Sunday, March 21, 2010

A Lush Giveaway, Awards and Chocolate Sheet Cake


This is going to be a busy post, so let's start with the food first. To congratulate my neighbors on the birth of their first grandchild, I made Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever. I figured a chocolate sheet cake was a sure bet. Everyone usually likes chocolate, right? I also like the fact that this cake serves 24, which was perfect for my neighbors because they have seven children, six of which still live with them and are under the age of eighteen. I wanted to make sure that everyone in the family was able to have some. (Note: I omitted the nuts in this recipe because most children aren't a fan).

The cake uses ingredients I always have on hand and was easy peasy to throw together. I even had enough batter left to fill a small ramekin for my daughter (a devoted chocolate fan). I tasted a bite of the cake and it was rich, chocolatey and moist. The cake is rich enough that you can satisfy your chocolate craving with a very small piece. Of course, if you really want to indulge, plop a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and call it a day. This is a great recipe for a large family or any other get together.

I am submitting this cake to Foodie Fans of the Pioneer Woman for their bi-monthly roundup of PW's recipes. Tomorrow's roundup promises to be a sweet one since we are celebrating desserts this time around. You can find the recipe for the chocolate sheet cake HERE on the Pioneer Woman's website.

I was very honored to receive two awards this week. Thank you to Sam of My Carolina Kitchen for giving me the Honest Scrap Award. Thank you also to Kathleen of Gonna Want Seconds for this beautiful Sunshine Award. I adore reading both of your blogs! In the interest of keeping this post from becoming a book, I would like to pass these awards on to all of you!



Onto the giveaway! I've mentioned before that I love my job at Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. I discovered the company as a consumer while traveling with my husband one summer and went broke buying everything in the store. Next to cooking, Lush is my second love. I love their products and so do my family and friends. When a store opened up in my local mall I ran for the opportunity to work there.

Lush is a UK-based company that has spread worldwide. All the products are handmade with fresh organic, fair-trade ingredients, based on natural ingredients, such as cocoa butter, essential oils, fruits and vegetables. The products are made with little or no preservatives and for this reason have expiration dates. The products are tested on humans, never animals. There are so many fun things, that it was hard to pick what to give away!

I wish I could make the giveaway available to everyone, but for now I will have to limit it to the US only. I am, however, looking into having items ship worldwide for the next giveaway.

I chose four items that are all related to food in one way or another:

First up is Helping Hands Hand Cream. Since we all spend so much time in the kitchen working with our hands and washing dishes, this is the perfect cream for us. This cream is packed with nourishing shea butter, soothing chamomile water, honey, and lavender. Our most popular hand cream. NOTE: The item pictured below is only 1.5 ozs. I am giving away the large sized 3.5oz hand cream.

Next, is a Blackberry Bath Bomb. Drop this purple, blackberry and frankincense scented bath bomb into your bath and relax.

Third on the list is a Creamy Candy Bubble Bar. I'm sure you're all familiar with liquid bubble bath, but this is a solid bubble bath with no preservatives at all. Simply break the bar in half and crumble one half under running water for a candy scented bubble bath!

And finally, a luxurious Melting Marshmallow Moments Bath Melt made to look like a cute little pink cupcake. The bath melts are one of my favorite products, much like a bath where you are being dipped in lotion. Cut the pink cupcake look-alike in half, toss one half in a warm bath and say MMM. This melt is packed with moisturizing cocoa butter, marshmallow powder, and almond oils. Great for dry skin.


The giveaway is open to all US Residents. The winner will receive all four products. To enter, simply leave a comment telling me which of these four products sounds the best to you. Your comments will help me when it comes time for another giveaway. Contest ends Friday, March 26th at midnight EST. Winner will be chosen with the random number generator on Saturday, March 27th.

I encourage everyone who is eligible to enter the contest, men included. These products make great gifts!

