Gluten-Free Almond Cake

Monica La Porta, , 4 Comments

This cake, deliciously sinful, was almost dairy-free too, then I double-checked the ingredients I used and it turned out there was milk in the almond filling. Quoque Gluten-Free Almond Caketu, Almond Filling…

Still, it was too good to discard the recipe. Next time, I’ll find a dairy-free substitute for the infamous almond filling.

 

 

 

 

 

What I had in the pantry:

Half cup Coconut oil (warmed to a liquid state)

3 Eggs

1 Can Almond Filling (unfortunately coming with milk)

2 Cups and 1 quarter cup of Gluten Free Pantry Old Fashioned Cake & Cookie Mix

Half teaspoon salt

1 Quarter cup of water

How I made the almond cake:

I threw all the ingredients in the KitchenAid bowl and let it go at slow speed until the mix looked nice (don’t you love how scientific I am?) Greased a Bundt pan with the coconut oil, poured the cake batter in it, and let it cook for 50 minutes at 350F (as usual, take the data as purely indicative, since my oven isn’t great.) The cake is particularly good as soon as out of the oven. I’m sorry to report that the next day it loses part of its mystique, perfume, and flavor. It must be the sneaky milk ruining it for everybody. Fortunately, the cake was eaten almost entirely five minutes after it landed on the kitchen table. Must report I wasn’t alone.

Gluten-Free Almond Cake

Friday Snippet #23

Monica La Porta, , 8 Comments

Still under the weather. Last week flu has progressed into a long-lasting cold. Outside the window, fall is in full swing, leaves have found their final resting places on the ground, and the oranges, yellows, and reds have relocated with them. Still, lots of green left standing and with them my hope the universe will re-align itself for my sake.

From X, Julius decides to take a shortcut through one of  Cartaghena’s most talked-about neighborhoods:

Before some of the buildings—the more colorful ones—elaborated signs waved from their poles, some of them sporting cut-outs figurines self-explanatory of the kind of services offered by the establishment. Others were just paintings. Allegra saw a cute rendition of an embraced couple and blushed, her eyes went to the curtained windows and she wondered what happened behind them.

“I was never there. I was told great things about the owner though,” Julius commented.

She opened her mouth, but words failed her and couldn’t help to turn to take a look at him.

He arched his brow, lips turned up in a smile. “You were dying to ask me that.”

“Was not.” She faced the street again.

“I told you I was with a friend.”

“And?”

“She wouldn’t have been happy if I had gone visiting those places.”
“Oh, that kind of friend.” She wondered—and not in kind terms—about that unknown girl who had been free to visit such a neighborhood. At night and with a boy.

“She used to live… right there.” He moved her to face a small cottage on the far left.

“Charming.” She knew Julius was a few years older than her, but she didn’t like he had much more experience. Especially if the way he had obtained such experience hadn’t had anything to do with her. She tried to rationalize her emotions with the fact that guide and guided shared a special bond, but her voice had betrayed something different and she hated it.

“Lucilla’s dad was a renowned painter and her mom was his favorite model. Maybe you saw some of his portraits—” Julius kept her looking at the cottage.

Awful name. “Highly doubt so.” She moved and for a moment they lost contact. Sometimes, she did that on purpose. She wasn’t sure this time whose eyes she was blinding.

Friday Snippet #23

Sweet Pumpkin: A Gluten-Free Dairy-Free, Low Calories Delight

Monica La Porta, , Leave a comment

Sweet Pumpkin Dessert

Autumn is here and so are pumpkins in every color and shape.

What I had in the pantry:

4 Cups of diced pumpkin

2 Apples, peeled and diced

A quarter cup of extra virgin coconut oil

1 small piece of vanilla bean

How I made the pumpkin dessert:

I just put all in the ingredients in a pan and let them cook until both pumpkin and apples were soft. Fast, sweet and delicious!

Sweet Pumpkin: A Gluten-Free Dairy-Free, Low Calories Delight

Make Your Own Fairytale #7

Monica La Porta, , , , , , Leave a comment

I had a busy morning which transitioned into a busy afternoon without stopping for lunch. Thankfully, I have friends with renewed cooking skills. None of what I just mentioned has anything to do with the image I’m going to post below. I just like writing. That’s all.

Orange Precipitations

Make Your Own Fairytale #7

The Next Big Thing

Monica La Porta5 Comments

I was invited to participate in “The Next Big Thing” blog tag by the lovely Julia Hughes, author of the bestseller A Ripple in Time, among many other fabulous books.

