Category: Sweets

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
And Peach Cupcakes, Classic Buttercream, and Peach Italian Cookies

I don’t know why humans torture ourselves with thrillers – it’s the same weird phenomenon where we stand in lines for an hour for 1 minute on a crazy tall rollercoaster. But, I excitedly seek out both. When I was younger I ate up all of Stephen King’s books but Grady Hendrix’s approach to thrillers is slightly different. I had a moment in the first 50 pages or so where I questioned if this was even a thriller at all or if it was just about housewives reading true crime books. But then it turned a corner and my heart was beating and that familiar rush of reading a thriller was there. 

The main character, Patricia, a housewife in Charleston, is pretty infuriating throughout a big chunk of the novel. You just wanted to transfer a chunk of courage to her to trust herself but she was confined and limited by classic late 80s/90s misogyny. Her husband, Carter, was the worst and her kids were annoying. Patricia largely finds solace in her book club which chooses fun and exciting thrillers and true crime novels despite how their community might judge their book choices. But like everything that she chooses for her own enjoyment, others in the book try to limit and control this joy. The humiliation that these women were forced to endure at the hands of the men is palpable. Every single family eventually has the control of the men at the center of them revealed – and Hendrix does this only after you know and love the women in the book for their strong and unique personalities. The juxtaposition here is powerful and made your hearts break for them. For the modern-day feminist, it’s more than upsetting and could be viewed as another classic novel where men are controlling things – but you need to look beyond that and consider the book in the context of the 90s and then look at the subtle character moves in the novel which makes this a modern approach. Ultimately, the sense of sisterhood in this book remains supreme. 

This book was particularly interesting because it snuck in a lot of commentary about race, gender roles, classism, societal pressure, and more into the most unsuspecting places. Because of these themes, even non-thriller fans can find enjoyment here. For that very reason I picked the “peach tree” scene as the representative of this book – and after you get to the scene the cover of the book begins to make sense. I can’t give away too much…but if you read on more about this inspiration get ready for the sliiightest of spoilers/implications to major plot points. 

Final Recommendation:

Skip it! /  Put it on your list! / ((Go read it now!))

Patricia ends up taking on the responsibility of caring for her senile mother-in-law. Her character seems like just a side plot and I don’t pay much attention to her at the start. As the novel progresses, her outbursts which are written off as manic episodes by the characters begin to make sense – and inform an important backstory of the vampire in the book named James. One story, in particular, stuck with me. It was when her mother-in-law told the real story behind why her peach tree on her property was considered spoiled and poisoned – and why she wouldn’t let anyone eat from it even decades later. I really don’t want to reveal much but it was a nice parallel to the “present-day” of the novel and how society seems very willing to accept easy scapegoats versus admitting personal responsibility in hard situations. It seems that the easy way out ends up destroying the characters who opt for it in the long run. 

Here is the quote that inspired the cupcakes (sort of, this is where the first seed about the peach tree storyline was planted – not where the truth behind it was revealed):

“She refused to let anyone eat from the peach tree in her backyard no matter how good the fruit looked because she said it had been planted in sadness and the fruit tasted bitter.”

Grady Hendrix, page 59

The good thing about these cupcakes is they taste anything but sad and bitter. They are goooooood and visually stunning.  I promise.

Peach Cupcakes (Makes 12):

I highly recommend watching The Scran Line’s video where he gives a tutorial on how to make these cupcakes. I didn’t make the cupcakes with his recipe but I followed his “peach” Italian cookie recipe exactly. I am always skeptical trying new cupcake recipes for cupcakes that are flavored – and tend to just make simple adjustments to my go-to vanilla cupcakes. 

Cupcake Ingredients: (makes 12 cupcakes)

• 1 stick of unsalted butter (softened)
• ⅔ cup of sugar
• 1 tablespoon (packed) of orange zest (about half of an orange)
• 3 eggs (at room temperature)
• 1 ½  teaspoon of vanilla extract 
• 1 ½ cups of All-Purpose Flour
• 1 ½ teaspoon of baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt
• ¼ milk
• 2 teaspoons of peach schnapps (or any peach liquor), optional
• 1 cup chopped canned peaches
• Food coloring: I used a pink gel with a touch of yellow gel.

