November cakes {book-inspired baking}

When I finished reading The Scorpio Races in August, I noted that I could "almost... taste the sticky-sweetness of November cakes." Well, now I can say that I have tasted the sticky-sweetness of November cakes. And they are delicious!

Maggie Stiefvater tortures her readers for 409 pages with tantalizing descriptions of these little hand cakes, and then kindly adds a recipe in the back of the book (yay!). But, naturally, I had to wait until November to try it! So, how did they turn out? What does a November cake actually look like? << Good luck figuring that one out; while I love baking, I struggle immensely with taking flattering pictures of my food.

I was a little skeptical when I finished mixing the dough and it seemed... thin. And sticky. But I followed the recipe to a T and let it rise as-is, thinking maybe it would magically be ok in an hour. Nope. I dumped it on the table to roll it out, and it sort of oozed into a doughy puddle. So I scraped it all back into the bowl and added more flour.

Tip: if your dough seems more like batter than the bread dough it's supposed to resemble, add more flour. If it doesn't look right, it probably isn't.

In the end, I still didn't add enough flour, apparently, because there weren't a lot of "nooks and crannies" for the glaze to settle into. But they were delicious and sticky and caramel-y nonetheless.

So, before you run out of November this year, go read The Scorpio Races (if you haven't already; if you have, it's definitely worth a re-read!) and then bake yourself some November cakes. They take a bit of time and effort, but believe me, they're worth it.

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Have you ever made a book-inspired recipe? If so, what was it? And the all-important question: Have you read The Scorpio Races? (Hint: There are two correct answers here -- "yes" and "not yet." :) )