Best Chocolate Cake!

As promised, here is that chocolate cake recipe we made a few weeks ago that is so good! I got the recipe off the back of a Nestle Chocolate Cocoa can years ago. We made it with Hershey’s Special Dark because we couldn’t find Nestle cocoa at the local grocery store. As long as it’s a name brand cocoa, it should taste great. I’m picky about chocolate. My husband and son tried to buy a store brand and I made them take it back! There are some things a girl just doesn’t tamper with. :)

There are three sections to this cake and two layers:

The cake itself:
Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter softened
2 eggs
2/3 cup Nestle Cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup water
1 1/2 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups flour (unbleached)

Beat sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy – 5 minutes. Add water, flour cocoa, soda, and salt. Put in 2 9″ greased and floured pans. Bake for 28-33 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool 5 minutes. Remove to cooling rack.

Fill with:
Cocoa Whipped Cream
1/4 cup Nestle Cocoa
1/4 cup sugar
2 T hot tap water
1 cup heavy or whipping cream

Mix cocoa, sugar and water until paste forms. Add cream. Beat just until firm peaks form. Don’t over beat. Use as cake filling, frosting, or dessert topping.

Frost with:
Chocolate Lover’s Frosting
3 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup Nestle Cocoa
1 stick butter
5-6 T milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Beat 1 cup sugar, cocoa, butter, 2 T milk, and vanilla. Gradually add alternately – sugar and milk.

After the cake cools, put filling between layers (if you put too much, the cake will slide) and frost with frosting over all (top and sides of cake). Keep refrigerated. You can slightly warm pieces in microwave (less than 10 seconds) to warm up for serving. Or serve immediately.

This cake takes some extra time but it is one of my favorites. (I would add it to my recipe page, but I can’t upgrade that page on my own.)

Enjoy~

Posted in Recipes on July 13, 2009 |

Abigail available for pre-order!

I’m reading through Abigail to find character descriptions and make a time line for my in-house editor this week. You would think I would have already done this since I knew she would need it, but for some reason I didn’t. Had to be brain fade! I’m learning though and have started my character description list for Bathsheba now. On the final read-through of that book, I’ll do my time line as well.

I just discovered something cool! Abigail is now available for pre-order on
Photobucket Amazon and CBD!. Neither one has the cover posted yet, but it’s so exciting to see that it is up! I’ll start line edits (galleys) early next month and am looking forward to seeing what suggestions my editor has for me. She did a great job helping me make Michal stronger so I know she will be a big help with Abigail too!

Randy has been home sick for a few days, and he just finished reading Michal! My dear hubby is not a fiction reader. His interests lie more in non-fiction – the news and such – but he says my book was “very good, excellent” – of course, he could be biased! – and actually suggested he may read more fiction in the future – not just mine! :) After 32 years, his story-telling family is rubbing off on him. He doesn’t realize that he’s a story-teller too, just in a different way. He likes to relate real-life tales. But I dare say we are all story-tellers at heart.

I’m having a hard time concentrating today. Perhaps it was the distraction of the movie A Few Good Men. (I love that movie! So well done – the ending is so powerful!) Or the other distractions. But writing work is slow-going right now. Time to buckle down and have at it with more diligence.

I’ll try to remember to post a chocolate cake recipe we made last week. Too good! In the meantime, those deadlines are calling, so I should probably answer. :)

Shalom~

Posted in Abigail, Announcements on July 9, 2009 |

Getting used to changes…

With my sons moving to California next month, I realized we are losing more than just two beloved kids. We are losing our computer guru – the son who has kept our computers, our network, everything technical working for probably close to ten years. All of a sudden, I am thinking about who to call the next time a computer has issues or a part fails. (My desktop has been moving way too slow and we discovered one of the sticks of RAM had died. Fortunately, he can put it in before he leaves.) But it is going to be very strange having to take a computer to a store for fix-it work. Sigh. Perhaps it is time Randy and I learn how to do some of this ourselves. Shouldn’t be impossible for my engineer husband, should it?

We are also going to lose our primary picture-takers. Our graphic designer son takes some fabulous pictures. Years ago, Randy dabbled in the same, but photography was never a hobby he followed as much as some of his other pursuits. While we both can take normal pictures, the camera has more features than I’ve yet to figure out. Who reads the user manuals? I just put it on automatic and point and shoot!

Then there are the remotes for the TV, DVD player, etc. How on earth does a person keep them all straight? I remember one time I tried to watch a movie when no one else was home. I managed to mess the settings up pretty well and never did get to watch it. I’ve improved since then, but we just got a new TV (old one died) so it’s a new remote to get used to all over again. And of course, new means new everything – with all the fancy features that are really cool – if we could just get them to work and make sense of them!