43 comments:

  1. That cake is just the best! I always leave out the nuts too.
    What a great giveaway! All the stuff sounds great, but since I'm getting old lady hands, the hand cream appeals to me the most. I think my dtr would steal the rest of the stuff.

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  2. I have horribly dry skin so those little Melting Marshmallows look awesome to me! Thanks for the giveaway! :)

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  3. Ooh thanks for the reminder of the PW Foodie Fans, I forgot that was coming up so quickly. Love all the stuff you've shown but if i had to chose I'd go with the cupcakes, they sound divine :)
    Oh, and the sheet cake looks yummy, I'll be making that one day as I work my way through the book.

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  4. Ooh the Blackberry Bath Bomb looks the best to me!

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  5. The Blackberry Bath Bomb is the bomb!!!!
    I wish I lived next door, that cake looks delicious!
    Happy Sunday~LeslieMichele

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  6. So, was it the best chocolate sheet cake evaaaaaa?
    Wish i could be entered into this competition, I love bath bombs. Oh well :)
    Hope you are having a great weekend.
    *kisses* HH

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  7. Chocolate Sheet Cake is always a big hit around here!

    Love the giveaway! Marshmallow Moments just cracks me up and I'd like to try it!

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  8. Thks for the submission Kim! But can you pls post a link to the FFPW site on this post?

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  9. ONGRATS kIM...and that chocolate cake is amazing...PW rocks...
    Oh i love all those LUSH goodies and the best,yeah ah am so with u on that Luxurious melting marshmellow moments bath melt....and they are so so dang cutey pie...
    cheers and happy sunday....

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  10. i would enjoy the hand cream because my hands are always chapped. :(

    Great to discover your blog Kim!

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  11. The blackberry bath bomb its the mos appealing to me my daughter will love all this products
    And thank for the giveaway
    Amalia

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  12. Wow! What cool products. Thanks for the great giveaway!

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  13. Delicious cake! I am a big fan of Lush too, but haven't been there in a while. We have had it in Canada for some time now. Love that Karma!

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  14. Alexis said she would be most interested in the hand lotion (Helping Hands). She said the two of you have similar tastes. She has been into making her own soaps and cleaners using essential oils. Our bathroom looks like a meth lab but smells like a Bath and Bodyworks, lol.

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  15. I can't even tell you how much I love Lush! The Fair Trade Foot Lotion and Charity Pot body lotions are awesome! And I give Soft Coer massage bars to all my girlfriends for Valentine's Day so they can get their hubby's to treat them :)

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  16. Well Great. Thanks for the giveaway!


    Chris

    zekks at yahoo dot com

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  17. How could anyone choose just one?! They all sound and look amazing!!! I think the hand cream would be the best bet right now with all this crazy weather we've been having - my hands are soo dry!!! Wow, the Lush website looks awesome!!! The egg bath bomb would be a cute gift for Easter. Thanks for letting us know about this.

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  18. Those melting marshmallows are just adorable!

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  19. i'm going to ask my hubby to make that sheetcake for my birthday, it looks SOOOO good. i'm loving the helping hands, i would go for the bath products, but our bathtub is so uncomfortable, loL!

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  20. That sheetcake looks delicious--lucky neighbors! ;-) How do you pick out of all that great stuff? ;-) You know I am a Lush fan and both the Blackberry Bath Bomb and the Melting Marshmallow Moments are favorites of mine.

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  21. Woo-hoo a giveaway :-) My hands are always dry. I am forever trying to moisturize them. So, naturally, the helping hands hand cream would catch my attention immediately. I am in!

    Your sheetcake was a perfect treat for your friends family. I really liked it.

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  22. chocolate sheet cake looks fabulous and I am totally into those marshmallow melting moments! Please check out my site too - I am doing a giveaway, too (a necklace) with my toasted s'mores cupcakes.

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  23. I have been meaning to make that cake for the longest time but need the right occasion! Otherwise i would be eating it. Singlehandedly. Which would be bad. Right?

    Looks delicious, so glad you got to try a piece. What a fun giveaway! I would love hand cream (since I don't have an actual bath tub).

