That’s yummy Mummy – Michele de Winton

Last week I celebrated my wee man’s first birthday. Wowsers. He’s one, and he’s taking his first steps all of a sudden. As so many of you are yummy mummies, or know others who are, I thought I’d share my first birthday cake recipe.

You’ll know if you’ve read any of my other posts that I’m a big fan of chocolate. But I’m trying to delay the introduction of processed, salty and sugary foods for as long as I can for Mr One. I figure he’s going to get inundated with the world of sugarsnacks soon enough, so why not keep his little system as pure as I can ‘till a bit later.

So – Here is my First Birthday Cake recipe – We had it as a Mr Happy cake. Not fine art, but fine fun. I let Mr One literally face dive into the cream. Hil.Arious.

You’ll need:

1 cup rolled oats.

2 ½ cups flour (you can use whole wheat, all purpose or a mixture)

1 tsp baking soda.

2 tsp baking powder

3 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

½ cup unsalted butter, melted

1cup blueberries, chopped (I used fresh as they were in season but you could use frozen berries thawed and drained)

¼ cup sultanas

4 eggs, beaten well

1 small cup stewed apple (You can use apple juice concentrate instead I guess, but stewing the apple took no time and gave it more fruit for his tum)

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F (180 deg C).
Put the first four ingredients into a large bowl and mix them together.
Add all the rest of the ingredients and stir well until thoroughly combined.
Grease a cake tin and pour in the mixture.
Bake for around 45 mins to one hour, until a sharp knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely. I made this as two cakes (so I had enough cake for the body and feet. It cooked in about 40 minutes like that.)

 Because it’s legitimately sugar free I needed to do something else for the icing. I figured cream would do it (yummm cream). I tried coloring it with natural colouring from a packet but that curdled the cream and I had to start over with a fruit based color. It meant that Mr Happy was sort of pink instead of yellow, but it also meant his creamy topping tasted of the punnet of cherries I blended into the cream. Yum! The outlines are done in traditional liquorice but he didn’t actually eat any of it.

This is of course, a sugar free cake, so it’s not bursting with chocolaty goodness or anything. But I tried it, and with the cream it was totally passable. A sort of “light” banana cake. With the cream it could count as indulgent, sort of…just sugar free.

So there you have it. And the other bit of fabulousness that day? My debut Indulgence release, The Boss and Her Billionaire, snuck into the #5 slot on the Amazon Romance Series List. Dream!

I’d love to hear what you got up to with your wee ones, so hop over and say hi! Happy reading, and cake eating!

xMichele

The Boss and Her Billionaire

Cruise director Michaela Western has everything she wants—everything except a sex life. But there are no secrets on cruise ships. She risked her job once for a dalliance with the Captain, and won’t do it again for a few minutes of toe-curling pleasure. Until a devilishly handsome new staffer with a body made for sin tempts her to walk on the wild side…
Investment billionaire Dylan Johns always gets what he wants. He is used to giving orders—not taking them—until he’s forced to go on hiatus from his investment company. To bide his time and carry out an old dream, he takes a job on a cruise ship—and ends up taking orders from his gorgeous, but uptight, new boss. He is determined to loosen her up with a fun onboard romance, but their no-strings fling turns serious and Dylan is forced to confess his lies.
When the affair threatens to shatter Michaela’s own career dreams, she finds herself caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

The Boss and Her Billionaire is available now from Amazon and Barnes and Nobel. Read the first chapter free.

 

My Friday Indulgence! (hint: it’s shooz). And a contest!

Happy Indulgence Day! For us Entangled Indulgence authors, Friday is the day we get
to talk to you all about our favorite indulgences. I have several, and wrestled for
a long time (mostly with food options) before finally choosing *drum roll* shoes!

