Spring in Central Virginia

I don't need to say much... these photos speak for themselves!

A Rich, Delicious Cake...

Super-Awesome shares his birthday with St. Patrick's Day and so this year I tried to combine the two things... a birthday cake with an Irish theme.   Where do I go when I need a recipe that won't let me down?  You know it...  The King Arthur Flour Website.  I always do well when I try one of their recipes and this time was no different.

The Chocolate Stout Cake is what I ended up making.  Chocolate + Guinness Stout = amazing!  Who knew?
Baking Banter, the King Arthur Flour blog also has a post depicting this Chocolate Stout Cake recipe step by step with photos and you can find that post here.

Here are my photos:

I had a shamrock cookie cutter, plunked it down in the middle and then poured the sprinkles in.  Pressed them down and carefully removed it.  Most of them stayed within the contours of the shamrock.

A dense dark cake!

Shared at our neighborhood potluck & with our small group on Sunday!  A cake like this needs to be shared, for the good of all waistlines ;-)

Welcome to the clan, Loveda!

A little over two weeks ago, on February 24th,  Compassion posted on its Facebook page that they had secured financial sponsorship for 150 children and  needed correspondence sponsors for those 150 children.  Well, I signed up for one more child.  How could I not?   Apparently, I was not the only one.  They later posted that all 150 children were spoken for in about 2 hours!  Praise the Lord!

• Correspondence sponsorships often occur when a corporation or business sponsor children, but do not have the ability to write to those children.  If you have always wanted to sponsor a child but for whatever reason the financial aspect isn't possible, correspondence sponsorship may be for you. 
• You commit to writing to the child at least 3 times a year (please, please, please write to them more than that...  try once a month if possible... set yourself a goal before you decide to sponsor and do your best to stick with it).
• If this interests you call Compassion at (800)336-7676 and request to be put on the list to become a Correspondence Sponsor!

Last Tuesday morning (and every day before that... patience a bit lacking...), I signed into my account and there she was!  Loveda from Haiti!

 She is will turn 12 this year.  We are excited to get to know this sweet girl.  On Saturday, her profile arrived in the mail and I have to say I really like the new profile booklets that Compassion is sending out.  There are lots of great resources to encourage sponsors to write & pray for these kids.  Bookmarks with daily prayer items to pray for, a Jan-Dec list to mark off when you've written or when you need to write so that they will receive something (Christmas card, birthday card, etc.), places to connect online for more information.  It's great!