The City of Men : Fourth Book in a Trilogy

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What is the working title of your book?

At the moment, I’m working on several projects, but the one I’d like to finish first is The City of Men. It’s book 1.5 in The Ginecean Chronicles. The events narrated in this story take place between The Priest and Pax in the Land of Women. Same world, same social turmoil, different point of view.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The Ginecean Chronicles started as a trilogy, but Ginecean society is rather complex and it occurred to me that I wrote the story by the point of view of a semental in The Priest, a pure breed in Pax in the Land of Women, a different kind of semental in Prince of War, and I was missing the point of view of a fathered woman. The City of Men is the story behind the story narrated by a young fathered woman, who ends up far away from the safety of the Institute where she was born and raised.

What genre does your book fall under?

The City of Men is a dystopian/science fiction/action love story.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Leading actress for the role of Marie (I might change her name) would be Saoirse Ronan.

Leading actor for the role of Grant (I might change his name as well) would be Drew Van Acker.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Society rules can’t restrain our hearts.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

The City of Men, following the other three in The Ginecean Chronicles will be self-published. The topics I discuss in my stories are still considered taboo and I like the freedom to express myself without censorship.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I’m still writing the first draft. Working on several projects and trying to market already published books can be quite draining. I’m trying to better organize my time. Thankfully, November is around the corner and I’ll take advantage of Nanowrimo to finish writing the story.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I have no ready answer for this question.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Amor Vincit Omnia. The whole Ginecean series was inspired by the realization that society rules are arbitrary and transitory. What is seen as proper now wasn’t one hundred years ago. In my worlds, love always wins, despite color/religion/gender differences. Maybe, one day, hopefully soon, we won’t need organizations like It Gets Better to help bullied kids.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The City of Men is set in an alternate Earth, Ginecea, where women rose to power in the far past and as a result they now rule over a race of enslaved men. On Ginecea, heterosexual love is deemed as sinful and impure. Pure breed women only give birth to girls and are attended exclusively by a lesser race of women called ‘fathered.’ If you like gender-benders, what-ifs scenarios, and overall to look at things from a different point of view, then, maybe, my Ginecean series could be for you.

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Thank you, again, Julia, for tagging me. It has been fun answering the questions. As usual, writing about my stories is the most difficult thing. Ask me about my beagle and I’ll go on for hours. I’ll even add a pic or two. But if I have to explain why anybody should read my books, I stare unblinkingly at the windows, hoping the glass panels would give me some brilliant answer.

But enough about me. Without further ado, those are my two talented nominees, who will delight you with their insights next week:

Clare Davidson

DasteRoad

The Next Big Thing

Friday Snippet #22

Monica La Porta, , , 9 Comments

Weather suddenly turning autumny, wet, and cold, I got a seasonal flu with relative headache, itchy throat, and runny nose. Despite adverse conditions, both inside of me and outside of the house, my writing hasn’t suffered. Instead I’m witnessing a moment of intense inspiration. My illustrations for the kids book are taking a considerable number of hours, but I like what I’m doing with them. TCOM has reached 30k and its main characters are about to experience a big change in their young lives. X is slowly but steadily growing into something that could have a chance to become a full-fledged story. Only Notturno is sleeping in its cozy folder. I do feel slightly guilty about that, but not a lot I can do about it at the moment.

From X, because an author must have fun at least once a week.

Allegra blinked once, and then when her eyes showed her the same sight, she blinked again. The big foyer was empty. Floor to ceiling empty; no furniture, tapestries, decorations. Nothing. She breathed slowly. The air inside the room reflected the same state of emptiness by carrying no scents to her nose. She started shaking.

“Nothing?” Julius stepped by her side.

“Nothing.” She knew he would ask her to go visit the rest of the house and started walking toward the end of the foyer before he would say the words. She saw her siblings playing hide and seek with her, their favorite spot to hide a big armoire that used to fill the entire wall she was presently looking at. The dark piece of furniture one of their mother’s whims. Allegra had always thought the armoire ugly, now she was looking at the striped ivory and yellow wallpaper and hoped to see it here, interrupting the pattern. The foyer opened to a corridor dotted with doors on both sides and led to the internal courtyard. She opened the doors as she went—her father’s studio, her mother’s craft room, her brother and sister’s playroom, the small library where she had spent hours dreaming of faraway places —to find exactly what her nose was already telling her. Nobody and nothing was there anymore. They entered the internal courtyard and found the central pool still filled with water, but the koi fish which had resided there as long as she could remember where gone.

Friday Snippet #22