#WickedRomanceGIVEAWAY The Masque and Bayou Slime

I've never had a Pink Lady, or heard of it for that matter, but I like rum. And anything that looks like swamp slime is the perfect addition to a Halloween party! The recipe for Bayou Slime is from About.com as is the photo.

Think of the Bayou Slime as a toxic Pink Lady, replacing the gin with rum. The sludge is due mostly to the egg white, which will create a fantastic layer of foam on top of the drink and the moss is created by sprinkling mint on top. It's an interesting cocktail, with the sweet rum and spice from the cordial syrup, that is a flavor you'll soon be addicted to and the creepiness is a perfect fit for favorite Halloween cocktails.

Ingredients:

• 2 parts Cruzan Dark Rum
• 6-8 fresh mint leaves
• 1/2 part Fee Brothers Spiced Cordial Syrup
• 1 egg white

Preparation:

1. Muddle mint leaves and syrup together, making sure to crush the mint leaves.
2. Place all ingredients into a shaker.
3. Shake until well-chilled and frothy.
4. Strain into a chilled martini glass.
5. Garnish with additional crushed mint leaves.

The Masque: A Hellfire Club Erotique

Where to buy:

Amazon

All Romance
Amazon UK

Barnes and Noble

Review:
5 Stars from Just Erotic Romance Reviews: 

Sebastian, le Comte de Courville, pounded into his lover. Anger unabated at the news of Louise’s death, he tried to block out the last time he saw her, mere weeks ago when she told him of her foolhardy plan. Sebastian moved faster, pounding into Julien, hands digging into the other man’s lean hips as he took his sorrow and rage out on his lover.

Julien shuddered beneath him, hips thrusting back to meet Sebastian’s punishing pace, and he knew the younger man was close to losing his prized control. Sebastian moved faster, harder, determined to break Julien’s control, to hear his lover’s groans of release, to feel him break beneath him. He growled, unable to restrain the sound that escaped him.

Shaking the hair from his face, he felt his own need wind tighter and tighter. Something from the doorway of his private rooms caught his attention and he looked in that direction.

What made him do so, Sebastian couldn’t have said. Through the haze of passion he saw Olivia standing there. She watched them with wide eyes; a flush stained her cheeks and Sebastian could see her chest heaving with every breath.

She watched Julien with rapt attention, brown eyes widening as she stared at his body. Sebastian continued to move within Julien, his own orgasm coiling tighter as Olivia watched him thrust in and out of his lover. Then her gaze moved, and he saw the reluctance with which it did so.

Olivia met his gaze, her hand raised to her décolletage and rested lightly on the swell of her breasts.

He wanted her.

  Sharing My Favorite Read Giveaway Hop was organized by Reading Romances!

What you can win here: Copy of any of my Hellfire Club stories

Number of winners: 3

Open to (INT, US or US/CAN): If you can receive an e-book, you can enter to win!

How to enter: Leave a comment on your favorite Halloween song WITH email address. Comments with no email or with no holiday recipe won't count.

Hop and enter the other giveaways!

To sign up, please add your link bellow:

#WickedRomanceGIVEAWAY Seduction of my Proper Wife and ghouly cupcakes

Ghouly Cupcakes from the Food Network Kitchens. Neither the recipe nor the picture are mine.

I will say, that after reading the level (easy) and then the directions for the meringue, I'm thinking Food Network and I have different ideas of easy! Meringue, in my view, is far from easy! I bet regular icing would work also...ok, not as fancy but far, far easier. For me at least.

Oh! Or Cool Whip (or any whipped cream) Sure, it doesn't have that same slightly boasting quality of 'Why yes, I did whip up a small batch of meringue just for these cupcakes!' But think of the easiness and the time saving part. And I'm certain, though I've never tried it, you can dye whipped cream...probably.

Prep Time: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 25 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup root beer, flat
• 1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Frosting:

• 8 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 pinch fine salt
• 1 teaspoon banana extract, or more to taste
• 1 to 2 drops pastel food coloring, optional
• Candied eyeballs
• Equipment: 12 cup standard muffin tin

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with cupcake liners or spray footed cupcake holders with nonstick spray.
2. Put the butter, root beer, and cocoa in a microwave-safe bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave on HIGH until the butter melts, about 2 minutes. 
3. Whisk to combine.
4. Meanwhile, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla together in a small bowl.
5. Whisk the hot cocoa mixture into the dry ingredients. 
6. Stir in the sour cream mixture just to combine; take care not to overmix. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups, filling each one about 3/4 of the way full, about 1/4 cup per cupcake. 
7. Bake cupcakes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 25 minutes. 
8.  Cool the cupcakes completely in the tin on a rack. Remove from liners and return cakes to a rack.
9. For Frosting: Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a saucepan that can hold a mixer's bowl above the water. 
10. Whisk the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt in the bowl by hand. 
11. Set the bowl above the boiling water and continue whisking until the mixture is hot to the touch and the sugar dissolves, about 1 to 2 minutes. 
12. Transfer the mixture to a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat at medium-high speed until eggs beat up into a cool stiff meringue, about 5 minutes. 
13. Add a few drops of desired extract and/or food coloring and lightly beat into the meringue.
14. To decorate: Using a spoon, offset spatula or piping bag, dollop, spread or pipe about 1/2 cup meringue on top of each cupcake to make a ghost or monster of your choice. 
15. Decorate with candied eyeballs or other candies. 
16. These can be finished 2 to 3 hours in advance and held at room temperature.

