YAY! THE CUPCAKE COOKBOOK IS HERE!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Confetti! Rose petals! Champagne! CUPCAKES!

Today we are celebrating like mad–our brilliant talented pioneer woman, Red Jenn McKinlay has expanded to yet ANOTHER facet of her already incredible career–writing a cookbook!

I will pause for her well-deserved standing ovation! YAAAY!

The first volume of the recipes from the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries will be available to ALL on September 6th, wherever books and ebooks are sold. But of course, Reds and readers, you are hearing about it here first!

And then..run run run and get a copy. Or three. What a great gift, for yourself or anyone you know or anyone you’d like to know.  Jenn and Christe, we are SO happy and SO proud of you!

And here's the inside scoop-- It's cupcaketastic!

When You Need a Chief Baking Officer

JENN McKINLAY: I’ll bet you didn’t know that was a thing. Well, it is. And for me it became a quite necessary thing. Here’s the back story:

I started writing the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries a million years ago—okay, it was really thirteen years ago but it feels like a million. I’m currently writing the fifteenth volume in the series with the sixteenth on deck. 

To be perfectly honest, I thought this series with cupcakes as a hook was going to be done in three books, maybe five if I got really lucky. It never occurred to me that I’d be penning them into the double digits. 

Averaging four recipes per book, that’s a lot of cupcakes. 

Unsurprisingly, readers started asking for a cookbook with just the recipes in it about seven years ago. Because copyright is complicated, I asked, and my publisher thought about it and thought about it. Finally, they said, “Yeah, sure go ahead.” It was my turn to think about it and think about it and drag my feet—as you do when you are out of your comfort zone and have back to back deadlines and no time to take on such a massive project.

Enter my Chief Baking Officer—Christie Conlee.

A few years ago, when I slid into women’s fiction as well as mysteries, keeping up with the promo part of the business just became too much. I was tired and just getting the books written was taking all I had. 

At the encouragement of my friend, author Lori Wilde, I hired her personal assistant to help me out. Well, we got on like a house on fire, y’all! This is of course when a house on fire is a good thing! LOL.

As I got to know my new assistant, I discovered we spoke the same language, frequently having entire conversations using just gifs, and she was a home baker. Seriously, this woman was putting up pictures of cakes on her social media that she’d baked that made me swoon. We started talking about crafting a cookbook. She was all in. I was swamped in deadlines. Finally, I saw a very narrow window to get it done and she took a week to do nothing but bake thirty-two different kinds of cupcakes with the crazy ingredients required, because each recipe was crafted to match the stories, one of which has a zombie walk in it – I’m just sayin’.

To my surprise and delight, I started getting photos from her like this: 

And suddenly I was full of enthusiasm and excitement and that’s when I knew what I had been waiting for all along was a Chief Baking Officer!

Our first volume of the recipes from the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries drops on September 6th, wherever books and ebooks are sold. 

And while it was an ENDEAVOR to put together the recipes from the first eight mysteries, I have the utmost confidence that when I finish book sixteen and we put together the recipes from the next eight books, that it will go much more smoothly. 

Unless, of course, I forget everything I learned and have to relearn it all over again. Thank goodness, I have my CBO to get the recipes and the baking right, at least!


HANK: Oh, hurray hurray hurray! Reds and readers, what’s your favorite cupcake? Are you an icing person? Or is it frosting? And yay for Jenn and Christie!

Buy Links:

Fairy Tale Cupcakes Cookbook (Kindle)

https://amzn.to/3POJU9U

Fairy Tale Cupcakes Cookbook (Amazon print)

https://bit.ly/3QtR4Rv

Fairy Tale Cupcakes Cookbook (Barnes and Noble - both)

https://bit.ly/3cyglLa

Fairy Tale Cupcakes Cookbook (Bookshop.Org)

https://bookshop.org/books/fairy-tale-cupcakes/9798986503400

What I Learned About Creating a Cookbook by Jenn McKinlay

WHAT WAS I THINKING???

If I had a nickel for every time I asked myself this over the past few months, I'd be able to solve the national coin shortage.

Check it out! The print ARC just arrived!!! 

No doubt you've seen me post about this endeavor somewhere (probably here) and heard the high pitched freak out in my voice at least a little. 

Now, I'm not new to self-publishing. I got the rights back to some books and actually put one up a million years ago. I also decided to try self-publishing some romcom novellas this year (which has been easy peasy lemon squeezy) but I had never published a non-fiction work in my life, traditionally or otherwise. Despite the title, putting this book together was no fairy tale...except for the people who worked with me to make it one. 

So, here's what I learned, specific to this cookbook.

1. Hire a professional baker/food photographer. I was fortunate that the assistant Christie Conlee who I hired long before the cookbook was okayed by the powers that be (meaning I was allowed to do this on my own) is actually a home baker and has mad photography skills. Thus, she is also the co-author of the book as she baked, tweaked, and then photographed every recipe in the books. Seriously, I call her my magical unicorn and I'm not even kidding. (BTW, this was her response when I asked her to get on Tik Tok - LOL!).

2. Hire a cover artist who "gets" you. I was fortunate enough to have a cover artist for the romcom novellas, Lyndsey, from Llewellen Designs who is a dream to work with and whose cover (as you can see above) matches the vibe of the cupcake bakery mysteries to perfection. She also nailed my brand on the novellas. She's currently working on It Happened One Christmas Eve and I can't wait to see it!

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3. Expect it to take a million times longer than you think it will. To get this sucker loaded on IngramSpark (the publisher I chose) I had to learn how to craft a word document that included pictures - LOTS of pictures - and then convert it to a pdf, embed the font (what?), make the trim sizes work for a 6 X 9 pbk book with all of those pictures, do some rewriting, tweaking, cutting, inserting, yada yada yada. Expect delays and rough language, I'm just sayin'!

4. Know when to walk away. Ebook platforms are not friendly for cookbooks (pesky photos) and every one of them is different. I really hope readers choose to go hardcover on this because after almost throwing my computer into our swimming pool over formatting issues, let's just say the hardcover is better :) Doubling back, let me repeat, know when to walk away. LOL.

5. Let go of perfectionism. IT WILL NEVER BE PERFECT. Much like those delightful readers let you know when there's a single typo in a 75,000 word book that has been through seven edits by five pairs of eyes, anticipate that there will always be an error in your manuscript somewhere. Accept it. Embrace it. Consider it the WTF wrinkle on the face of your work.

So, how about you, Reds and Readers? What task did you take on that was more daunting than you anticipated? How did it turn out? (Looking for some positivity here - LOL)!

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What We're Writing: Jenn is Cooking Up her Next Endeavor

 Jenn McKinlay: I'm working on a cookbook. Yes, me the one who doesn't cook (although I do bake). Crazy, I know!

My favorite bakery cookbook - inspired!

Now I know it sounds ambitious, but hear me out. The cupcake bakery mysteries have 3-5 recipes in each book and I'm writing the fifteenth book right now with a contract to go to sixteen. Yes, writing that mystery is my other project of the moment but it's in no shape to be shared as yet, so back to the cookbook.

After being asked for a cookbook - many many many times - by readers over the years, I decided okay fine. Because it is a rather big undertaking for a fiction writer, I divided the recipes from the (almost) sixteen books into two volumes so the first cookbook will have thirty-two recipes from the first eight books and the second volume coming out after the sixteenth book in 2024 will have the other thirty-two. This all came about rather organically when Christie Conlee, the personal assistant I hired to run the Facebook page, Tik Tok videos, host random giveaways, dream up promotions, and so on, turned out to be a home baker! How's that for kismet? 

We talked about it on and off for a year, and I had to clear the decks of my schedule so I could wrap my head around this endeavor, but it's finally happening!!!

