My January Gift To You! Citrus Bundt Cake

I have a passion for Bundt® cakes

This one is probably one of my very favorite recipes EVER and the family fights over the last crumbs. I've included tips at the bottom, because these type of cake bake differently depending on your pan and your oven, so experiment a little and watch the baking process carefully.

My gift to you!

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 from the kitchen of Cheryl St.John...

Glazed Citrus Bundt® Cake

¾ cup softened butter

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

3 Tbsp lemon zest

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 - 2 tsp lemon extract

3 cups sifted flour

1 cup Sprite or Squirt

Preheat oven to 350°.

Grease and flour Bundt® pan well

Beat butter with hand mixer. Add sugar one cup at a time and mix until creamy.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing briefly after each.

Stir in lemon zest and extracts.

On medium speed alternate adding flour and Sprite. Don’t overbeat.

Pour batter into pan.

Baking time varies depending on your oven and your pan. I use my convection oven setting. My heavy NordicWare® pan bakes more quickly than my silicone pan. In the NordicWare® I bake this about 40 minutes, then cover with foil for another ten. Test and if a toothpick doesn’t come out clean, add more time. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack ten minutes. After ten minutes remove cake from pan and allow to cool.

Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

2 Tbsp Rose’s sweetened lime juice (I find this in the liquor section)

2 Tbsp lemon juice

Whisk until desired consistency and drizzle over cooled cake.

Bundt Cake Tips:

·    

There is a difference between a tube pan and a Bundt® pan. A tube pan is more shallow, while a Bundt pan has higher sides. Each will hold a different amount and will bake the same batter differently.

Cooking spray doesn’t cut it for a Bundt® cake. Grease with shortening and dust with flour to help the cake rise in the pan.

·  Always sift the flour.

·  Over mixing the batter gives cake a tough texture.

·  When creaming sugar and butter, have the butter at room temperature, mix on medium and add the sugar gradually.

·  Don’t overbeat eggs. Mix with a whisk or on low with the mixer, just until blended.

·  After removing from the oven, cool the cake on a wire rack for ten minutes. Any longer and you risk the cake sticking to the pan. Finish cooling on a rack.

ORDER ALL ABOUT THE BUNDT! FROM AMAZON

A Character By Any Other Name: Cheryl St.John

My stories don't begin to unfold until I've named my characters and named them correctly. How do I know if a name is right? I can't explain it. If their name is right, I can see the person. I can hear them talk. I can create scenes and situations for them. If a name is wrong, there is no story.

Whenever I get an idea for a character or a plot or theme, I grab my binder with my worksheets, a notebook and a couple of fun pens, a cup of tea, and make myself comfy on the sofa. I use a story grid to flesh out my characters' goals and motivations and the points of the story. But I use a stack of books and folders to find their names. I keep lists of everything, so of course I have lists of names I want to use. 

I have at least a dozen name books, a folder, a NY name index encyclopedia and a reverse name dictionary. I am not obsessive. I’m thorough.

Most important for me is that the character’s name sound like a real person—and a real person I'd want to know. It must be a name that I won't mind typing 400 times. I checked one of my books, and I’d used the hero's name 403 times. Sometimes I fall in love with a name, but it's tough to type quickly, so what I do is create an autocorrect for it in Word. For example, if the heroine's name is Elisabeth Ann, I create an auto correct so that each time I type in elsb+spacebar, it changes to the name I want.

Where do I get my lists of names? Lots of places. I'm an avid movie watcher and also check out the new season TV shows. If I sit with a notebook and a fun pen (notice how pens are required to be special?) I can call it work. So I watch every line of the credits and write down names I like. If I'm watching a movie, I'll take notes regarding what worked for me and what didn't. It's research. I save graduation programs, school band programs and baby name books. I’ve come home from many a burial with names from gravestones written on the back of my memorial folder. If you browse the library book sales and Friends of the Library sales, you can find vintage registers and books about county and state officers, townships, etc. filled with names. These type books often include maps with street names and businesses. Ship’s logs are a treasure trove of historical names.

What else is important when choosing a name? Sometimes nationality. Sometimes connotation: I probably wouldn't name a nuclear physicist Tiffany. No offense to any nuclear physicists named Tiffany, but it just wouldn't work for most of us. Tiffany is a teenager's best friend. On the other hand, you can go against stereotype, for instance naming an enormous woman Daisy or a tiny dog Rambo. It's confusing to the reader if two characters' names are similar or their names start with the same letter. Personally, I get lost if a writer does that. I catch that first letter and if they are two similar, my brain doesn't associate it quickly enough, so I constantly rethink and recheck to see who this person is and am jerked out of the story.

Here's how I prevent that confusion and others with names: For each book, I keep a 5x7 index card with all the characters' names handy. At the bottom I write the alphabet. Every time I use a letter in a first or last name I put a strike through a letter. Of course, I often use a letter two or three times, but some are for last names and others for secondary characters that won't be confused. I also create a "style sheet" for each book. This is a page or two that I turn in with the manuscript. It contains a list of all the character names and all the places, streets, businesses, proper nouns. This reference helps me in creation of the story and in turn helps the copy editor. Sure comes in mighty handy when I do a sequel!

Once or twice I've gotten hung up in the creation of my story in the planning stages or first chapters. The story person’s name had been nagging at me, because I never was quite sold on it. So I changed the name and the story took off. Once when I had revised a story proposal, taking out the hero and replacing him, I was completely stumped for a name and couldn't develop the guy. I held a contest on my blog to name him. As soon as I saw a particular name, I knew it was the right one. With his name in place, the character sprang to life.

I’m currently writing another installment to the Cowboy Creek continuity series, with fellow authors Sherri Shackelford and Karen Kirst. This one is Return to Cowboy Creek. We have a lot of fun figuring out the threads and how our characters in each book will interact. The Rancher’s Boomtown Bride is a working title right now, and it will be an April 2017 release. The main characters are Seth and Marigold. 

I don't like frivolous names or names that are difficult to pronounce. Even if I'm not reading aloud, I want to be able to know how to "think" it correctly. How about you? Is there anything you find distracting about a particular name or spelling of a name?

Do you like names plain or exotic? Did you ever think about how much work goes into naming an entire cast of characters?

FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK

CHECK OUT MY AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE