and falling in love is even more unexpected and unfamiliar, but he finds himself doing just that as his friendship with Maxen deepens into something more.

Maxen, second son of a wealthy merchant family, longs to leave Tournai and visit everywhere he can. All his life, he’s found places on maps and dreamed, planning out routes to get to them. For now, he’s tied to Tournai’s capital city by family obligations and his position in their shipping business. Someday, though, he’ll be able to travel. His sudden attraction to Faelen shocks him, but their friendship soon becomes a necessary part of his life. Love, however, has no place in his plans, especially not love for a royal cousin with secrets who wants nothing more than to stay in one place.

For Faelen and Maxen to build something real between them, they must resolve their differences, but when magic goes awry and all Faelen’s secrets are revealed, will Maxen remain at his side?



Add The Merchant's Love to your Goodreads shelf.

Preorder The Merchant's Love:
NineStar Press
Amazon
Smashwords
More retailers coming soon!

“We’ve finished lunch. Don’t you have to go back to your office?”

“But we haven’t finished lunch. We still have the best part left. Unless you have to get back to the palace.”

Faelen tilted his head. “What’s left of lunch?”

“Dessert, of course.” With a grin, Maxen retrieved the pastries from the bottom of the basket and unwrapped them to reveal spirals of dough sticky with honey, nuts, and spices. “We should have something sweet, shouldn’t we?”

Faelen’s eyes were wide, and he bit his lip. “I suppose we should.” - Faelen and Maxen in The Merchant's Love

The Merchant's Love will be out in two weeks (oh my gosh, how is it so soon?), and I decided that it would be fun do some baking and share the results with you. I promise this ties into the book—I'm not just procrasti-baking because Alexander and Marcus aren't being cooperative (though they aren't...). This book is the story of Faelen, cousin to the prince and son of a diplomat, and Maxen, second son of a merchant family. If you've read The Scholar's Heart and The Dragon's Devotion, you've met both of them briefly already, but you don't have to have read those books to jump into this one. Faelen is demisexual, Maxen bisexual. They meet at a wedding. Maxen is instantly attracted and fighting it; Faelen enjoys talking with Maxen, which is a big deal for someone in Faelen's position. As the story goes on, they bond/court via books and baked goods.

We've gotten to the bit about why I'm baking and sharing it with you and it all ties together (at least in my head, so we'll go with it).

I thought it might be fun to do some baking and take some pictures of the results with The Merchant's Love and share them, along with recipes. These aren't actual baked goods that Maxen and Faelen eat in the book (or at least not all of them will be), but I'm sure they'd—Faelen especially with his sweet tooth—enjoy them. I hope you enjoy them too and the book, and please let me know what happens if you try any of the recipes! Today's offering is a chocolate and red wine cake, because if chocolate and red wine are delicious when eaten together, why not just bake them in a cake? Someone gave me the recipe years ago, and I don't remember who or where it came from (sorry and thank you to whoever sent it my way!), though I've changed it a bit. Here's the recipe, and scroll down for more about The Merchant's Love.

Chocolate Red Wine Cake

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted, to brush the pan
1/4 cup sugar, to line pan
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup dry red wine

Preheat the over to 325. Brush a six cup  bundt pan with melted butter and coat it evenly with the 1/4 cup sugar. Turn the pan upside down to remove any excess.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. While beating at medium speed, add the vanilla and mix until incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until light and fluffy. Add a third of the flour mixture and incorporate. Then add half the red wine. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture and wine, scraping the bowl between additions.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Happy Halloween! I hope you're having a fun holiday!

I found out today that The Sorcerer's Guardian received an Honorable Mention in this year's Rainbow Awards. The words of the judges just made my day. Winners will be announced on December 8th, but I'm so excited just to have gotten this far and in such wonderful company.

The Sorcerer's Guardian is on sale through the 31st, along with all my other books (and so many other great books too). You can find them at Dreamspinner and NineStar.


​

I'm also visiting the NineStar Press blog today to talk about baking and writing (and procrastination...), and I'm sharing a favorite cookies recipe: Oatmeal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip. Yum!

1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups quick cooking oatmeal
1 cup chocolate chips

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars until fluffy. Beat in the egg, followed by the pumpkin puree and the vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture and the oatmeal until just combined and no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chocolate chips. 

You can bake the cookies at this point, but I like to chill them at least overnight. It makes the cookies come out puffier. 

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes. Cookies will be lightly browned at the edges when done. Allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 4-5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Christmas is two weeks from today! I'm not entirely sure how that happened - I feel as if I blinked and missed weeks, and I had promised myself I would take the time to enjoy the season too. *Sigh* And if Christmas is two weeks away, The Artist's Masquerade will be out in the world in less than two weeks! I'm very excited for you to get to know Cathal and Flavian. If you'd like to preorder from Dreamspinner (or buy The Prince's Consort), they're having a 25% off sale, but it ends today, so hurry! You can find my books at Dreamspinner here. Also I'll be doing a blog tour for The Artist's Masquerade which will begin on Sunday the 13th. I'll post soon to give you the schedule of where I'll be when and information about the giveaway, so stay tuned for that.