Cupcakes How-to:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and fill your cupcake pan with liners
2. Cream together your softened butter, sugar, and zest. When the orange zest and sugar combine it creates an awesome fruity flavor throughout the whole cupcake. Mix on medium until they are nice and fluffy. 
3. Add your eggs, one at a time, using a rubber spatula to wipe down the sides each time. 
4. In a separate bowl, mix together schnapps, vanilla, and milk. Set aside for a sec.
5. In another bowl, mix together all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) and whisk to combine. 
6. Alternate between adding your wet and dry ingredients into your sugary lemony butter mix. Mix until combined – don’t over mix! I like to do the last couple of mixes with my wooden spoon or spatula. 
7. Put in a few drops of pink food coloring and a touch of yellow to get the nice peachy pink.
8. Fold in your peaches.
9. Distribute the batter evenly throughout the 12 liners – it should end up at all being 3/4ish full. Put in the oven for 17-20 minutes. 18 minutes is usually my go-to time for most cupcakes but because there’s additional liquid in here with the peaches it may take a bit longer to fully bake. The trick to knowing a cupcake is done: touch the middle of the cupcake near the end of bake time and if it bounces back, it’s done! 
10. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely!

Frosting Ingredients:

• 2 sticks of unsalted butter (softened)
• 4 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla
• Optional splash of peach schnapps if you feel so moved
• 1-2 tablespoons of heavy cream (whole milk would also be ok, heavy cream tastes best)
• Pinch of salt

Frosting How-to:

1. Put your softened butter in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium and beat until it is consistently creamy. This takes around 2-3 minutes. 
2. Add the powdered’ sugar 1 cup at a time (trust me – you’ll have a mega mess on your hands if you try and put it all in at once). Mix until combined. 
3. Add in the lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Beat for about 2 minutes on medium speed. 
4. Add 1-2 tablespoons of heavy cream until you get a consistency you’re happy with. Beat again for about 2 minutes. 
5. Transfer to a piping bag and frost your cooled down cupcakes! This can also be made ahead and stored until about 1 week in the fridge. It is better to frost your cupcakes close before serving them! If you are making them ahead of time, bring them to room temperature and then beat them in your stand mixer for a minute or two until its creamy/a good consistency again! If necessary add another tablespoon of heavy cream. 

“Peach” Orange Zest Italian Cookies

Ingredients: I am giving this in US cups for measurement but head to The Scran Line for the original measurements in grams. (Full disclosure, I have a scale so used the original grams but just carefully watched the cup measurements for you all!)

• 5 cups of flour
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of granulated sugar minus about two tablespoons (it should be a little less than 1 cup).
• 185 ml of whole milk (this is about 6 ounces or a fifth less than a cup)
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter, melted and cooled a bit
• Freshly grated zest of 1 orange
• 1/2 cup Peach Schnapps + 4 drops red food gel (adjust based on how light your alcohol is)
• 1/3 cup of rum (I used dark rum) + 3 drops of yellow
• About 1 cup of sugar for coating
• Mint leaves (fresh) to garnish as the leaves

How-to:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift your flour and baking powder into a big bowl. Whisk together. 
3. In another, small bowl whisk your eggs together then whisk together with your sugar. Next, add in your milk to this same bowl and continue to whisk. Lastly, add in your cooled off melted butter and mix to combine. 
4. Zest your orange over this liquid ingredient bowl and mix to combine.
5. Mix into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon and spatula to combine.
6. Let the dough rest for about 5 minutes. 
7. The batter should be thick enough to form little tablespoon-sized balls. Roll it in your hand and then place on a greased cookie sheet/or one fitted with parchment paper. These only expand a little and will keep their shape and light color after being baked. 
8. Bake them for 15 minutes (bottoms should be slightly golden brown).
9. While it’s baking – make your ganache (recipe below)!
10. Hollow out a small hole in the bottom of each cookie, slather lightly with ganache, and attach bottom to bottom to form your peach. The ganache acts as your “glue”. I put these in the refrigerator for about five minutes for them to harden.
11. Allow them to cool while you mix together your food coloring station: take out three bowls similar to how you would arrange a breading station for breaded chicken. In one bowl mix your rum and coloring, in another your schnapps and coloring, and lastly your sugar.
12. Take the cookies, dip small sections in the red mixture, roll it completely in the yellow mixture and then coat it in sugar. 
13. Then put a nice mint leaf on top and you’ve got a tasty peach! 

Ganache to join the cookies together:

**Note on chocolate ganache: basically your ratio of chocolate to cream is what dictates the thickness. For this, I used a 2:1 ratio which is similar to what you can use to make chocolate truffles. 

• 1 cup of semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
• ½ cup of heavy whipping cream

How-To:

1. Combine the two ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl. Gently stir. 
2. Microwave in 20-second intervals, mixing after each time. Be patient! It eventually comes together. 
3. Let cool a bit.

Vampire Blood:

• Corn Syrup (both light and dark)
• Red food coloring

To get the vampire blood I mixed corn syrup and red food coloring. I used a mixture of light and dark corn syrup to get a true blood color (I used much less of the dark) and sort of eye-balled the food coloring until I got a color I liked. I then punctured the cookie with a toothpick and used the toothpick to drip the “blood” mixture down into the bites.