I think I’m technologically challenged. Though my computer programmer son tells me I do better than a lot of people my age. Hmm…not sure I like the sound of that! Though I do manage to figure things out if I take the time to do so. That’s just it – time. I seem to be missing it in great quantities these days.

Of course, when they move, they will be taking a lot of other things with them – not just their expertise. I’ll have more space to arrange rooms to make them less crowded. But seriously, I think we need to move before the house will ever be clutter-free. Pack-rat-ism is too alive and well here.

I’m trying to adjust to some of these changes, to give myself options for how we will manage without them here. I think the hardest part is going to be the loneliness. Going from a household of five to a household of three is a big change. And despite the sometimes chaos, we get along really well. I used to like a quiet house – looked forward to times to write in peace. Um…not so much any more. I can write anywhere. I miss their presence already.

Guess that’s just part of getting used to changes…
They come whether we want them to or not…
Sigh…

Posted in Musings on July 6, 2009 |

July 2009 Christian Fiction Releases

I fixed the cover of Abigail in the post below – hopefully, for those of you who couldn’t see it before it is visible now. If you still can’t see it, please email me and I’ll try again. :)

Here is the list of new Christian fiction releases for July 2009! Lots to choose from for your summer reading so kick back and enjoy!

1. A Promise Kept, Historical Ohio Book 1 by Cara C. Putman from Heartsong Presents. Newlyweds Josie & Art must choose whether to honor the promises they’ve made when their relationship experiences the fire of pain.

2. Blackmail, Bayou Series Book 6 by Robin Carroll from Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense. The sixth and final book in Robin Carroll’s romantic suspense bayou series.

3. Cranberry Hearts, by Lena Nelson Dooley, Elizabeth Goddard and Lisa Harris from Barbour Publishing. What will happen when three Massachusetts women find their journeys home lead them down dangerous paths?

4. Deadly Intent by Camy Tang from Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense. Massage therapist Naomi Grant must prove her innocence when her client is murdered in her family’s Sonoma day spa.

5. Gripped By Fear, The Chicago Warriors Series by John M. Wills from TotalRecall. Two Chicago Detectives struggle to capture a serial rapist.

6. Hometown Courtship by Diann Hunt from Steeple Hill Love Inspired. A carpenter and a hair stylist work to build a house together–but are they building much more?

7. Lonestar Secrets, Lonestar Series Book 2 by Colleen Coble from Thomas Nelson. A young veterinarian returns to her childhood home and finds the man who humiliated her may be in custody of a daughter she thought had died.

8. Love’s Rescue, The Sierra Chronicles Book One by Tammy Barley from Whitaker House. A headstrong Southern woman falls for her kidnapper, a Western cattleman she blames for the loss of her family.

9. Maggie Rose, Second in The Daughters of Jacob Kane series by Sharlene MacLaren from Whitaker House. Mission-minded Maggie Rose takes a job at an orphanage in New York City, never expecting to fall in love with a hard nosed newspaper reporter.

10. Menu for Romance, Brides of Bonneterre Series Book #2 by Kaye Dacus from Barbour Publishing. The Chef and the Party Planner Each Seek the Kind of Love that Requires No Reservations.

11. Montana Rose by Mary Connealy from Barbour Publishing. Love Comes Softy, with mayhem, comedy and gunfire.

12. Ransome’s Honor, Book 1 The Ransome Trilogy by Kaye Dacus from Harvest House Publishers. Once Youthful Sweethearts—Can Their Love Be Renewed?

13. Rose of the Adriatic, Sequel to Jewel of the Adriatic by K.M. Daughters from The Wild Rose Press. Messages of hope and peace for the world from Our Lady of Medjugorje woven into a prayerful, fictional love story.

14. Second Chance Family, Fostered by Love Series Book 4 by Margaret Daley from Steeple Hill Love Inspired. Whitney and Shane, two wounded people, come together to try and help each other heal from their past through the appeal of a little boy who is autistic.

15. The Kidnapping of Kenzie Thorn by Liz Johnson from Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense. Kenzie Thorn is surprised when she’s kidnapped from the prison where she teaches a GED course, and even more shocking is that someone wants her dead.

16. The Last Resort, The Wanderlust Mysteries Book 2 by April Star from Five Star Gale I Cengage Learning. One woman’s murder and a bottle washed ashore on the St. Anastasia beach open a Pandora’s box and unleash secrets pursued by an entire camping resort . . . and the truth proves as elusive as the killer in their midst.

17. The Sacred Cipher by Terry Brennan from Kregel Publications. An ancient, secret scroll could trigger nuclear war or world peace, four Americans are caught in the crossfire, and opposing radicals will stop at nothing to silence The Sacred Cipher.

Posted in New Releases on July 5, 2009 |

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