And for even more exciting news, I've signed a contract with Dreamspinner for the third book of the Chronicles of Tournai, The Scholar's Heart, which is Etan and Tristan's story. If you read The Prince's Consort, you probably knew this story was coming, Some of you assumed it would be coming sooner, but Etan and Tristan had to wait a while, and Cathal and Flavian demanded their story first. I hope you'll find it worth the wait.

​So since over the next couple of weeks I'll be bombarding you with promo for The Artist's Masquerade, how about something unrelated first? You know by now that I enjoy baking very much, and the holidays are a great time for baking sweet treats to share. Even Santa gets into the act, or at least my Santa baker tree ornament does. (He's not the only food-related ornament on my tree either. I have a little copper colander and a bundt pan and a toaster, among others. They are also not the strangest ornaments on my tree!) So I thought I would share a favorite holiday cookie recipe with you. I shared another one for struffoli on the Dreamspinner blog in early November, when no one was thinking of the holidays, but you can find it here if you'd like to check it out now. Struffoli are a traditional Southern Italian dessert at the holidays, and they're delicious and easy to make. 

Today I'm going to share another Italian cookie recipe for cranberry chocolate biscotti, though this one isn't a family recipe. I'm actually not sure where I got the recipe originally, but I've been making it for years. I always make them at the holidays because the cranberry/chocolate combination seems holiday festive to me, but you can make them other times of the year too.

Here's the recipe:

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine flour and the next five ingredients in a large bowl.  Combine oil, extracts and eggs.  Add to the four mixture, stirring until well-blended (dough will be dry and crumbly).  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead lightly 7 to 8 times.  Divide the dough in half.  Shape each portion into an 8 inch long roll.  Place rolls 6 inches apart on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; flatten each roll to 1 inch thickness.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.  Remove rolls from baking sheet, cool 10 minutes on a wire rack.  Cut each roll diagonally into 15 (1/2 inch) slices.  Place the slices cut sides down on a baking sheet.  Reduce oven temperature to 325 and bake for 10 minutes.  Turn the cookies over, bake for an additional 10 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft in the center but will harden as they cool).  Remove from baking sheet and cool completely on a wire rack.

The recipe makes about 36 cookies. It's a bit of a process, but the results are delicious, and they make great dessert or snacks or something to dunk in your hot beverage of choice.

Now that you have a cookie and a hot beverage, how about a few more holiday reads? Just so you have something to curl up with while you eat your cookies. Because what's better than hot chocolate, Christmas cookies, and a holiday romance while you sit by the tree?

What Happens at Christmas by Jay Northcote - A sweet, fun friends to lovers romance with snowed in trope and fake boyfriends. Her novella Cold Feet is a good holiday read too.

When Love Flue In by Lillian Francis - A sweet, sexy holiday romance between a newly divorced man and the chimney sweep he's had a crush on for years. Definitely has the warm fuzzy holiday feel.

A Fortunate Blizzard by LC Chase - Another snowed in story (such a great trope!). I really enjoyed this, though it made me cry before it got to the wonderful HEA.

Do you bake around the holidays? Even if you don't, what are your favorite holiday treats?

When autumn arrives, I get excited for so many reasons, some of which I've already shared with you, but a huge one is autumn baking. I love to bake, but what I bake is often seasonal. I bake lighter treats (and less often) in the heat of summer, for instance, and in autumn much of my baking involves pumpkin. Not all of it - I like apple cinnamon muffins in the fall too, and some things, like brownies and chocolate chip cookies, defy seasons - but I do love pumpkin baked goods. I probably make pumpkin bread most often (and I'm talking maybe a loaf each week). So I thought I would share my favorite pumpkin bread recipe with you today. The original recipe comes from the Williams-Sonoma Thanksgiving Entertaining cookbook, but I don't exactly follow the recipe from the book. This is what I do:

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup white or yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup fat free plain yogurt
1 cup pumpkin puree 

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly butter a 5x9 inch loaf pan (or spray with cooking spray).

Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, both sugars, oil, yogurt, and pumpkin. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the dry ingredients in two batches, mixing until just blended after each. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake for about 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for about ten minutes, then remove from the pan and cool completely.

The recipe is pretty simple, and the results are delicious. Plus the whole house smells amazing while the pumpkin bread is in the oven, which I adore. I love to eat the pumpkin bread warm with butter or maybe a little nutella like in the picture above (but then, nutella is pretty fabulous on anything!). It makes a lovely treat on a chilly fall day while I'm curled up with a book.

​Do you have any seasonal foods you enjoy making?