I LOVE shoes, and for a woman who sort of grew up as more of a tomboy, it’s a bit
of a shocker exactly how obsessed I am.  And it’s not that I’m high maintenance all
around. I buy my makeup at CVS, and my clothes mostly at Kohl’s, I do my own nails
and even dye my own hair. But the shoes? That’s where I can’t help but indulge a
little. I have red ones and pink ones and brown ones and black ones and black ones
and black ones…do you sense a trend? My husband will gape at me and be all, “How
many pairs of black shoes does one person need?” (his tone CLEARLY implying that
one would be the correct answer). And I’m all “Well, I need a mule and a wedge and
a proper pump and a kitten heel and a platform and an ankle boot and a knee-high
boot and a flat and a sandal…” This goes on like the Bubba shrimp scene in Forrest
Gump for some time until his eyes glaze over and he forgets what he asked me in the
first place. (WIN!)

 I think I love shoes for two big reasons:

 1. Shoes never make me feel like leaping off a cliff when I try them on (unlike
bathing suits, which should come with a flask of tequila tethered to the hanger
to dull the pain).

 2. They make me feel pretty and confident. Whether I’m striding in to a meeting all
*clickety clickety* across a marble floor or I’m walking into a party and need a shot
of confidence, I great pair of shoes gives me just a little boost.

Now for a little about my new Indulgence release, Wife for Hire! (Stick around to
comment because I have an EPIC contest running too):

 He needs a wife for three weeks…

Owen Phipps is out for revenge. His mission? To expose the man who stole his sister’s
money and dignity. All he needs is a “wife” who can play along. Too bad his last best
hope is an actress who tries to mace him with perfume when he offers her the role of a
lifetime.

Lindy Knight is a real sap. She loves too hard, feels too deep, and often finds herself
saying yes when she should be saying “Let me think about it.” She can’t believe her good
fortune when Owen offers her more than enough money to hold off foreclosure until she can
find a job. Three weeks at a resort, money she desperately needs, and she gets to help
bring a criminal to justice? Score.

It seems easy enough until the first time a couples bonding game turns intimate, and
they realize how dangerous their mutual attraction could be. Can they keep their hands
to themselves long enough to find the evidence Owen needs? Or are the close quarters more
temptation than they can handle?

Please check out the Entangled website here for an extended excerpt of Wife for Hire, and readers, stick around to comment, because, to
celebrate the release of my new Entangled Indulgence, I’m offering to indulge YOU! One
commenter on this post will win a $10 Barnes & Noble or Amazon gift card, so she
(or he!) can buy a couple (or, if you buy from the Entangled Indulgence line, a few
because they’re only $2.99!) new books. I’ll select a winner on Monday!

 AND everyone who enters will also be eligible for my Let Me Indulge You
contest. If Wife for Hire gets onto the Amazon OR Barnes & Noble top
500 list by September 18th, I will be giving away a $250 gift card to the salon or
spa of one lucky winner’s choice. Every comment from my blog tour will be counted
as an entry. Follow my whole blog tour? EACH comment = another entry! Extra entries
will also be given for tweeting about Wife For Hire with the Amazon or Barned and
Noble buy link and the hashtag #WIFE4HIRE or posting on Facebook! Entries will be
tracked by Rafflecopter.com. Details are here!

 So now to you, blog readers! Do tell. What’s your favorite indulgence? Do you love
shoes as much as I do?

Why I Love Category Romance

This is my first post on the Indulgence blog, so I’d better introduce myself. I’m Nina croft, I’m English, but I live on an almond farm in the mountains of southern Spain with my husband and a whole load of animals, including the newest recruit –Piggles, a three-legged Vietnamese potbellied pig.

It’s a wonderful place for reading and writing, and I do a great deal of both–mainly romance and usually involving an element of paranormal or science fiction or both. But I also have a soft spot for contemporary category romance. It started me, at about the age of twelve or thirteen, on what has turned out to be a lifetime love of romances of all kinds, historical, paranormal, science-fiction…

But I still return to category at regular intervals and often re-read old favorites. I also had my first category romance published earlier this year: Blackmailed by the Italian Billionaire, was released by Entangled in March. My second is due in December.

So here’s Wikipedia’s definition of category romance:

 “Category romances are short, usually no more than 200 pages, or about 55,000 words. The books are published in clearly delineated lines, with a certain number of books published in each line every month. In many cases, the books are numbered sequentially within the line….

