To Serve is Divine by R.E. Hargrave

As a new author, I know just how nervewrecking releasing a new book can be. R.E. Hargrave has released two books in the matter of a month and both of them are amazing! She's stopped by my blog today, so give her some love!

Irish Chocolate Cake/Excerpt

I tend to include food, and its descriptions, in my writing. I’ve been told I’m good at it – both baking and cooking, but would I call myself a chef? Never. I just have a knack for how flavors go together and understand how to find my way around a kitchen. Standard in my house is homemade chicken stock (can’t remember the last time I bought it from the store) and now pasta. I’d put off trying my hand at it for the longest time, and then over the holidays while we (my daughter and I) were making apple pies we had some flour and egg wash left over. My daughter asked if she could “cook” with it, so I said, “Sure. You know those are the ingredients to pasta?” Needless to say, I got a pasta roller for Christmas and we haven’t looked back!

But I digress, kind of. The point I started to make was that even in the midst of a hardcore BDSM erotica, I had to throw in some cooking and baking! Lifestylers are more normal than you realize. They celebrate holidays and birthdays, too. (In case I was too subtle, that was sarcasm.)

In one chapter my female lead, Catherine O’Chancey, is preparing a birthday cake for her Master. Catherine, or Erin when she’s not in submissive mode, is Irish and to help enforce that into her character I have her using her Maimeo’s recipe, i.e. her grandmother’s Irish chocolate mayonnaise cake. So I thought it would be fun to share an excerpt from that chapter followed by the recipe which I found at www.littleshamrocks.com.

Excerpt:

To Erin, it had been clear that Jayden missed his family, and her thinking was that maybe a carefree day of acting like a kid would help make him happy again. She knew she was restricted in what she could pull off since it wasn’t up to her to plan scenes. However, nothing was forbidding her from arriving tonight with a homemade birthday cake and a special request.

With a spring in her step, Erin took a quick shower, and then threw on some denim shorts and a tank-top before heading to the kitchen. The plan was to bake her Maimeo Caroline’s chocolate mayo cake with a mocha buttercream frosting. She had learned that Jayden had a liking for strong coffee, and she was no stranger to tweaking the frosting recipe to suit her needs.

She knew both the basic vanilla frosting and cake recipes by heart since Maimeo Caroline had taught them to her when she was a young lass.

Erin measured and mixed, poured and baked – the whole time she tried not to let the happy memories of baking the cake sadden her. Maimeo Caroline had left her handwritten recipe book to Erin when she passed away several years before. When Erin went off to college, she’d left the treasure in the safekeeping of her Da. Hence, making the cake was causing her to miss her Da more than usual.

Did he miss her? Had he looked for her when the postcards had stopped coming?

She slid the two round cake pans into the oven and then looked around her kitchen, laughing when she realized it looked a disaster. Just like it always had after a fun afternoon with Maimeo. Cakes baking, she began pulling out the ingredients for the frosting and let her mind continue to wander.

She’d come so far with her ability to believe in herself. Wasn’t it time to let go of the ghosts from her past?

Chocolate M

ake

2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Mayonnaise
1 Cup Water
2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
4 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix all ingredients until smooth. Pour into two 8 inch cake pans, greased and floured. Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack. Frost with your favorite flavor icing or try my recipe for Best Buttercream Frosting.

Best Buttercream Frosting

4 Sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 16 ounce tub marshmallow cream
2 Cups confectioners' sugar
2 Teaspoons vanilla extract


Beat butter in a large bowl with mixer on medium speed until creamy. Beat in marshmallow cream until well blended. Reduce speed to low; beat in confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Increase speed to high and beat 3 to 4 minutes until fluffy.

For Chocolate Buttercream add 8 tablespoons dark cocoa powder. 

*Source: www.littleshamrocks.com

I don't about the rest of you, but I'm starving for some cake now!! 

            Catherine O’Chancey is a reserved, demure, and graceful submissive. All traits she trained hard to enhance when she discovered the world of Dominance and submission in college. In an attempt to start fresh after the unexpected death of her last Dom, Catherine moves to Dallas, TX to escape the shroud of darkness he left behind in her life. She has tried to fight the need that resides deep within her to submit, but finally has to admit she can’t for it is not a choice, but part of who she truly is. After months of mental preparation, she ventures back into the lifestyle by attending a coveted open-night event at Dungeons and Dreams, an exclusive BDSM club.

            Is it fate or coincidence that Catherine garners the attention of one of the club’s board members who happens to be on the hunt for the perfect sub – a partner who enjoys receiving pain and pleasure as much as he enjoys doling it out?
            Jayden Masterson is many things: a firm Dom, a shrewd businessman, and a gentleman. What he isn’t, is someone who partakes in relationships outside of contractual ones with his multiple, un-collared, regular submissives. While he likes rough sex, he is not an animal, and can find pleasure only if it is consensual. What his harem is missing is a pain slut; could there be one in his future?
            Upon meeting Catherine, Jayden feels an instantaneous spark inside him that has him wanting to know not just her body, but her mind. He wants to unravel her mysteries and discover her secrets. Through pain can they find the pleasure they seek? Can part-time pain lovers find full-time fulfillment when it’s not in their contract?

R.E. Hargrave is a fledgling author who has always been a lover of books and now looks forward to the chance to give something back to the literary community. She lives on the outskirts of Dallas, TX with her husband and three children.



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