Blog Tour: Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland – Bookish Recipe!

Hi everyone!

I’m so excited to have a stop on the blog tour for Our Chemical Heats by Krystal Sutherland!  I want to mention that this book is incredible…it’s such a heartbreaking novel that really makes you analyze the important things.  Plus the book had a witty and awkward main character, so it’s such a joy to read.  It’s one of the best books I’ve read so far in 2016, so be sure to keep an eye out for my review in the next few days!

Anyway, my stop on the tour is for a bookish recipe!  I’m not one for being all that artsy or anything, but I came up with something pretty neat that seemed to fit in with the theme of the book (as well as that beautiful cover).  Here’s some information and links for the book, as well as some information about the very talented author herself, and then we’ll get to my attempt at a glorious confection (well my kids thought they were awesome, so at least there’s that)!

Our Chemical Hearts

Author: Kyrstal Sutherland

Publication Date: October 4th, 2016

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Synopsis: John Green meets Rainbow Rowell in this irresistible story of first love, broken hearts, and the golden seams that put them back together again.

Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can’t-eat-can’t-sleep kind of love that he’s been hoping for just hasn’t been in the cards for him—at least not yet. Instead, he’s been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college and finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year and he knows everything’s about to change.

Grace isn’t who Henry pictured as his dream girl—she walks with a cane, wears oversized boys’ clothes, and rarely seems to shower. But when Grace and Henry are both chosen to edit the school paper, he quickly finds himself falling for her. It’s obvious there’s something broken about Grace, but it seems to make her even more beautiful to Henry, and he wants nothing more than to help her put the pieces back together again. And yet, this isn’t your average story of boy meets girl. Krystal Sutherland’s brilliant debut is equal parts wit and heartbreak, a potent reminder of the bittersweet bliss that is first love.

Some Nifty Book Links:

Amazon   |   Barnes & Noble   |   Goodreads

About the Author

Some Nifty Author Links:

Website   |   Twitter   |   Goodreads

Okay, for my bookish recipe, I decided to do cupcakes!  In the book, the two main characters spend time together at a fish pond, and they even take one of the fish back to the school newspaper office to take care of together.  That, coupled with the cover, was a great inspiration for coming up with an awesome book themed recipe.

While I did use a cake mix and canned frosting for this recipe (okay, I was a little bit lazy and wanted to focus more on the actual decorating aspect of the cupcakes), I usually make all of my cake and frosting recipes from scratch.  However, they came out pretty neat.  I didn’t take pictures of the cupcakes while I was making them or anything (trying to juggle that with two kids who both had the desire to eat all of the frosting and gummies made it a little difficult).  But in the end, I had a really great time with this, so I can’t wait to share it with you!

Just a note, I didn’t use any vegan products for this (sorry!)…just regular cake mix, jello, and gummies.

So, I present to you, my bookish recipe creation for Our Chemical Hearts:

Blue Raspberry Jello Cupcakes with Gummy Sharks!

Here’s what you need to make them:

• White cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
• Ingredients for cake (water, oil, and eggs…whatever it calls for on the box)
• Blue Raspberry Jello (or another flavor, but I chose blue to stick with the theme)
• Frosting (I used Pillsbury Vanilla, but you could use a different kind or make your own)
• Baking cups (I used foil ones so that the Jello didn’t soak through the paper)
• Decorating icing
• Sprinkles
• Gummy sharks or blue gummy fish

Here’s how you make them:

1. Place the foil baking liners in two 12 count cupcake tins.
2. Mix up the cake mix according to package directions.
3. Put about 3 tablespoons of cake batter into each cupcake liner – I use a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop to do this to eliminate any mess.
4. Bake according to package directions.
5. Let the cupcakes cool for a little while…I gave them about a half an hour.
6. Now comes the fun part!  Take a straw (your standard drinking straws work fine) and poke about five or six holes all the way through each cupcake.  After so many cupcakes (about three), squeeze the cake out of your straw and promptly give them to your children to eat so they leave you alone to proceed.
7. Once you’ve poked holes in each cupcake, make some blue raspberry Jello according to package directions, only instead of putting the Jello in the fridge, spoon about one tablespoon of the liquid Jello over each cupcake, making sure to get some into the holes you just poked into the cupcakes.
8. Put them in the fridge for a little while – I put mine in the fridge overnight so the Jello could set, but feel free to just wait about three or four hours.
9. Pipe frosting onto each cupcake (I’m clearly not the master of cupcake decorating skills, but I did find some helpful tutorials online if you don’t have a pastry bag.  I bought disposable bags and tips and used the largest round tip for my cupcakes).
10. Decorate your cupcakes with some decorative frosting.  I used Wilton Sparkle Gel in blue, and I got it at Walmart so it isn’t difficult to find.  I swirled the gel around the path I followed to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.  Then I sprinkled each with silver glitter and added a gummy shark to the top.

Oh, and don’t forget to pretend those gummy sharks are blue gummy fish.  Close enough, right?

Enjoy!