Sweet Ways to show you care!

This is a sponsored post written on behalf of Ghirardelli Chocolate and Josh Cellars as part of their #asweetpairing campaign. As always all opinions are our own. We’re also giving away two (2) $75 Amex gift cards! Don’t miss your chance to win by completing the entry form at the end of this post.

Valentine’s Day is a fun time of the year for me, maybe it is because the dominate color of the holiday is pink and every where I turn I see beautiful hues of pink. Perhaps it is due to the fact that it is the holiday of love and at my core I am a total hopeless romantic. Cheesy movies? Bring ’em on, in fact the cheesier the better in my opinion! Candy and flowers? Can’t get enough.

Why am I telling you all of this?

It is because I love to give gifts to people, in fact I have said on more than one occasion that if I bake for you that means that I love you. I also like to do small things for others that I think they might enjoy. Sadly, I don’t do these things nearly as much as I would like. Life gets in the way, between our crazy schedules and working full time, I don’t always give to others the way that I would like to.

This year I decided to be different. I have so many friends that are hurting in one way or the other, perhaps they have a sick family member, lost a job, or are just down in the dumps. So, if something that I can do for them might brighten their day in some small way I am going to go for it!

First up on my gift giving agenda is chocolate and wine! Specifically Josh Cellar’s wine, and Ghirardelli Chocolate! I am absolutely in love with the Josh Cellar’s Chardonnay and while I know that red wine pairs better with chocolate, I simply am not a red wine kind of a gal. Sorry. Did you know that Ghirardelli has some super cute individually wrapped Valentine’s Day themed chocolate squares? I put some into one of those cute little mailboxes intended for valentines at school. Armed with a bottle of Josh Cellar’s wine and my mailbox full of chocolate I marched over to my neighbor’s house and we had some fantastic girlfriend time. There never needs to be a reason to spend time with your friends!

Like I said earlier I love to bake, brownies are my weakness. In fact after my second son was born I baked brownies at least 2 times a week. Healthy? No. But I suffered from a pretty nasty bout of postpartum depression and baking was the only thing that made me feel normal.

When I made the brownies pictured I needed to figure out what to do with some raspberries that were going be bad very soon. So raspberry brownies soon became the baking plan! In addition to the raspberries I also added chopped Ghiralledai squares. These particular squares had a white chocolate heart center and a milk chocolate surround. Keeping in mind that white chocolate is sweeter I cut back on my sugar amounts by just a bit.

The recipe follows:

You will need:

• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder for dusting, or as needed
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups superfine sugar
• 1 cup margarine, softened
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 cup chopped Ghirardelli Valentine’s Day Squares (with the white chocolate heart center) 
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup fresh raspberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12×9-inch baking dish and dust with 1 teaspoon cocoa powder.

Beat eggs, superfine sugar, margarine, flour, chocolate chunks, and 3/4 cups cocoa powder together with an electric hand mixer in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Fold raspberries gently into the batter; spoon into the prepared baking dish.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top is a bit crusty, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting.

Once the brownies are finished wrap them up and send them with your kids to school, or go visit a family member or friend that is lonely!

There are lots of ways to show that you care all year long, but especially around Valentine’s day this year, without breaking the bank!

A Sweet Giveaway!

I am so excited to say that we are giving away two (2) $75 Pre-Paid Gift Cards in conjunction with the #asweetpairing campaign. Enter via the Rafflecoptor box below!

This giveaway is open the residents in the continental United States. The giveaway goes live on 2/4/16 and ends on 2/12/16 @ 11:59 PM EST. The winners will be chosen using random.org and will be notified via email The winners have 48 hours to claim prize before it will be forfeited and another winner is chosen. You must be 18 years or older to win. Void where prohibited.
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