…category romance lines each have a distinct identity, which may involve similar settings, characters, time periods, levels of sensuality, or types of conflict.”

 

So what do I love about category romance and why has my love affair lasted so long? Here are a few things that come to mind:

• I know what I’m going to get. Within a particularly line I can be guaranteed certain things. If I’m in the mood for sweet romance, I know which line to go for. While if I’m in the mood for an alpha male and some sizzling love scenes, then there are lines for that too. Something for every mood.
• Gorgeous heroes and exotic locations…
• While the basic stories remain the same, category romances are in fact always evolving, they’re current, and up to date, and actually constantly changing as the readers change.
• They’re short and can be read at one sitting—I love reading books in one go.
• They’re pure romance. I love most genres of books, but sometimes I just want the romance! Because of the relatively short word counts of category books, there’s no room in them for complex sub-plots, so the focus always remains on the hero and heroine’s relationship—they can be very intense.
• Every month there are new stories coming out.
• And of course—most important—I always get a happy ever after.

So what do you love best about category romance?

Olympic Romance

As this is my first post for the Indulgence Blog, I should introduce myself. I’m Michelle Smart and my debut Indulgence should be published later in the year.

Introductions out of the way, onto my post….

I don’t know about you but I have been completely enthralled by the Olympics. It’s always the same – every four years I spend a fortnight in shutdown, glued to the television screen (all right, I’m lying. It’s every other year because I adore the Winter Olympics too).

You might be wondering what the Olympics have to do with books and romance. Well wonder no more! For I am here to help you.

Let’s start with the athletes themselves. We have the men. Dedicated, disciplined and beautifully toned (hmm, maybe best to discount the Hammer throwers there). We have the women. Dedicated, disciplined and… oh you get the picture! It’s a veritable feast of gorgeous people in the prime of their lives with heroes and villains galore. Even better, there is something for everyone, from the brutality of the boxing to the torture of the triathlon to the grace and artistry of the gymnastics. And I haven’t even touched upon the track events.

Books (in this case, romances) are exactly the same. There is something for everyone, from the sweet and cuddly to the hot and steamy. What I read depends entirely on my mood. I read a lot of all genres but when it comes to romance I have no particular favourite. Sometimes I will fancy something light and fluffy that will make me laugh out loud. Or maybe I’ll be in the mood for something darker, more intense. Or maybe I will fancy something sexy. Whatever my mood, I know there will be a book out there that will cater for it.

And just as I can happily watch Usain Bolt smash the 100 meters over and over again (Beijing is still my favourite), I have books I will read over and over again, turning to them like a pair of comfortable slippers or a sexy Basque and suspenders. Again, it’s all dependent on my mood.

Variety really is the spice of life.

All the best,

Michelle x

Sunday Snippet – Amy Andrews

From my upcomingIndulgence release – Taming the Tycoon.

“What do you want, Nate?”

Nate pushed his hands on his hips as he considered several responses but the pound of his pulse and the throb in his groin overruled his basic gentlemanly decorum.

“You,” he said roughly.

He watched as her eyes widened and heard her swiftly indrawn breath. “And what does that mean exactly?” she asked, her throat bobbing.

“It means in a few seconds I’m going to kiss you—long and hard—and then I’m going to throw you on a bed or hell, the floor if the bed’s just too damn far and I’m going to strip off your clothes and make you come loud enough to give every tourist here today something to really take home with them and if you don’t want that, Addie, you’d better speak up now because I’m barely hanging on by a thread here.”

He was breathing hard when he finished, his chest thudding as the images he’d described zinged through his blood stream adding to the heat that already had him in its grip.

Her grey eyes held his and he could see her shock. But the mad flutter in the hollow at the base of her throat, the unevenness of her breath and the flare of her nostrils told another story.  

And she didn’t speak. She didn’t object. She didn’t move.

She just stood right there waiting. 

“Right,” he said, snagging her wrist and pulling her hard against him. “I’ll take that as a yes.”