COCONUT

The Husband and I have had "food functions" for the last couple of weekends....one a picnic at church, the other a family reunion.  For both of these events, I prepared the same kind of dessert -- a coconut cake.

I will freely admit that I did the same kind because it can be made several days ahead and refrigerated.  In fact, it's preferred for a moist cake.  After both events, I brought home an empty cake carrier except for a few cake crumbs and loose coconut.

Since many have asked for the recipe, I have directed them to this blog for it.  Enjoy!

SOUR CREAM COCONUT CAKE

1 box Duncan Hines butter recipe golden cake mix

1 tsp. coconut flavoring

Icing:

8 oz. sour cream

8 oz. Cool Whip

1 3/4 c. sugar

18 oz. frozen coconut (reserve 6 oz for top and sides--okay so I have been putting 12 oz on top and sides lately.  If you do that, you will need 24 oz. frozen coconut.  It's a personal choice.)

Mix and bake cake mix as directed on box, adding coconut flavoring to batter.  Bake in 3 (8") pans or 2 (9") pans.  When cool, split layers in half, making 2 thin layers of each.  Beat sour cream and sugar until sugar is dissolved.  Add Cool Whip and 12 ounces of coconut.  Beat well.  Stack your cake with cut side up, putting much icing between layers.  Put remaining icing on top and sides.  Sprinkle 6 ounces (or 12) of coconut on outside of cake.

Note:  Best if prepared several days ahead and stored in refrigerator.  Leave at room temperature three hours before serving.

COINCIDENCE?

Last Sunday was youth Sunday at our church.  It's every 5th Sunday of the month which comes around four or so times a year.  Usually the four adult classes join together for a joint lesson, sometimes taught by a youth and sometimes by an adult volunteer.  Last Sunday, I was the adult volunteer.  For the week I studied the topic that stayed on my heart and wouldn't go away....the subject was joy.

J-O-Y.  I enjoyed my study and learned a lot about joy.  Maybe I will do a post on it sometime but that's not where this post is going on this day.

Today I got an email from The Girl.  She had been cleaning out some of her computer files and found a devotion she had done at work back in 2009.  Yep.  Six years ago.

Lately we have been finding the Lord sending messages or as a wise woman from church calls it, "the witness of the Spirit".  Some might call it coincidence.  No, no, not me.  I know when the Lord's trying to get me on the right page.  When I read this devotion from 2009, I knew that the Lord was reinforcing in me these things.  The scriptures mentioned have been read in our services the past couple of Sundays.  Coincidence?  Nah.  Never.  GOD KNOWS WHAT WE NEED.

So here's the devotion by The Girl.  She was happy for me to share.

From May 2009 as written by The Girl:

As most of you know, I went to the beach last week and – compared to what it was like here – had good weather.  Still, it wasn’t picture perfect beach weather.  The wind blew sand on our towels and in our ears, there were clouds more often than not, and there was an afternoon of thunder and heavy rain.  But – on Friday, our last day there – the weather was textbook-perfect… robin’s egg blue sky, not a cloud to be found, a light breeze.  It seemed that I took notice of each small, perfect detail.  I found myself wondering if I would have appreciated the beauty of the day quite so much had it not been preceded by several not-so-perfect ones.  Isn’t that a lot like life?  Aren’t the mountaintop experiences that much sweeter after you’ve had to climb out of a rocky, tough valley?  

I Peter 6:7 tells us: 
6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 
 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 
 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

I love the comparison in verse 7 of the trials of our faith and the trying of gold by fire.  As gold is heated, impurities float to the top and can be skimmed off.  Steel is tempered and strengthened by heating.  Likewise, our trials, struggles, and persecutions – our cloudy, stormy days, if you will – strengthen our faith and our relationship with God, making us more useful to Him.  In my opinion, darker times or trials also help us to appreciate all of the many blessings that we have all the more.

So what does that mean for us?  James 1:2-4 tells us to

2 count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 
 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 
 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

It’s so hard sometimes to remember to be joyful, thankful, and happy when things aren’t going our way, when times are tough, when we don’t know what’s going to happen next… but we, as God’s children, are promised blessings beyond measure if we only persevere, keep the faith, and “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before… press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. “
And won’t the prize be that much sweeter – like a cheeseburger after weeks and weeks of salad! – when we hear God say “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

1)
THANK YOU FOR THE VALLEY I WALKED THROUGH TODAY.
THE DARKER THE VALLEY THE MORE I LEARN TO PRAY.
I FOUND YOU WHERE THE LILIES ARE BLOOMING BY THE WAY.
AND I THANK YOU FOR THE VALLEY I WALKED THROUGH TODAY.

CHORUS)
THANK YOU FOR EVERY HILL I'VE CLIMBED
FOR EVERY TIME THE SUN DIDN'T SHINE.
THANK YOU FOR EVERY LONELY NIGHT
I PRAYED UNTILL I KNEW THAT EVERY THING WAS ALRIGHT.
AND I THANK YOU FOR THE VALLEY I WALKED THROUGH TODAY

2)
LIFE CAN'T BE ALL SUNSHINE OR THE FLOWERS WOULD DIE.
THE RIVERS WOULD BE DESERTS, ALL BARREN AND DRY.
LIFE CAN'T BE ALL BLESSING FOR THERE'D BE NO NEED TO PRAY.
SO I THANK YOU FOR THE VALLEY I WALKED THROUGH TODAY.

And all God's people said, "Amen!"