OK, it's about time...

...for me to make good on the whole cupcake side of this blog!! And with it being Valentine's Day yesterday, you better believe there was some baking going on it my kitchen! As I am blogging this, I'm am munching away on one of my favorite cupcakes: Chocolate Cherry Amaretto cupcakes. Oooh, yeah.


You'll notice, there is a tiny hand standing by to steal one away as soon as I'm done photographing these!! :)

These are pretty simple to make, especially because I use a cake mix base, so no flour, sugar, yada yada. What really makes these is the made-from-scratch frosting. Wanna make some?

Recipe makes 24 cupcakes and 2 cups frosting.
cupcake:
1 box chocolate fudge cake mix (I use Betty Crocker), mixed as directed but with the following substitutions and additions:
For the water, substitute 3/4 water and 1/2 cup amaretto liquor.
Gently fold in 1/2 cup finely chopped cherries.
Mix and bake as directed on box.

frosting:
In a heat proof mixing bowl, mix 3 egg whites at room temperature and a 3/4 cup granulated sugar and heat over simmering water. Water should NOT touch bottom of mixing bowl. Whisk constantly (to keep the egg from scrambling) until sugar is dissolved and mixture is very warm to the touch (about 160 F on a candy thermometer). Remove from heat and mix with an electric mixer on high until stiff peeks form.
Mix in 1 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature, adding alittle at a time. Throw in a pinch of salt. Add in 1/4 cup finely chopped cherries with as much of the juices as possible squeezed out, and 1 tsp of almond extract and continue mixing until frosting it is creamy.

Frost and enjoy!

Win an ARC of Linger by Maggie Stiefvater!!

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love -- the light and the dark, the warm and the cold -- in a way you will never forget.

Comes out in stores everywhere July 20th. Pre-order here.

Enter to win an advanced review copies of LINGER, Sisters Red, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Replacement on Maggie's blog.


Good luck , everyone who enters!!

In my mailbox (4)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, where we all play show and tell with the books we received during the week!

Ok, I just bought two in the way of books this week---and no library check-outs! Amazing! :) I did include the magazine I picked up at Barnes during the week, thought it might be of interest to my fellow bloggers. Some really incredible stuff in there...it's just so pretty to look at! I was SO SO SO excited to pick up Gone and I had to track it down among a few different stores because it was selling so fast! I may even have to put my current read on hold to get going on this one! The third book shown, Wild Magic, is actually something I came across in the children's section of Barnes, but I thought it might have some good cross-over appeal for those of us who love the retelling of old fairy tales. It tells what happened after the Pied Piper led the children out of Hamlin---right into a fantastical world of magic and danger!!

Gone by Lisa McMann

Wild Magic by Cat Weatherill
Artful Blogging put out by Somerset Magazine

Hope it was a great book week for everyone! I'd love for you to comment and link me up to what you got!!

Review: Seven Tears into the Sea

Seven Tears into the Sea by Terri Farley

publisher: Simon & Schuster

released: April 2005

paperback, 288 pages

intented audience: Young adult

rating:


Description from bn.com:
Beckon the sea,

I'll come to thee....

Shed seven tears,

perchance seven years....

At the age of ten, Gwen Cooke had a strange encounter with a boy with dark, slightly tilted eyes. He came to her on the beach, whispered strange words in her ear, and then disappeared. Shortly thereafter, her family moved away from their seaside home and Gwen never saw the boy again.

Now seventeen, Gwen is returning to her childhood home. Her nana asked her to come. But Gwen knows it's time to go back for another reason: She yearns for the sea. Perhaps the sea itself is calling to her. Perhaps the memory of the boy and his haunting words are drawing her back to the place they met. Perhaps it's time for her to face her destiny.

Review: Reviewing an older one this week! This one literally fell into my lap while checking stuff in at the library. The cover caught my eye right away and after reading the back cover, I just knew it had to come home with me! A mysterious boy on the beach whispering an eerie poem in her ear and it draws her back to the sea years later---oh, yeah, definitely a story right up my alley. There was alot that I really liked about this story. It had alot of sweetness to it, with the relationship between Gwen and her grandmother. Early on, I discovered the story would revolve around the mythological creature, the Selkie. Definitely intriguing and kept me reading all the way through to find out what was really going on and who each character was on a deeper level than they seemed at first glance. With some characters, I was alittle disappointed---some of them I felt were not fleshed out enough to really understand what was going on beneath the surface. I did like the main character, Gwen, she was very real and I especially like that she was on a bit of a quest for courage.

