Showing posts with label decorated. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decorated. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake: Ink & Batter Cupcakes & a Giveaway!!


Hello there guys!

Today I'm more than elated to be part of the Blog Tour for Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake, organized by the lovely Hannah of Irish Banana Tours!

I was super happy when Hannah told me that I was to make decorated cupcakes inspired by Three Dark Crowns and I made sure to take some notes as I read (as best as I could, because I got so into the book at some point I completely forgot to take notes and simply immersed myself into it!).


 Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born: three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions.

But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins. The last queen standing gets the crown.

If only it was that simple. Katharine is unable to tolerate the weakest poison, and Arsinoe, no matter how hard she tries, can’t make even a weed grow. The two queens have been shamefully faking their powers, taking care to keep each other, the island, and their powerful sister Mirabella none the wiser. But with alliances being formed, betrayals taking shape, and ruthless revenge haunting the queens’ every move, one thing is certain: the last queen standing might not be the strongest…but she may be the darkest.


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23207027-three-dark-crowns




Three Dark Crowns Ink & Batter Cupcakes

I was extremely lucky to be able to chat with Kendare herself about the cupcakes, their flavours and the possible decorations for them all, and she was super excited about them and approved all of my ideas!

I decided on vanilla & caramel cupcakes for Mirabella, red velvet cupcakes for Katharine and strawberry with white chocolate cupcakes for Arsinoe.






Arsinoe's cupcakes (the Naturalist queen)





Arsinoe's were strawberry cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese icing, with a rose & chocolates (if you've read the book, you know they're quite important), a big wild bear and a crown!


Katharine's cupcakes (the Poisoner queen)




Katharine's are red velvet, red and luscious, with cream cheese icing with a hint of bitter orange flavour. She has her crown as well as a candied scorpion and Katharine's beloved snake, Sweetheart.


Mirabella's cupcakes (the Elemental queen)




Mirabella's are vanilla cupcakes, with caramel sauce filling and caramel cream cheese icing. She has her crown, a serrated knife (again, you'll know how significant they are if you've read the book) and a flame of fire (made as best as I could, I tried a bolt of lightning, but it was quite impossible!).



Three Dark Crowns! 
 


About the author:

Kendare Blake is the author of several novels and short stories, most of which you can find information about via the links above. Her work is sort of dark, always violent, and features passages describing food from when she writes while hungry. She was born in July (for those of you doing book reports) in Seoul, South Korea, but doesn’t speak a lick of Korean, as she was packed off at a very early age to her adoptive parents in the United States. That might be just an excuse, though, as she is pretty bad at learning foreign languages. She enjoys the work of Milan Kundera, Caitlin R Kiernan, Bret Easton Ellis, Richard Linklater, and the late, great Michael Jackson, I mean, come on, he gave us Thriller.

She lives and writes in Kent, Washington, with her husband, their two cat sons (Tybalt and Tyrion Cattister) and their red Doberman dog son, Obi Dog Kenobi.





GIVEAWAY

3 Finished Copies of THREE DARK CROWNS (US Only)

CLICK HERE FOR THE RAFFLECOPTER


Tour Schedule:
Week 1:

Week 2:

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Ink & Batter #1: Splintered by A.G. Howard!!



Well, here is the first official first post for Ink & Batter!

I'm starting with one of the books I've had in my list to make inspired cupcakes for quite a while! Splintered by A.G. Howard! Since it is a very creepy & a bit Burtonian reimagining of Alice in Wonderland, I've made some more typical Alice items and some that are straight from the book!

I chose green tea cupcakes (recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World) with cream cheese icing, and used green cupcake liners to match the cover of the book!





















As you can see, there are some bugs, the ones that Alyssa doesn't want to hear, some flowers cause you can't forget the creepy flowers of Wonderland, a key that is important to the story, a skateboard for the "skate girl", the clock that ticks, teapot & cup for when Alyssa has tea with her mum and a lil faery for Gossamer!


What say you guys? I had a blast working on this one, modeling with fondant always reminds me of when I was a lil girl playing with plasticine!

Stay tuned for more Ink & Batter cupcakes next week!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Introducing a new feature: Ink & Batter!



Hey guys! Welcome to the official introduction of what will be a regular (every other week, but I don't think I will manage to have it weekly) new feature in the blog!

Some of you might know of my love for baking and decorating cupcakes, and I've even made book inspired cupcakes before but it was not till Becca from Pivot Book Reviews saw them and completely started squealing and demanding I made more that I decided I needed to make it a regular feature on the blog!

I asked a few of my good blogger friends over Twitter for suggestions and Sam from Realm of Fiction sent me a huge list full of great ideas via e-mail! After pondering about all the suggestions and a few ideas of my own, I chose Ink & Batter (from Sam's list, thanks a lot for all the suggestions, Sam!).

Then it was just a question of getting a banner made (ain't it pretty) and I was all ready to debut the feature! This week I will be showing the first two proper examples of book inspired decorated cupcakes that I made, and hopefully for next Thursday or the one after I'll have some new book inspired cupcakes to show off!

The first inspired cupcakes were made for a contest on CJ Redwine's blog to win an ARC of Deception, and I was so inspired that I made Defiance inspired cupcakes and on a whim also made Incarnate & Asunder by Jodi Meadows inspired cupcakes!


DEFIANCE CUPCAKES






INCARNATE & ASUNDER CUPCAKES






Now I have a huge list of books that I'm super inspired to make decorated cupcakes about like Splintered & Unhinged by Anita G Howard, Deliverance by CJ Redwine, Infinite by Jodi Meadows, The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by M.G Buehrlen, The Ring & The Crown my Melissa de la Cruz, A Mad Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller, the Selection series by Kiera Cass ( I need to decorate cupcakes inspired by each of the dresses in the covers!)...

Do you guys have any suggestions? Let them in the comments, I'm always happy to add more books to my list!