Shannon here: Carrie Walker shares an excerpt from her Romantic Women’s Fiction, Right Before Their Eyes, where her hero enlists his mom to make a cake for the heroine. Plus a yummy sounding recipe for Pink Lemonade Cake, & a chance to win a free e-book copy of the book. Comment or answer the question in this post to enter the drawing. Deadline: March 15th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Carrie:
Excerpt from Right Before Their Eyes by Carrie Walker:
Mason stared at the kitchen cabinet, baking powder in hand. It was one thing to purchase ingredients in a store — he’d done that many times. But to actually know what to use, easier said than done. He propped the printed recipe he’d found online against the spice rack. It called for baking soda. Where was the baking soda? Would baking powder work? Mason inched up on his tiptoes to reach the top shelf, shifted a few items and a bag of flour tumbled out.
All over him.
The clatter brought Mom running to the kitchen. “Mason is everything o—”
He glanced over in time to see Mom covering her mouth, holding back her laugh.
Mason spread his arms wide, displaying the mess. “Ha. Ha. Very funny. Mason’s covered in flour.”
“What happened? Why are you digging in the baking cabinet?” Mom chuckled and brushed white dust off his long-sleeved t-shirt, then ruffled his curls, creating a flour cloud.
“Clare’s birthday. I promised we’d hang out. I have a gift, but no cake.” He sighed. “Most people think chocolate’s her favorite flavor, but I know she loves pink lemonade cake.”
Mom grabbed a dustpan and swept the mess. “How nice, but you’ve never made a cake before. Why would you want to bake one?”
“I wanted to surprise her. But the pink lemonade cake isn’t in the store bakery section, or the easy cake mixes. I found a rec-ipe . . .” He gestured to his hair, whitened with flour, and grinned. “But I have no clue what I’m doing.”
“That’s so sweet. I can help, if you’d like.” She dumped the contents of the dustpan in the trash and leaned over his shoulder to peek at the recipe. “It’ll be our secret.”
Mom made great cakes. Relief washed over him. “Yes, please. Please, help me.” He put on his best pleading face and tossed the baking powder at her. “This isn’t baking soda.”
With a glance at the cylinder in her hand, she pushed her glasses up. “No, it’s not. Are you supposed to use baking soda?”
“Yes, if I could find it. I’ve searched and all I got was a head full of flour.” He pointed to the cupboard. “Care to look?”
Her eyes widened and she pivoted to leave the room, calling over her shoulder, “I used it to clean the carpet.”
“To clean the . . . It’s baking soda, Mom.” Mason crossed his arms and tapped his foot. He would never understand the domestic household.
“Here it is. Sorry about that.” Mom panted from her quick bolt across the house. “Baking soda is handy for lots of things.” She winked at him. “So what else do you need?”
“No clue what lemon zest is, so I skipped it.” Mason grabbed the recipe and pointed.
“You can’t skip the lemon zest. It’s lemonade cake silly.” She swatted him, leaned over, and studied the paper.
Mason slung his arm around her and rested his floured hair on her salt and pepper head. “I love you, Mom.”
“Love you too. Enough to take the flour you’re giving me.” She laughed, stepped away and dusted off her hair. A minute later, a red apron covered her gray sweats. “Let’s make this cake.”
How to make Mason’s Pink Lemonade Cake:
Ingredients
For the Pink Lemonade Cake Layers
- 2 ½ cups (285g) cake flour
- 1 ½ cups (300g) sugar
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 2 ½ teaspoon (12g) baking powder
- 1 ½ sticks (169g) unsalted butter, slightly softened We cut into ½ inch slices on wax paper to soften slightly.
- 4 large eggs
- ¾ cup (190g) frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed.
- ½ cup (121g) milk
- 2 teaspoons (7g) lemon extract
- zest of 1 lemon
- pink coloring gel if you want the cake layers to be pink….we used AmeriColor Deep Pink
For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter Slightly softened but cool to the touch.
- 16 oz Cream Cheese, softened.
- 2 teaspoons (8g) lemon juice (optional)
- 1 teaspoon (4g) lemon extract
- Zest from 1 lemon approximately 1 ½ teaspoons (3g)
- 6 to 6 ½ cups (690g – 747g) confectioners’ sugar (Start with 6 cups and increase to your liking as needed.)
Instructions
For the Cake Layers
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Grease and flour two 8 x 2 inch round pans
- In the bowl of your mixer add the dry ingredients, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Whisk to combine dry ingredients for 30 seconds.
- In a separate bowl, add the eggs, Pink Lemonade concentrate, lemon extract, zest & milk.
- With the mixer on low speed, add the slices of butter a few pieces at a time to the dry ingredients. Increase the mixer to medium speed and beat until the dry ingredients look crumbly like coarse sand. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl.
- With the mixer on low speed, slowly add half of the egg mixture. Increase the mixer to medium speed for 1 ½ minutes. The batter will become thick and fluffy. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Add the pink gel color.
- Add the remaining egg mixture in 2 pourings, beating for 20 seconds after each addition.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
- Let the cakes cool in the pan 10 minutes, then turn out.
- Works well for cupcakes
- Makes 7 cups batter
For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cut butter into ½ inch slices and add to the bowl of your mixer, beat until smooth.
- Cut the cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating until blended.
- Add the lemon juice and lemon zest. (You can add one teaspoon lemon extract for a stronger lemon flavor).
- Gradually add powdered sugar and mix until well blended.
- This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly and remix. Do not microwave to soften.
Question for Readers: What is your favorite dessert to bake (or one you’d love to learn)?
About Carrie: Carrie Walker lives in Michigan with her husband and seven children. From her ten years serving as a high school youth minister, adventures around the globe, and raising a family, many stories have been knit within her heart.
As an avid reader she pens what she loves to read, contemporary stories that bring hope to a hurting world. Weaving romance among story lines of characters in struggle, she aims to show God working in all situations. When she’s not playing board games with her husband, shuttling kids in the Walker bus or wishing for snow, Carrie can be found at the keyboard bringing those stories to life.
Carrie’s writing has been recognized in many contests. Her debut novel, Emma’s Hero, placed in the ACFW Crown Award, Monroe Walton Center for the Arts Award, and won the 2020 ACFW First Impressions Contest. Learn more & connect:
Carrie’s Facebook Carrie’s Instagram
Carrie’s Bookbub Carrie’s Goodreads
About the book – Right Before Their Eyes:
Sometimes the love you need most looks different than you imagined.
Clare Martin thought nothing of agreeing to live with her dementia-ridden grandmother when her parents left on mission. Balancing that with her job as a social worker and the expectations of her career-driven boyfriend proved doable—until Grandma started a house fire.
Mason Hughes has loved Clare for years, but the time was never right to tell her and now she’s dating someone else, fixing Mason firmly in the friend zone. He’s working to be a pediatric neurologist, a dream inspired by a special boy with a terminal brain condition, and must choose a medical school. Finances are so tight he’s forced to consider a program across the country, a troubling fact he’s kept secret.
Lucia Roberts, a seventeen-year-old on Clare’s caseload, loses her foster home and is placed in an unwelcoming group home. At every turn she’s met with rejection and becomes desperate for any proof she has value—enough to make choices that could affect the rest of her life.
When Grandma Dottie and Lucia’s paths take a dangerous turn, Clare frantically tries to save them. As their lives knit together, will they find the love that’s right before their eyes?
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Right Before Their Eyes Carrie’s Books
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