Bake, Love, Write—3 Stiletto Gang Members Contribute to Dessert Cookbook -- NEW!

By Kay Kendall

Bake Love, Write is a brand new cookbook full of delicious desserts. It is the brain child of Lois Winston, a USA Today

bestselling, award-winning author who currently writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series.

Authors from the US, UK, and Canada contributed their favorite recipes. Of the participating 105, three are Stiletto Gang bloggers. We are Lynn Cahoon, Debra Goldstein, and me—Kay Kendall.

Here is information about this unique cookbook that may tempt you to buy it soon, available online. Lois writes, “What do most authors have in common, no matter what genre they write? They love desserts. Sweets sustain them through pending deadlines and take the sting out of crushing rejection letters and nasty reviews. They also often celebrate their successes—selling a book, winning a writing award, making a bestseller list, or receiving a fabulous review—with decadent indulgences. And when authors chat with each other, they often talk about their writing and their lives. Recipes. Writing. Relationships. In this cookbook 105 authors not only share their favorite recipes for fabulous cakes, pies, cookies, candy, and more, they also share the best advice they’ve ever received on love and writing.”

I contributed the beloved family recipe of my Aunt Martha from Texas. Her recipe for Oatmeal Cake is given below. But, to read what I advise on Love and Writing, you’ll have to buy the cookbook! 

Aunt Martha’s Oatmeal Cake

Deliciously moist cake that keeps and travels well, handed down through the Texas side of my family for decades. If you can’t eat nuts, then omit them and double up on the coconut for the topping.Note: This cake is easy to mix by hand. Does not require an electric mixer.

 Ingredients for the cake:

1 1/2 cups hot water

1 cup oatmeal (uncooked) 

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 cup cooking oil

2 eggs

1 2/3 cup sifted flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon soda

Dash of salt

 Ingredients for the topping:

6 tablespoons margarine or butter

¾ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons canned condensed milk (Pet, Carnation, etc. NOT sweetened condensed milk)

1 cup chopped nuts (pecan or walnut—can be toasted ahead of time too before baking as a topping)

1 can angel flake coconut

 Instructions:

1. Turn oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9X13 inch pan.

2. Place oatmeal in a bowl and pour hot water over oats. Let stand while you do next steps.

3. Blend brown sugar, white sugar, and cooking oil in a large bowl.

4. Add eggs, sifted flour, cinnamon, soda, dash of salt to the sugar mixture. Blend with a large spoon.

5. Now add the water-oats mixture and stir until all ingredients are well blended.

6. Pour into greased and floured pan.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Remove from oven.

8. Make the topping. In a saucepan combine margarine, brown sugar and canned condensed milk. Boil for one minute. Remove from heat and add chopped nuts and coconut. Blend.

9. Before cake cools, spread the topping (from step 8) thinly over top.

10. Turn oven up to 500 degrees. Return cake-with-topping to oven and bake for 4-5 minutes. Watch that nothing burns since the heat is now so high.

11. Remove from oven and cool.

 This cake is delicious immediately, but even more moist and yummy on the next day. If kept tightly covered with foil or clear wrap, this cake stays moist and lovely for many days. It never lasts a week at my house, but I bet it would be good even then.

Bake, Love Write will sell in the major e-book formats at 99 cents and will be available on Amazon also in paperback. Watch this space for more news.

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Kay Kendall set her debut novel, Desolation Row—An Austin Starr Mystery, in 1968 in an anti-war group. The sequel is Rainy Day Women, set for 2015, and this time her amateur sleuth Austin Starr must convince police her best friend didn’t murder women’s liberation activists in Seattle and Vancouver. A fan of historical mysteries, Kay wants to do for the 1960s what novelist Jacqueline Winspear accomplishes for England in the perilous 1930s–write atmospheric mysteries that capture the spirit of the age. Kay is also an award-winning international public relations executive who lives in Texas with her husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Terribly allergic to the bunnies, she loves them anyway! Her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too.  

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