Seduction of my Proper Wife: A Victorian Menage at the Parisian Exposition 

Where to buy:
All Romance
Amazon
Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble 

She didn’t recoil from his touch, but when she spoke her voice was very small. “I know.” Lillian cleared her throat and asked in a slightly louder voice, “Will you leave me because of that?”

Philip held her tighter. “I don’t want to.”

Pulling back just enough to kiss her, Philip prayed this would be the turning point. Lillian’s body stiffened in his arms, and she didn’t return his kiss. Sighing, Philip leaned his forehead against hers, and knew before it even happened that she’d relax in his arms. He knew her reactions far too well and hated that even the simplest touch had her flinching in distaste.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Philip whispered. “We’ve been friends for such a long time; I believed becoming lovers would simply be an extension of that. You’ve trusted me with so much in the past, Lillian. Why can’t you trust your body to me?”

“I don’t know,” she said again. But then she cleared her throat and said stronger, “I feel it’s wrong somehow. I feel like…” she hiccupped on a sob, and he knew she desperately tried not to cry again.

Philip allowed her time to control herself, though it didn’t take long.

“I feel as if there is something dark in this,” she admitted.

“It’s not,” he insisted. “We’ve taken our vows; both our bodies and our souls belong to each other now.”

Lillian looked at him with longing, the first time she’d done so, but shook her head, deflating every hope he’d had for them. “I can’t.”

Going rigid in her arms, Philip pulled back. She looked alarmed, confused, and frightened. He studied her for long, long minutes before grasping at the only option he had left. He didn’t know what else to do for her. For them.

“Are you willing to learn from another?”

  Sharing My Favorite Read Giveaway Hop was organized by Reading Romances!

What you can win here: Copy of any of my Regency Menage Tale stories

Number of winners: 2

Open to (INT, US or US/CAN): If you can receive an e-book, you can enter to win!

How to enter: Leave a comment on your favorite holiday recipe WITH email address. Comments with no email or with no holiday recipe won't count.

Hop and enter the other giveaways!

To sign up, please add your link bellow:

#WickedRomanceGIVEAWAY Devil's Pawn and Cupcakes

The goal of this hop is to talk wickedly naught romances. I'm combining a short excerpt from Devil's Pawn with a delicious (and quick!) Halloween cupcake treat from Food Network. Granted, I'm not a huge fan of fondant (it has no taste) bit doing this with a piping bag seems...messy.

Ingredients

• 1 dozen store-bought, un-iced cupcakes (pumpkin if they have seasonal flavors)
• 1 can dark chocolate frosting
• 1 box prepared orange fondant (recommended: Wilton)

Special equipment/ decor:

• Spatula
• Rolling pin
• 2-inch round cutter (or one that is same diameter as the tops of the cupcakes)
• Small shaped cutters and/or large pastry tips

Directions:

1. Frost all of the cupcakes with a smooth even layer of the chocolate frosting. 
2. Wipe off the spatula frequently, and dip it in warm water, if necessary, to get the frosting as smooth as possible.
3.  Roll out the orange fondant to 1/4-inch thickness. 
4. Using a round biscuit cutter, cut out 12 rounds from the fondant. 
5. Using small cutters, cut a jack-o-lantern face of your design in each round. 
6. Lay the rounds on top of the cupcakes. Arrange the cupcakes on a serving a platter and serve. 

Devil's Pawn: A Hellfire Club Erotique

All Romance

Amazon
Amazon UK

Barnes and Noble

  

Graham looked at the other man. He seemed perfectly at ease with himself; the candlelight made his dark skin gleam. Shaking his head at his own romanticism, Graham wondered at this man, this foreigner.

  

He’d been perfectly honest when he told Trent he’d watched him and wanted him. In the last weeks he found honesty cleansing—if he was to go to his grave a young man, he wanted to do so with as few falsehoods as possible.

The Club had been abuzz with rumors about the Turk since his arrival, yet Malik Trent had done naught to answer any of their many questions. Though he knew little of Trent, Graham couldn’t help but…hope. A dangerous emotion that, but nonetheless hope did stir within him.

