THE WEDDING PARTY book tour, soothing mystery novels, and the best zucchini cake ever
Friends! The Wedding Party comes out in just over two weeks, and I'm so excited to get to share this book with all of you! I'll be making a bunch of tour stops this time to bookstores and cities I've never been to, so I hope I get to meet a bunch of you! First off, I'll be at East Bay Booksellers in Oakland on Monday July 15, the night before the official The Wedding Party on sale date (but don't worry, the book will be there!). There will be champagne and snacks and all sorts of celebration. Then, Tuesday July 16, I'll be at Books Inc. in San Francisco (Marina location), in conversation with Nicole Cliffe! On Wednesday, July 17, I'll start my Los Angeles leg of the tour at Vromans, in Pasadena, in conversation with the delightful pair known as the Fug Girls, Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan. On Thursday, July 18, I'll be at the wonderful romance bookstore The Ripped Bodice, in conversation with Sonali Dev (I recommended her book Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors to you a few weeks ago). On Saturday, July 20, I'll be at Changing Hands in Phoenix, in conversation with Jessica Pryde. On Sunday, July 21, I'll be at Tattered Cover in Denver, in conversation with Alexa Martin, whose books Intercepted and Fumbled I adored. On Tuesday, July 23, I'll be at Subtext in St. Paul, Minnesota, in conversation with Amy E. Reichert, author of Coincidence of Coconut Cake and other great books. On Wednesday, July 24, I'll be at the American Writer's Museum in Chicago, in conversation with Diamond Sharp. And finally, on Friday, July 25, I'll be at Joseph-Beth booksellers in Cinncinati, Ohio, in conversation with Kerry Winfrey, author of the adorable Waiting for Tom Hanks! I can't wait to meet a bunch of you and see some new cities. Tickets are required to the events at The Ripped Bodice and The American Writer's Museum, so grab those up asap, and all of the other events are free. But if you do want to come to any of the above events, or if you are far away from all of these places but want a signed book, you can click on any of those links or call the bookstores and preorder a book! All of these events are on the events page of my website; I'll also be updating the page with book festivals and other events for later in the summer and the fall, so check there for more.
To soothe my prepub jitters, I've been making my way through the Miss Silver mystery novels, and let me tell you, they're helping a bunch. I think I got this recommendation from one of my recommend me a book threads on Twitter a while ago, and I'm so grateful to whoever told me about them. Here's why this is the perfect mystery series: there are a whole bunch of them, Miss Silver is a middle aged, old fashioned, kind, principled, constantly knitting, smart, private detective in wartime/post war England, in many of them the person who is murdered is a really bad guy, so you when you start the book and intensely dislike a character, you get to gleefully anticipate their death in that so satisfying way, people are always drinking tea and eating good snacks, and they are just altogether cozy and charming. A few warnings: I got bored early on with the first book in the series and gave up on them and didn't come back to them for a long time, and then I started again with the second book in the series and was hooked, so if the first one bores you, just move on to the next one (though I'm going to go back to the first one now and see if I like it better); there's always a romance of some bright young people in these, and half the time I want to pitch the male half of the couple out of a window; some of the police attitudes about women are not great. But I get enough enjoyment out of these books to make up for the above.
A friend asked for good zucchini recipes on Twitter the other day, since it's now very much zucchini season, and boy did I have a great one for her. I gave you this recipe in my newsletter back when this was a baby newsletter, but it's been almost two years, so I'm going to give it to you again because it's just that good. It's a David Lebovitz recipe, and the first time I made it I think I made it three times in one week, it was that good. It is a recipe that's a whole bunch easier if you have a food processor, both for grinding the nuts and for grating the zucchini (and because both things go in the same bowl, you don't have to bother cleaning it out in between the two steps, just dump the nuts out into the bowl and don't stress if the zucchini gets a little nutty). Also, it calls for you to make it in a bundt or tube pan, but I've also made it in two loaf pans, and it works fine there, just pay closer attention to it towards the end of the baking time, it needs about five to ten fewer minutes in the oven. And if you don't have a stand mixer, this still works fine; just beat with a hand mixer or a good spoon for longer than the recipe says.
Zucchini Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze
Cake:
1 cup (135 g) almonds, pecans, or walnuts, toasted (I've used both walnuts and pecans for this and both are great)
2 cups (280 g) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon (optional)
1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
zest of one or two lemons
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups (350 g) granulated sugar
1 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups (300 g) grated zucchini
For the lemon glaze:
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup (65 g) granulated sugar
1 cup (140 g) powdered sugar
Making the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a bundt or tube pan or two loaf pans. Pulse the nuts in a food processor until they're finely chopped. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices, and lemon zest in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer (set with the paddle attachment) or a big mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, and olive oil until light and fluffy (about three minutes). Add the vanilla and mix again. Mix in the dry ingredients, beat on medium speed for thirty seconds, and then stir in the nuts and zucchini. Scoop the batter into the pan or pans, smooth the top, and bake for 45-50 minutes (in loaf pans, more like 35-40), until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan.
Making the glaze and finishing the cake:
As the cake cools, whisk together the lemon juice, the granulated sugar, and the powdered sugar. When the cake has cooled for about ten minutes, invert the cake onto a cooling rack over a parchment or foil lined cookie sheet (this makes cleanup much easier). Brush the glaze over the cake with a pastry brush and let cool completely.
Have a great weekend!
Jasmine
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