On the other end (and I fully propose that this may have just been me and my own personal quirk), I just couldn't get into the whole selkie thing. I admit I didn't know much about the selkie legend, but from what I understood they are people who shapeshift into seals. Now, give me a beautiful man that magically shapeshifts into a sea lion and back,and I'm all for it...that would be cool! But a guy who peels off a sea lion skin and leaves it lying around for someone to steal (which according to legend is how you keep a selkie from being able to return to the sea), weeell...to be honest that concept kind of gave me the willies. Not to mention the selkie character was alittle overbearing and downright pushy at times. I just couldn't get a connection there.

The story as a whole was good. If anyone reading this has read this one, I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

In My Mailbox (3)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

Ok, here's what fun stuff I got this week! Just a few, but I'm really excited about all three! Fallen is borrowed from my best bud, Amy. Kiss me, kill me was one that I've picked up a dozen and half times at Barnes and discovered it was sitting right on the shelf at my library! I read a really great review of Hearts at Stake by Kristi over at the Story Siren, ran right over to put it on reserve at the library.

Fallen by Lauren Kate
Kiss me, Kill me by Lauren Henderson
Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey-Fitzhenry
(links will take you to bn.com)

It's gonna be a great week with these to read and the two I"ll be eagerly awaiting to release this Tuesday (see previous post!). Feel free to comment and link me up to what you got!!

Is it Tuesday YET??

I can't wait for this Tuesday! The next book in one of my absolute favorite series is releasing on February 9th! Gone, book three of the Wake series, has definitely been one of my most anticipated of this year (so I am glad it's releasing so early because I am abit impatient!). Anyone else excited to get their hands on this one and see what Janie and Cabel get into this time? The first two books were fantastic---I am sure this one will be just as good!! If you haven't read the first two, I highly recommend picking them up when you can! Description from bn.com: Things should be great for Janie—she has graduated from high school and is spending her summer with Cabel, the guy she’s totally in love with. But deep down she’s panicking about how she’s going to survive her future when getting sucked into other people’s dreams is really starting to take its toll.
Things get even more complicated when she meets her father for the very first time—and he’s in a coma. As Janie uncovers his secret past, she begins to realize that the choice thought she had has more dire consequences than she ever imagined.




Also looking forward to this one on the 9th: Amelia Atwater-Rhodes' Token of Darkness. I admit, I haven't read anything else by this author, but the plot of this one looks so spooky and intriguing! Description for goodreads.com: Cooper Blake has everything going for him—until he wakes from a car accident with his football career in ruins and a mysterious, attractive girl by his side. Cooper doesn’t know how Samantha got there or why he can see her; all he knows is that she’s a ghost, and the shadows that surround her seem intent on destroying her. No one from Cooper’s old life would understand what he can barely grasp himself. . . . But Delilah, the captain of the cheerleading squad, has secrets of her own, like her ability to see beyond the physical world, and her tangled history with Brent, a loner from a neighboring school who can hear strangers’ most intimate thoughts. Delilah and Brent know that Cooper is in more trouble than he realizes, and that Samantha may not be as innocent as she has led Cooper to believe. But the only way to figure out where Samantha came from will put them all in more danger than they ever dreamed possible.

Come on, Tuesday!! Get here already!!

Review: The Everafter

The Everafter by Amy Huntley

released: September 29, 2009

publisher: Balzer & Bray (HarperCollins)

Hardcover, 248 pages

intended audience: Young Adult

rating:


Description:

Madison Stanton doesn't know where she is or how she got there. But she does know this—she is dead. And alone, in a vast, dark space. The only company she has in this place are luminescent objects that turn out to be all the things Maddy lost while she was alive. And soon she discovers that with these artifacts, she can reexperience—and sometimes even change—moments from her life.

Her first kiss.

A trip to Disney World.

Her sister's wedding.

A disastrous sleepover.

In reliving these moments, Maddy learns illuminating and sometimes frightening truths about her life—and death.

This is a haunting and ultimately hopeful novel about the beauty of even the most insignificant moments—and the strength of true love even beyond death.

Review: This whole concept of this book was so intriguing, that after you die you are surrounded with items you lost, that connect you to moments in your life. Such a unique idea! I really enjoyed this one overall. At times, the swift jumping around from scene to scene and age to age had me reeling and feeling alittle disconnected, but the mystery of it all kept me reading and I was glad of that because in the next page turn there would be something I was glad not miss! It kept me asking what happen to this poor girl? why is she dead? what is the divine purpose of her being surrounded by all these random objects? This one really had me in a range of emotions. At some parts, it was a bit grim and depressing (obviously when you are dealing with the death of 17 year old), some parts were hopeful it its idea of what the afterlife could be like. I did think it was clever and must have been a unique writing experience for the author to have to write the character at so many different ages as she jumped from point to point in her life.

All in all, a really good read!