by Alana Ling
‘Anyway, got to go now.’ He said and gave us both a hug. ‘Please look after Kit for me,’ he said to me.
I put my hands on my waist and stared him down.
‘Okay, okay. He can look after himself,’ he said, retreating from us and joining the queue for his airline. ‘I’d still feel better if you kept an eye out for him, though,’ he shouted.
‘Don’t worry, she’ll keep both eyes on him.’ Sam laughed.
‘Uhm, excuse me? Can you all go on your holidays so I can finally be alone?’
Jamie blew me a kiss and looked away and Ollie guided us to the VIP lounge where he gave their travel documents to the person behind the desk.
‘I guess I’ll see you on Monday. Text me if you want me to do something, though,’ Sam said to me.
‘Sam, it’s only a weekend. Go and recharge your batteries, because there’s a lot of work waiting us come next week.’
And it was true. We had so much work to do for the attending wine producers. Most of them hadn’t even confirmed yet, and the ones that had were being over the top already.
But I didn’t care. I was looking forward to running an event that didn’t end in murder.
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Acknowledgments
This has been a challenging book to write. They always say the sequel to your book is the hardest to do and boy were they right.
But I did it!
And I accomplished it thanks to a few amazing people in my life.
George and Liz, who were insightful and helpful beta readers.
Joseph and Rachael who helped with my northern accents. (I suck at them.)
Ginny, who named Sleazy. I hope the character lived up to your expectations.
Victoria, who once again was an incredible editor.
And lastly, my husband, who has endured my workload in the past month while I finished this book.
Also by Alana Ling
MURDER, SHE TASTED SERIES
In Sickness and in Death, Book 1
About Alana Ling
Alana Ling loves mysteries of any kind and spending time in the kitchen. When she's not planning parties, she can be found writing the adventures of her sleuth, Joanna. She currently resides in London with her husband and their dog, Alfie, who features in her debut series "Murder, She Tasted".
Joanna’s Recipes
Chamomile & honey cupcakes
Makes 8-12 normal sized cupcakes | Prep Time 10’ | Cook Time 15’
This has been my favourite recipe since I took up baking almost five years ago.
It all started when my grandpa sent my family some dried chamomile from Greece, and while we love making tea, there was only so much we could use.
I think at the time I googled ‘chamomile desserts’ or something along those lines (it was a very long time ago and my memory is terrible) and found a recipe similar to this. And by the way, I was really tempted to name these ‘Grandpa’s cupcakes,’ but I haven’t.
As I have now lost the original recipe I’ve had to rework it—not that it was anything difficult to start with.
This recipe is in this book because of Harold. I wanted to use Earl Grey in my baking, and he initiated all the politicians of his party having tea flavours. And what a great opportunity that became to share my favourite chamomile treats.
A word of caution: you can get addicted to this stuff. So bake responsibly.
Ingredients:
120g butter, softened
120g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 chamomile tea bags
For the icing:
120g butter, softened
200g icing sugar
1 tbsp honey
Method:
1. Turn the oven on to 175°C Fan / Gas mark 3 / 350°F.
2. Whisk the butter until light and fluffy and then stir in the sugar.
3. Add the eggs and mix together.
4. Fold in the flour, vanilla and baking powder and whisk until just combined.
5. Break the chamomile tea bags and add into the batter. Mix.
6. Line your cupcake tray with cases and divide the batter evenly (about half full).
7. Pop into the oven for 15 minutes. Once ready, take out and let cool on a cooling rack.
8. Time to make the icing. Add the butter into a bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
9. Add the icing sugar a little at a time. If your icing is too hard add a spoonful of milk to soften. If it’s too soft, add more icing sugar.
10. Add the honey and stir.
11. Spoon the icing into a piping bag and apply to the cupcakes once they are cool.
12. Garnish with chamomile sprinkles.
13. Enjoy!