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  24. Congrats on your awards! And the sheet cake looks fab!

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  25. First of all, that sheet cake looks SO good. I am having the worst chocolate craving tonight and this is not helping. I'll have to try it. I always make my mom's Texas sheet cake. The frosting on this one looks so rich!

    Second...I love all of the products. What a cool job. I've never heard of Lush. Are they in Ohio? As for my favorite, it's a toss up between the blackberry bath bomb (I could use one of those relaxing baths at the end of most days) or the Creamy Candy Bubble Bar, which my children would adore, so I'd have to split it with them. : )

    Congratulations on the awards! You certainly are deserving.

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  26. Kim, you are so right on this cake being moist and rich. I made this, and love it-- and I'm not a huge chocolate fan. So glad you submitted this to FFPW. Did you know I was a clinical esthetician for 15 years? I am picky about skincare products, but these meet a lot of my criteria. It's fun how women get hooked on one particular product! What a fun giveaway.

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  27. Whoever wins this is very lucky. I LOVE LUSH products, shopping at LUSH and just smelling the store! Yes, I am a Canadian Foodie - but, should I be so lucky to win, the goods would go to my daughter in Palo Alto. I am now going to tweet your giveaway! Thanks for the opportunity!
    Valere

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  28. Congratulations on your awards.
    I love that chocolate sheet cake.The LUSH product sound fantastic and my hand can always use a good hand cream.
    Mimi.

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  29. Would love to try those bath melts, they sound great!

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  30. love the sheet cake very sweet of you I also love lush I am from the UK, I love hand cream as mine stay dry all the time washing constantly with a toddler, will tweet about it lol Rebecca

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  31. I have never made this cake, but so many people like it and write about it that it really must be a winner that I must try! I love, love, love Lush products too. First found them on a trip to Chicago and visited their store in front of Macy's. Had tons shipped to me as a result and still buy things on-line. Please sign me up for the give-away! How sweet of you to offer this to your readers! Have a luscious day! Roz

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  32. oops, I forgot to give you my favorite: I love the blackberry and blueberry bath bombs (and any of the flavors to tell you the truth) and the hand cream! Plus congrats on your awards on your nice blog! Bye for now, Roz

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  33. The hand cream sounds great to me—please enter me to win!

    skkorman AT bellsouth DOT net

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  34. Oh wow, I would LOVE to try the Helping Hands cream - as I'm sure everyone else would, too. Sometimes I feel like I spend half my day washing my hands and by the end of the week, I could swear they are just going to crack into bits and break away.

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  35. Congratulations on your awards! The hand cream sounds great!

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  36. Congrats on the award and the cake would be right up my alley with all that chocolate involved. I didn't know PW had a foodie group.
    I would definitely love to give the Helping Hands a go. I have a hard time keeping my hands moisturized with all the dishes I have to do after cooking!

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  37. The sheetcake sounds delicious! What a way to feed a crowd. I love all of these - especially the melting marshmallow!

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  38. Isn't the cake great! I haven't made PW's version yet but I grew up with my mom making one almost identical except for the icing and always thought wow we must have done something good or crap what is she setting us up for (especially as I got older and started figuring things out!)

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  39. Creamy candy bubble bar is definitely on the top for my picks--you already know I am a die-hard Lush fan!! I just picked up some loot and the one in Boston--LOVE it!

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  40. Congrats on the awards – well deserved :-) Your give-away is fantastic. Count me in! I think the hand cream would be perfect and that is what I would choose if I were shopping at your store.

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  41. I love the the bubble soap! It sounds intriguing! Thanks for the giveaway!

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  42. Choose one?!?! How would I choose one!!
    They all look so scrumptious!!
    I am hoping there is a way to order these online, I am off to check out the link :)

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  43. How neat that you work for Lush! Everything you selected for the giveaway looks fantastic. I know I would love the candy bubble bar because I've used them before. They smell divine!

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