Guest Post (and a Giveaway!): Suzanne Woods Fisher & The Sweet Life

Please join me in welcoming the fabulous Suzanne Woods Fisher to the blog today to chat about her new book, The Sweet Life, and the world’s favorite ice cream flavor!

THE SWEET LIFE by Suzanne Woods Fisher
SERIES: Cape Cod Creamery #1
GENRE: Inspirational Contemporary Romance
PUBLISHER: Revell
RELEASE DATE: May 3, 2022
PAGES: 312

Dawn Dixon can hardly believe she’s on a groomless honeymoon on beautiful Cape Cod . . . with her mother. Sure, Marnie Dixon is good company, but Dawn was supposed to be here with Kevin, the love of her life (or so she thought).

Marnie Dixon needs some time away from the absolute realness of life as much as her jilted daughter does, and she’s not about to let her only child suffer alone–even if Marnie herself had been doing precisely that for the past month.

Given the circumstances, maybe it was inevitable that Marnie would do something as rash as buy a run-down ice-cream shop in the town’s tightly regulated historic district. After all, everything’s better with ice cream.

Her exasperated daughter knows that she’s the one who will have to clean up this mess. Even when her mother’s impulsive real estate purchase brings Kevin back into her life, Dawn doesn’t get her hopes up. Everyone knows that broken romances stay broken . . . don’t they?

Welcome to a summer of sweet surprises on Cape Cod–a place where dreams just might come true.

affiliate links used

the perfect scoop

by Suzanne Woods Fisher, author of The Sweet Life

This will surprise most of you. What do you think is the most favorite ice cream flavor in the world? The entire world. What’s the perfect scoop?

Did you guess vanilla? If so, give yourself a pat on the back. You’re right! Sure, it might not sound as exciting as more dramatic flavors (Meyer Lemon Zest!, Chocolate Macadamia Nut!), but a good—really good—vanilla ice cream satisfies the palate like no other flavor. When you get a scoop of perfect vanilla ice cream, it can blow you away.

In The Sweet Life, ice cream maker Dawn Dixon is on a quest to make the world’s best vanilla ice cream. A self-described perfectionist, she can’t move off this one flavor until she gets it just right.

Getting it right, though, is complicated. It’s intricate, with depth and richness. It’s foundational to all other ice cream flavors. Get it right and Dawn will have her base for the Main Street Creamery. Like all ice cream makers, Dawn knows that a vanilla base is the perfect canvas for mix-ins (chopped nuts, cookies, chocolate, candy, swirled in sauces). But getting it right is proving to be surprisingly difficult.

Vanilla ice cream is so pure that it reveals everything—the skill of the ice cream maker (or lack of), the quality of the milk, cream, eggs, and vanilla beans. Strong flavors like chocolate and coffee can mask flaws or inferior ingredients as they coat the tongue, but not vanilla. Little errors get noticed. You can’t hide anything with vanilla. It has the utmost integrity. If you’ve ever had amazing vanilla ice cream, well, the product speaks for itself. It’s the perfect scoop.

The Sweet Life’s Favorite (so far) Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe

Ugandan Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Credit: Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams At Home by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan, 2011) www.jenisicecreams.com

Makes: about 1 quart

2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped (Note: Jeni uses Ndali Estate beans, but you can use any high-quality vanilla beans you prefer.)

1. Prep: Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Fill a large bowl with ice water.

2. Cook: Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, corn syrup and vanilla seeds and bean in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heat-proof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.

3. Chill: Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag into the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.

4. Freeze: Remove the vanilla bean. Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

5. Enjoy!

With over 1.5 million copies sold, Suzanne Woods Fisher is a bestselling author of over 39 books, ranging from novels to children’s books to non-fiction. She is a Christy Award finalist, a winner of Carol and Selah awards, and a two-time finalist for ECPA Book of the Year. She writes stories that take you to places you’ve never visited—one with characters that seem like old friends. But most of all, her books give you something to think about long after you’ve finished reading them. Suzanne lives with her very big family in northern California.

website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Newsletter

Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon

Revell is offering a print copy of The Sweet Life by Suzanne Woods Fisher to TWO of my readers! (US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Bonus Giveaway!!

click on the giveaway graphic below to enter on Instagram

What about you? What makes you want to read The Sweet Life by Suzanne Woods Fisher? What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?