Could this man help?

Studying him through hooded eyes, Graham wondered. He wanted Trent, and it was obvious Trent wanted him as well. But could he trust the Turk?

“I would appreciate your help,” he began, almost surprised at the admission. “However, I don’t wish to see you entangled in this unsavory business.”

“Explain the business to me,” Trent interrupted before Graham could continue.

Loosening his cravat, which he hadn’t tied properly anyway, Graham slowly nodded. No one had actually offered to help. Then again, he hadn’t exactly shouted throughout the Club the reasons for his suddenly licentious behavior in a group filled with lustful abandonment.

  Sharing My Favorite Read Giveaway Hop was organized by Reading Romances!

What you can win here: $10 All Romance eBooks, Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card--your choice

Number of winners: 1

Open to (INT, US or US/CAN): If you can receive an email giftcard, you can enter to win!

How to enter: Leave a comment on your favorite Halloween costume WITH email address. Comments with no email or with no Halloween costume won't count.

Hop and enter the other giveaways!

To sign up, please add your link bellow:

Get the Inlinkz Colelction Code according to your blog!

Friday Recipe: Pull Apart Graveyard Cupcakes

Yes, there's still plenty of time until Halloween, but this post is about making the food--and you always need at least a little lead time for that! Unless you buy. Which is cool, too, but not as fun. For the next week, I'll be posting recipes from The Food Network with direct links to the site; the pictures are theirs as well. (Unless otherwise noted.)

Today's recipe is labeled as difficult. Yup. Looks that way! But I'm sure there are ways to get around that and make it much easier than it first looks. For instance, sure you can make those little ghosties yourself. Orrrr...you can buy little Halloween decorations (wash them thoroughly!) and stick them on top. And maybe tell your guests about their inedible-ness. Just to be polite!

The tombstones are easy enough--1/2 an oval cookie covered with icing. And I know I've seen pumpkin candies inthe store about this size.

Pull Apart Graveyard Cupcakes

Total Time: 2 hr 35 min
Prep Time: 1 hr 0 min
Cook Time: 25 min

Ingredients


Cupcakes:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup grape jelly
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
12 ounces (3 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup milk
Frosting:
10 ounces (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, spooned and leveled
3 tablespoons milk
10 chocolate sandwich cookies, coarsely crushed

Decorations:
15 large white marshmallows
1/4 cup finely crushed chocolate sandwich cookies (about 3 cookies)
1 tablespoon black or dark green decorating sugar
One 6.4-ounce tube black decorating icing, with tips
5 oval-shaped vanilla and chocolate sandwich cookies
One 7-ounce tube marzipan
3 round lollipops, wrapped
1/4 cup orange decorating sugar
One 6.4-ounce tube green decorating icing, with tips
Seven 8-inch pieces black licorice

Directions
For the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line two 12-cup standard muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Warm the grape jelly in the microwave until loosened, 20 to 30 seconds, and whisk until smooth. Set aside.

Beat together the sugar and eggs in another medium bowl with an electric mixer until light and foamy, about 2 minutes. While beating, gradually pour in the butter and then the vanilla.

While mixing slowly, add half the dry ingredients and then all of the milk. Follow with the rest of the dry ingredients, taking care not to over mix the batter.

Remove 2 cups of the batter and stir in the grape jelly. Evenly fill the liners about two-thirds full, alternating with yellow and grape batter.

Bake until a tester inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean and the tops spring back lightly to the touch, 20 to 22 minutes. Place the pan on a rack to cool for 10 minutes, and then remove the cupcakes to the rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.

For the frosting: Beat the butter and salt in a large bowl until fluffy and combined. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar until smooth and fluffy. Beat in the milk one tablespoon at a time until the frosting has a nice spreadable consistency. Add the crushed cookies and continue to beat until any large chunks are crushed to smaller bits and the frosting has a speckled, greyish look.

For the decorations: Arrange the cupcakes in 4 rows on a large serving plate or cutting board. Fit a marshmallow between each cupcake, 5 marshmallows per row, to fill in the gaps between the cupcakes. Spread the frosting over the whole rectangle so it looks like one cake. Sprinkle with the cookie crumbs and black decorating sugar.

To make the tombstones: Use the black decorating icing and a small round tip to write "RIP" or other one-word epitaphs on the top half of the oval sandwich cookies and stick into the cupcakes randomly around the graveyard.

To make the ghosts: Remove two-thirds of the tube of marzipan and place between 2 sheets of wax paper or parchment. Roll about 1/8-inch thick and cut into 3 rounds using a 4-inch biscuit cutter. You may need to gather and reroll the scraps for all 3 rounds. Drape over the wrapped lollipops and stick into the cupcakes around the tombstone. Using the black decorating icing and the same round tip, dot eyes and a mouth on the ghosts.

