We love a good return guest on Friday Feast and Australian author Joan Kilby is no exception. Her last post featured a delicious tour through south-east Asia full of gorgeous pics that had my mouth watering and my legs itching for travel.

I’m also feeling particularly partial toward Joan right now because I’m reading her new SuperRomance release, To Be A Family, and it’s WONDERFUL. There’s nothing like starting a story and being completely sucked in within a couple of pages, and although To Be A Family is the fifth book in Joan’s Summerside series it can be read perfectly on its own. Looks like I’ll be hunting down books 1-4!

TO BE A FAMILY

What do you do when your dreams for tomorrow happen today? John Forster’s plans to eventually be a father hit high gear when he’s granted custody of his little girl. Although he does his best, it’s soon clear she needs help adjusting to this small Australian town. Fortunately, there’s one person with the right skills to assist—Katie Henning. Too bad she’s his ex-fiancée.

Seeing Katie with his daughter resurrects John’s dreams about having a family together. And the simmering attraction that still sparks when he’s with Katie makes him think, maybe. Maybe he can make up for their past. Maybe he can build on what they share now. And maybe they can have that future he’s always wanted.

Doesn’t that sound fab? It really is a great read. For North American readers, To Be A Family is available now in stores or clickety-click on over to Amazon. Australian and New Zealand readers will have to wait a little longer until November. But, trust me, it’s worth the wait!

And now here’s Joan with another foodie adventure.

Hello, Friday Feasters! Cathryn, thanks for having me back!

I love baking but I don’t do it very often because cakes are so fattening. Yes, true. Sorry to disillusion anyone. However, for a special occasion or a dinner party, I’m only too happy to bring out the butter and sugar and cocoa and whip up something yummy.

Before I made this Cappuccino Cake I’d never cooked with mascarpone before. I’d bought a 1 kilo tub of mascarpone at Costco (it was such a good deal!) and then had to go looking for recipes to use it in. A kilo is a lot of mascarpone!

We were having people over for dinner that weekend so I was after a dessert recipe. Tiramisu would have been an obvious choice but I find it a bit too rich. I came across the Cappuccino Cake recipe at BBC GoodFood.

I didn’t take a photo on the night but I can honestly say my cake looked exactly like the one on the BBC website. And it was delicious! The crumb was moist and dense yet not heavy and not too sweet. And the mascarpone icing was absolutely luscious.

The second time I made it, one of my friends can’t eat cheese so I made a whipped chocolate ganache to go on top instead. I added coffee to the chocolate and cream and was so worried it wasn’t going to whip that I actually over-whipped it. It still tasted delicious.

Oh, wow! Have a look at that cake! You’re a naughty tease, Joan. I want a big fat slice of it right now but all I have are Haigh’s choc-mint frogs and liquorice. Hardly the same! If only I had a kitchen fairy…

Now, lovely Feasters, because Joan is a wonderful generous person (and did I mention an excellent author?), she’s offering one lucky commenter their own copy of To Be A Family, but you’re going to have to work for it. You don’t get tried and true cake recipes and books for nothing, you know.

So what have you purchased too much of and then had to use up? Share your experience and you’ll go into the draw to win a copy of Joan’s wonderful new release, To Be A Family.

Giveaway closes midnight, Tuesday 16^th October 2012. Open internationally. Rah!

If you’d like to learn more about Joan and her books please visit her website. You can also connect via Facebook and Twitter.