Mint Chocolate Cake

We've been writing penpal letters all year with a school in Illinois. Recently a new batch of letters came and one student expressed his love for Mint Chocolate Cake. This left most of my students a little confused as they have never heard of mint, since all green flavored things here are either green tea or seaweed flavored. I brought up pictures of common yummy mint snacks, but still nothing clicked. This is the only thing I could say on the subject. (And I think many of you have heard part of this analogy):

When I first got here, and we found something similar to ice cream, I got so excited! The green flavor with small black flecks looked most promising and normal. But alas, it was not mint chocolate chip ... it was green tea flavored. Imagine biting into chocolate cake and expecting yumminess but it tastes like red beans. That was the extent of my disappointment.

My students were flabberghasted by the idea ... but understood that mint is typcially delicious. Now mint is not my favorite flavor (it's actually the favorite flavor of most of my friends), and cake isn't my favorite either. But I thought this story would go nicely with my birthday weekend pics. My momma sent some Ghirardelli brownie mix for my birthday *cake* accompanied by candles and decorative frosting. I'm not a HUGE fan of birthday parties (but you probably already knew that), so my best girlfriends Shelley and Alice came over early to decorate the brownies. Then it promptly turned into May the Fourth be with You/Cinco de Mayo festivities.

Alice and Shelley decorate.

 

   

Erich drinking strawberry a strawberry margarita.