To make the pumpkins and leaves: Divide the remaining marzipan into 4 small pieces and roll each into a ball. Roll in the orange sugar until coated and place around the graveyard. Use the black icing to pipe a small stem. Fit the tube of green decorating icing with a leaf or ribbon tip to dot bits of green grass poking through the dirt around the graveyard and pumpkins.

To make a border: Use 6 pieces of the licorice, trimming to fit, to make a border around the cake, leaving the middle of the front side open. Bend the seventh piece into an upside down "U" and stick into 2 cupcakes in the front to make an arched gateway.

Blitz: Smut by the Sea

Smut by the Sea, edited by Lucy Felthouse and Victoria Blisse

Light hearted, sexy fun by the sea is the theme of this erotic anthology, edited by Victoria Blisse and Lucy Felthouse.

From the sun soaked bays of Australia to the rainy coastal towns of England, Smut by the Sea has it all. Whatever your interpretation of naughty seaside fun, there’s something nestling between the covers for you. Surfer boys, sea creatures, pirates and the fairground abound in this exciting collection of stories from erotica’s finest authors.

eBook:

Amazon UK

Amazon

All Romance

Barnes and Noble

Other

Print:

Amazon UK

Amazon

Excerpt:

Dodging
By Lucy Felthouse

The thrum of anticipation had been rushing through my body ever since we’d set off that morning. By the time we passed the sign welcoming us to Hunstanton and made our way into the long stay car park, I was almost delirious with excitement. The worst part was, I had to hide it from my friends. As far as Sophia and Chloe were concerned, we’d just come for a nice, fun, girly day out at the seaside. They had no idea about my ulterior motive. And I didn’t intend to tell them. Until afterwards, maybe. I didn’t want to risk them ruining my master plan, or trying to talk me out of it.

So far, it seemed like everything was on our side. The traffic had been light, we’d got a parking space with no trouble, and the sun was shining. It was a perfect day, and I had every intention of putting a cherry on top of all that perfection. A very sexy cherry.

Sophia parked the car, then hopped out to go and get a parking ticket. Chloe and I got out too, stretching our limbs after being cooped up in the car for a couple of hours.

“So,” I said, tilting my head back to catch the rays of the sun on my face, “what’s the plan then?”

“I dunno,” Chloe replied. “I’ve never been here before, you have. What do you suggest?”

“Well, there’s the beach, obviously. There are amusement arcades, mini-golf, the Sealife Centre, a few shops, the old village…”

I deliberately didn’t mention the funfair. That was my destination, and I wanted to go alone.

Sophia rejoined us and put the ticket in the windscreen of the car. “Got everything, girls?”

Chloe and I nodded, and she checked for valuables before locking the doors. “So, do we know what we’re doing yet? I guess we’ll be led by you, Abigail, since you’ve been here before. Did you say you’d visited with your parents, or something?”

I moved away from the car and started to walk down towards the seafront, though purposely leading the girls in the opposite direction to the funfair. They followed without question.

I nodded. “Yeah. We used to come here all the time for family holidays when I was younger, but now we mostly come on day trips. We last came a month or so ago. I was just telling Chloe what there is to do. There’s the beach, amusement arcades, mini-golf, the Sealife Centre, a few shops, the old village…”

“Ooh,” Sophia said, doing a little jump, “I love mini-golf! Do you fancy a game of that before it gets too hot, then we’ll go from there?”

Chloe nodded her agreement, and I said, “I’ll take you there, ladies, but I can’t play.”

“Why the hell not?” Sophia asked. “It doesn’t matter if you’re crap. I’m crap at it too, it’s just a laugh.”

“No, it’s got nothing to do with being crap, Soph. I have a bad back and swinging a club around and doing all that bending is just going to make it worse.”

It was a blatant lie of course. There wasn’t a thing wrong with my back, and I was actually a little gutted not to be having a go on the best mini-golf course I’d ever played on, but missing out was a necessary evil if I was to go through with my devious plan. If it came off, then the result would be a great deal more fun than a round of mini-golf, anyway.

Lucy Felthouse

Victoria Blisse

Wednesday Regency: London Beer Flood

If I tried, I couldn't make up a headline as awesome as this one! Pretty eye-catching, eh?! This is from the London Historian's Blog, but the gist of it is:

October 17, 1814
Pub competitions
Gimongous beer vat
Poorly constructed gimongous beer vat
Tidal wave of beer
9 deaths

Read the whole story at the London Historian's Blog, but here's the October 19, 1814 Times report of the “Dreadful Accident”:

The bursting of the brew-house walls, and the fall of heavy timber, materially contributed to aggravate the mischief. The crowd collected from the time of the accident to a late hour was immense. It presented many distressing scenes of children and other inquiring for and lamenting their parents, relatives, and friends.