Last fall, Christie went into a baking/photographing frenzy while I cleaned up the recipes. Now we have ISBNs, and we're on deck with Ingram Spark, while my cover artist, Lyndsey of Llewellen Designs, is working her magic on a cover for us. Yay!!! 

I'm pretty excited and we're hoping to launch the first volume on Sept 6th, 2022!!! 

To celebrate, here's one of the recipes from the cookbook. My very favorite cupcake - the Blonde Bombshell. 

Cupcake and photo by Christie

An almond-flavored cake topped with vanilla buttercream and sprinkled with toasted almonds. 

 3⁄4 cup unsalted butter, softened 

 1 1⁄2 cups sugar
 

2 eggs, at room temperature 

 1 1⁄2 teaspoons almond extract 

 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

 2 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder 

 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
 

2 1⁄2 cups flour
 

1 1⁄4 cups milk 

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar at medium speed, add eggs and milk, and beat until smooth. Beat in extracts. Add dry ingredients, beat until smooth. Fill cupcake liners 2⁄3 full. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Makes 24. 

 Frost with vanilla buttercream and sprinkle with toasted almond slivers. Toasted almonds: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread nuts in one layer on an ungreased, shallow baking pan. Bake for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden. 

 Buttercream Frosting 

 1⁄2 cup solid vegetable shortening
 

1⁄2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened 

 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
 

4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
 

2 tablespoons milk 

 In large bowl, cream shortening and butter. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides of bowl often. Add milk, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. Makes 3 cups of icing.

So, Reds and Readers, have you ever considered publishing your own cookbook? 

**The winner of Lucy's A SCONE OF CONTENTION is Terrie Black! Please email Lucy raisleib @ gmail dot com to make mailing arrangements.

How to Succeed in Writing without really trying!

Every writer who publishes her first book dreams it will be a mega success. The new writer naively believes that the publisher will pour enormous amounts of money into publicity, buy ads in the New York Times and everyone in the world will want to rush out and buy the book.

By the second book the sober truth dawns--for the majority of writers there will be little or no support from the publisher in the matter of publicity. If we don't work to promote our own books, nobody in the world will hear about them. And so we grope blindly in the darkness, trying to come up with brilliant ideas to make us rich and famous, while not costing an arm and a leg. Private publicist--the good ones cost two arms and two legs. Self funded book tour all over the country? Most bookstores aren't even interested in the fledgling writer because it costs money to host an event and they want a guarantee that books will actually be sold.

We join writers organizations and try to pick the bones of established writers, wanting to know what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately they are none the wiser. Some books are just lucky--they hit the shelves at the right time, they touch a nerve with the public and they are best sellers.

Be we keep trying anyway. We try postcards and bookmarks, pens with our names on them. Buttons with cute sayings. We wear funny hats to conventions. We offer to speak to womens luncheons for free.

Well, finally I have the answer. And it is: cupcakes!

I hosted a cozy writers panel last sunday and one of the panelists, Jennifer McKinlay, writes a series featuring a cupcake shop. AND SHE BROUGHT CUPCAKES for show and tell! And guess what? We had a huge audience and she sold a ton of books. In fact her books have made it to the New York Times extended list!

So now I know what I've been doing wrong. In my next book Her Royal Spyness Lady Georgie is going to join forces with her best friend Belinda and open a frightfully genteel tea room at which cupcakes are sold. And I'll have samples everywhere I go. I'll be a mega success!

But joking apart, in uncertain times like these many readers seek out books that represent comfort and security. Craft cozies, about quilt making and knitting are thriving. And comfort food books--cookies and cupcakes are doing even better. It's easy to understand why. How great to be surrounded by virtual cupcakes, to enjoy reading about them without putting on any calories!

So, fellow writers--do you have any tips to share on promotions that have worked for you? or any that have been simply not worth the time and effort?