My First Sweet Melissa Sunday

A while back, I saw a post from Lorelei's blog, Mermaid Sweets, that said she was going to be putting together a new baking group. The group would be posting on Sundays and would be baking their way through the Sweet Melissa Baking Book. Hence, the name Sweet Melissa Sundays (SMS).

I had just borrowed the book from the library when I saw the post and thought it sounded like some more delicious fun. I obviously expressed some interest in joining the group but didn't think I was a part of it. (I'm blaming Mommy Brain!)

Anyway, Lorelei emailed me recently asking for the recipe I had chosen for the group, and I was pretty surprised. I popped on to the SMS blog and saw my name listed among the bakers. That Lorelei...she's amazing!! I felt like such a dork, though. Here they've been baking for the last few weeks all of these delicious looking concoctions, and I've just been reading along, drooling at the pictures.
As luck would have it, shortly after the SMS group was formed, I scored the book for only $10 at The Good Cook. So now, I am excited to be able to count myself in among all of the fabulous Sweet Melissa Bakers.

Now, on to my very first recipe as part of the gang. Guinness Gingerbread. Yum! It was chosen by Katie of Katiecakes. Now, it's getting pretty warm here and gingerbread is something that you would normally eat in the colder months, especially around holiday time. There was just something about this recipe that was just begging me to make it, even though it's been warm and a bit on the humid side.

I got all of the dry ingredients together and they sat on the counter for the day, because I was just a bit undecided. But then, after dinner, I had some down time and I grabbed a Guinness and got to work. The cake was in the oven in no time.

I loved Dorie's Gingerbread that I baked with the TWD gang a few months ago, and the chunks of chocolate in that really made it fabulous for me. I took the liberty with this recipe to add a small handful of milk chocolate chips and they were good. But this gingerbread is great on it's own. It smelled fabulous when it was in the oven and I was anxious to cut a piece off for testing. It was so good while it warm! Actually, it was good whenever I passed by it on the counter.


Yum... Marc and I both really loved this one. I better slice it up and share it or get in the freezer ASAP. It 's a bit on the dangerous side for me.