FAVORITES, FAILURES & FRUSTRATIONS--GUEST AUTHOR KIM/KIMBRA KASCH

Kim/Kimbra Kasch returns today to talk about one of her failures in the kitchen. Learn more about Kim and her books at her website.

Baking...Burning...and Blah...

The Failures of Making Your Own Recipes

Love, life and reading are a lot like baking . . . a cupcake. Sometimes you get a little cup filled with sweet deliciousness.

Sometimes you don’t.

And events can make life flip and even flop, just like when you’re baking. If you let things get too “hot” you can have a real meltdown. The truth is, things just don’t always turn out sweet and yummy but then again, sometimes they do—like with this sweet treat:

Organic Lavender and Locally Farmed Honey Cupcake with a Vanilla Bean Frosting

Cupcake Ingredients:

1 vanilla bean

1/2 cup milk

1-1/3 cups flour

1-1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup of butter

1 teaspoon sugar

3 tablespoons of Honey

1 tablespoon of Lavender

2 eggs

Vanilla Bean Frosting

1 cup salted butter

1 vanilla bean

3 cups confectioner’s sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Strip the seeds from the vanilla bean and set aside to use in the frosting.

Grind the lavender into small bits, add milk and blend together.

Whisk cake flour, baking powder and salt together.

Whip butter and sugar until pale fluffy, blend in honey, eggs and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients until well combined.

Fill cupcake papers 2/3 full and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out nearly clean (do not overbake).

While cupcakes are cooling, mix together butter and vanilla bean seeds until light and fluffy.

Combine powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk until well blended – or about 8-10 minutes.

When cupcakes are cooled, frost and top with a berry of your choice or a tiny sprig of lavender.

The Cats of Cullaby Creek

Savannah meets Kyle and quickly starts to fall for him. And why wouldn't she? He's per-fect, as far as she knows. But when she starts finding dead animals in her yard and hears something scratching at her window, after the sun goes down, she starts to worry. Maybe Kyle isn't everything she thought he was - maybe he's something more.

It's a complete mystery until she discovers something about the water in Cullaby Creek, which is being bottled and sold as Mistical Water. And there’s definitely something mystical about that water, everyone who drinks it begins to change. They are “morphing” or mutating into animals. The secret to the animal they morph into is in the water.

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