Guest Post by Kate Hardy
I am thrilled to host a guest post from Kate Hardy today! I loved her novel, ‘A Spoonful of Sugar‘ and couldn’t resist the opportunity to share this guest post from her. Read on to find out more about Kate and her very special cookie recipe! Welcome to Splashes Into Books, Kate!
I had such fun working on the Bachelor Bake Off Books.
I love baking, so this was right up my street. Actually, the cookies in my book are the recipe I use if we’re having a family party, or my teens are having a get-together with their friends at our house (and there are always requests for them). My son used the recipe on his first day at uni as a kind of icebreaker to meet his new flatmates. So it’s a good one 🙂
Plus I got to write with a bunch of really lovely authors, and it’s such fun bouncing ideas with each other and planning exactly how the event that happens across all our books will work.)
When I was planning mine, I knew that I wanted my hero to be completely hopeless in the kitchen. (That smoke alarm? My husband set ours off by burning toast, the very first day we moved here. knew that damp dish towel would end up in a book…) And I wanted to bring in one of my other favourite elements – the gym. My trainer wrote me a new program just before she went on maternity leave, and my absolute favourite set revolves around boxing. So I couldn’t resist borrowing that. (Tyler is kinder than my trainer. You do not want to know about boxing sit-ups.)
Add a shy heroine, a difficult ex and a spoonful of sugar… And I hope you enjoy the story I came up with 🙂
Here is Kate’s Cookie Recipe – delicious!
Ingredients:
- 2 sticks (8 oz) butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (4 oz) white sugar
- 1 cup (8 oz) brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups (about 18 oz) plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 packets choc chips
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Cream butter and sugars until uniform. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract. Add flour and baking powder; beat until smooth. Add choc chips.
- For best results, refrigerate the lot for 1-2 hours.
- Dollop lumps of dough onto a baking tray lined with foil, leaving 2 inches between.
- Bake for 10-12 mins, or until golden, and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Author Information (from Goodreads)
Kate Hardy is an award-winning author of more than 70 books for Harlequin Mills & Boon. Her novel ‘Breakfast at Giovanni’s’ won the RNA Romance Prize in 2008 and ‘Bound by a Baby’ won the RNA RoNA Rose in 2014; she’s been shortlisted five more times for the award, as well as for two Romantic Times awards.
She lives in Norwich in the east of England with her husband, two children, a springer spaniel called Archie, and too many books to count. She’s a bit of a nerd who loves cinema, live music, the theatre, history and cooking (which is why she has to go to the gym five times a week), and adores anything Italian. She loves doing research, particularly if it’s hands-on and means experimenting with cooking (on her website, most of her books have a recipe connected to them). Reviewers say that her books are full of warmth, heart and charm – and also that you’ll learn something new and interesting from them!
Kate also writes bestselling local history books under the name of Pamela Brooks.
Get in touch with Kate via her website at http://www.katehardy.com
or twitter @katehardyauthor
Many thanks to Kate for this post and for writing such delicious novels!
