03 April 2014

C is for Cupcake

In the past few years, I've created a Valentine's Day tradition that will probably last the rest of my life. And it's all my book's fault.

Food plays a huge role in my book. In the first chapter, Jordan shows a certain level of disdain for everything he's forced to eat, that is, until Tom walks into his life holding a key lime pie. Part of the relationship my characters create revolves around food, and there are plenty of scenes with food descriptions. The idea of hunger has a more symbolic use, besides just being actually hungry for food, but hungry for the things you desire and life in general. But that sort of hunger can be revealing, and that's exactly what Jordan is afraid of.

So there's a cupcake scene. It's in the third chapter and it's probably one of my favorite scenes in the whole book. I do have a lot of fun writing in depth food descriptions, which this scene obviously has. But it's also a very revealing scene. There's an unspoken attraction between my characters and even though they can't acknowledge it, they're both very much aware that it exists. The tension gets to be so much that actually eating this cupcake is almost a sexual experience.

But anyway, onto the actual cupcake! I've made them twice, because why not? I honestly don't remember how I came up with the idea for this scene, or even the flavor of the cupcake. But since in the book, Tom makes these cupcakes for Valentine's Day, I've started making them, too. This year I brought them to work and they were a big hit. The cake is vanilla with just a hint of lemon, with raspberry filling and raspberry buttercream. I'm honestly not that great of a baker, but they get better each time I make them. Someday they'll be perfect.

And, no, I did not create the recipes myself. My fictional characters can be that good, but not me. So since I should give credit where credit's due, and because you totally want to make them, check out the recipes for the Vanilla CupcakesRaspberry Filling, and Raspberry Buttercream.

12 comments:

  1. They certainly look tempting. I like the idea of putting food and recipes in my suspense tale of a bachelor who likes to cook. Nice to meet you! (from the A to Z) New Follower, too.

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  2. I just wish you were handing out cupcakes to everyone who visited you for the A to Z Challenge ... that would be nice, don't you think? ;)

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  3. The cupcakes look great. Cupcakes were a runner-up for "C" for me. Visiting from A to Z.

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  4. Fictional characters are incredible chefs. I wish we could all be that talented. LOL.

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  5. Looks tasty. Mind if I try one?

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  6. I love cupcakes. I don't bake at all—seriously never—so I always have to try and sucker someone to make them for me. And when that doesn't work out, there just happens to be a cupcake shop a few stores down from where I work.

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  7. I love baking (so much so that I even attempted to compare baking with editing and language - http://bit.ly/1owOStb) and I think the idea of use food and baking as symbols to drive your characters forward is wonderful. It's a great way of truly getting the reader to relate to the action.

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  8. Oh wow these sound fantastic! The lemon and raspberry has my tongue hanging out just from reading it. How fun that this tradition was born from your book.

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  9. It's funny that you mention that food plays a big part in your WIP... I read a book recently called "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" by Thomas Foster, mainly because I used to have a crazy AP English teacher in high school who loved Jung and Freud, and years later, I kind of wanted to know how her mind worked. The author's theory is that every scene where characters share a meal is somehow symbolic of communion of some sort.

    Sorry about that tangent, heh. But it's made me a lot more aware of eating scenes in the book I just finished, and it's made for some interesting scenes, as well.

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  10. Cuppycakes are a major component of panda satire as well. Food is fabulous, oh but this is the day of "c" and so we have cuppycakes with cream cheese frosting. Too bad you don't live near Seattle. I would volunteer to take the cuppycakes off your hands. (so you could practice making more.)
    I'm enjoying your posts on story-craft. http://yourbrainonpandas.com Be the bear!

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