Showing posts with label ink and batter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ink and batter. 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, November 27, 2014

Ink & Batter #9: Ensnared by A.G. Howard!!!


Well, well, well! Finally Ink & Batter is BACK!!

After a loooong hiatus, longer than I had planned at first, I must admit, my beloved feature with book inspired decorated cupcakes is BACK!

I'm not sure if I'll be able to manage weekly posts from now on, but I'm gonna try my best for sure to return to the weekly Ink & Batter posts from now on, since I can bake without melting and the fondant doesn't get sticky easily any more!

I have quite a few recipes & books & notes for decorations in my lil notebook, but it was quite coincidence the way I chose the cupcakes I'd first bake for this return. I planned to bake some cupcakes to take to work at the request of one of my co-workers and I wanted to try this recipe and then I realized it was the recipe I had planned for when I made the Ensnared cupcakes... so one thing lead to another and I ended up making Ensnared cupcakes!

Ensnared by A.G. Howard is the third and final book in the Splintered trilogy and it's a reimagining of Alice in Wonderland! It's a pretty inspiring series because I also made Ink & Batter cupcakes for the other two books in the series: Splintered and Unhinged!

Since I still haven't read the book because it doesn't release till Jan and I haven't got an ARC, I used the cover as inspiration and all the clues about it that A.G. Howard gave during the reveal of the cover.

The red liners were a must, give the colour of the cover, and then I used red, orange & yellow colours to dye the whipped cream of the grasshopper cupcakes, that seemed the more fitting recipe for the series (even Anita chose that recipe when I asked her on Twitter!). Hearts & monarch butterflies are the most important things in the book accoring to my friend La La that has read the ARC, but somehow I also had lobsters in my notes so I made one of those too!

















I'm dying to get my hands on the book so I can see the relevance of all the little details I picked from my notes! Btw, in case you are wondering, what's on the cupcake with the lobsters is a bad attempt at a red bat! ;)

If you haven't read the first books in the series, do it now! so you can be ready to read Ensnared when it releases!

What do you guys think? Happy to have Ink & Batter back? I know I am!

Stay tuned for more book inspired cupcakes in the next edition of Ink & Batter coming soon! (next week, hopefully!

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Ink & Batter #8: The Art Of Lainey by Paula Stokes!!


Hello everyone!! Happy Thursday & welcome once again to a new edition of Ink & Batter!

Summer has arrived and although I have many recipes that I want to try and many ideas for book inspired cupcakes, Ink & Batter is gonna be taking a bit of a breather from its weekly schedule. It's too hot to get the oven cranking and to play with fondant (it dries up too easily and gets too sticky when modeling), so unless I get a few cooler days (with summer storms and lower temperatures...) I won't be baking as much.

But, this week there's a new collection of cupcakes! And this week once again Pivot Book Reviews's Cover Puppies and Ink & Batter are synching books!

And what book is the one inspiring Becca and me this week? The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes!

 Check out Becca's Lainey Cover Puppies too!




I looked around in my liners bag and ended up settling for the lilac ones since they seem to match the colour of the back cover of the book best. When choosing decorations I had to have two, a cupcake with a mohawk (the author herself requested it) and one with a football (soccer) ball! As for the flavour, I went for chai cupcakes cause I noticed quite a few mentions of chai latte or chai tea while reading the book!
















Football (soccer) ball and jersey, some of the different locations from the book, the book that started it all and a cupcake with a mohawk! I had a blast making these! Hope you guys will like them!

Hopefully I'll get to make more if the weather isn't too horribly hot! But at the very least, be on the lookout for Deliverance cupcakes Ink & Batter on it's release week! ;)

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!