A Cake a Week - Week One

Last week was my first week for my new project, a cake a week. I was asked to make a sheet cake and a smash cake for an adorable little boy turning one. They were having a monster birthday bash theme and I wanted to do something to match that. So I made him his own little friendly monster to eat up.

The cake is a full yellow sheet cake, with chocolate filling, and vanilla frosting.

And this little guy is a lemon pound cake, vanilla frosting, and two cake pop eyes.

I am looking forward to my next cake project.

A Cake A Week

I am starting yet another new project. A cake a week:) I don't bake for my church anymore therefore I'm not getting in the practice I was for a while. So I am going to start baking a cake a week. When I'm not baking for someone my baked goods will go to the United Methodist Church on Washington Street's food shelter. I'm excited:)

Project 365 Day 172 - 185

Day 172 -

Every now and then I get an itch to do something exciting. Go see a Broadway show, an art gallery, anything really that's exciting and related to the arts. But that's not often possible. But I'm a lucky girl. I have my downtown library which always has something going on. Right now they have their walls full of egg art. How many people get to see hundreds of ways eggs can be art in the same spot?

Pretty neat stuff:)



Day - 173 - Insanity is insane!!!

Day 174 - Rob and I came back home from a workout with our church (at 8 in the morning), and as were pulling in I asked Rob who had drawn our family on our car. He didn't even know it was there. It's very cute. But whoever drew it either doesn't know we have our cat Arnie, or they left him out. Maybe I should go draw him in myself.

Day 175 - I will be Inspired.
I will see the Good.
I will Love and be Loved.
I will give Thanks.

Day 176 -

I like to make fun of us Army wives that wherever we go we bring litters of children with us. Our homes always end up looking like daycares.

I wouldn't have it any other way though. I love all of our crazy children:)

Day 177 - Today was a day worth celebrating in the Bigda household. I bought a Cricut Cake! :) I hope it is as exciting as I hear it is. Of course I bought it online, so the fun will have to wait.

Day 178 -

 I'm taking my baking to the dinner table. Asparagus and Gruyere Quiche. I've made plenty of guiches before, but this one was much more exciting. My mom bought me an amazing baking book for Christmas, and in it are lots of ideas on how to bake for snacks, lunches, and dinners. Yay!

Day 179 -

Having young children is wonderful. These are the times that drive us moms up the wall but the same times that we will always miss as our children get older. But these treasured times are not easy. Especially when you are alone with these sweet angels;)

One of the tough parts of being a mom of little ones, is we tend to get left out a lot. For the most part I'm sure this is for the military wife/mom, being that we are far from grandparents, sisters, childhood friends who love our children enough to care for them ... that sort of thing. But either way, we seem to be in our own catagory. Maybe when our children grow we are no longer interested in having little children around. Maybe us moms are too unorganized and always running late. Maybe we just forget as our children grow, what it is like to multitask and get a family of young ones ready and out the door. I'm sure I will some day find out what the reasons are. But till then, the girls and I will get a lot of alone time. As will many of my friends and their children.

But as I said earlier. These times are tough, but they are also cherished. In life there always has to be downs with ups. That is just the way of the world.

When my girls are older and my life becomes more managable, will I have friends with little ones?Maybe ... maybe not;)

Day 180 - Everyone had to know that the Cricut Cake was going to make the cut for Project 365. Though I have yet to be able to use it, I am very excited. Knowing me, it will take longer than it should to get the hang of it. But I hope to be good friends with this machine soon:)

Day 181 - Laughter.

Some days, aka, most days, we tend to get overwhelmed with the stress, the to do lists, the demands that life has to offer. But sometimes it's great to just have a great time. Tonight I let the girls stay up wayyyyyyyyyy past their bedtime (Daddy had duty). Part of our new found time was occupied with watching funny videos online. The girls had such a great time. I haven't heard them laugh that hard at the same thing for a while now.

Day 182 - I am proud to say that I am succesfully passing some of my great taste down to the girls. Musicals, operas, classic dance moves;), and great music. One being Michael Jackson. The girls have always watched and listened too Michael, but the real obsession lately has been Scream. Michael has for sure NOT taken over the love of Lady Ga Ga, but he's still being talked about enough to keep me happy. Of course her walking around all day staying, stop pressuring me, may cause some alarm for others;)

Day 183 -

Today was a gloomy day. Rain and fog. Not great weather for a great mood, but it is great weather for nice pictures:)

Day 184 - We all went out looking at houses today. Anne and Isabella loved the backyards the most. The only way to convince them to leave one house without causing a scene, was to tell them that that house will also have a backyard.

Anne found this in one of the yards. She held on to it so dearly her grip barely even let up while she was sound asleep.

The funny thing is, we have a perfectly nice backyard at this house. I'm not sure why these other yards are so special. Hopefully when we move into one of those houses, the thrill of the backyard will still be there.

Day 185 - Today I got to try out my Cricut for the first time. Way more difficult than I would have liked, but just a good reason to use it more for practice:) The design came out really rough and it feel apart when I removed it from the mat. But it was a start. I will be making more fondant today and often till I figure this thing out!

Project 365 Day 164 - 171

Day 164 - Sweatpants.

I LOVE my sweatpants! If I could wear them everywhere, I would.

Day 165 -

 I wish I could say that I was alpha dog in this house ... but I can't. First comes Rob, Isabella, Anne, Sade, I still haven't figured out if next is Buddy or Arnstein ... then me;)

This picture is showing what happens when Rob is out. Sade becomes a watch dog all of a sudden. I think she believes she has to take over his responsibility while he is gone. Here she is watching the door as if she is ready for whatever may come through.

Crazy dog:)

Day 166 - I am working on a new cucpake. I don't have the exact recipe, so it's going to take a lot of kitchen time (and a lot of failures). But what I am excited about are my ingredients. I'm challenging myself with more complex ingredients. And of course, insteand of just spending the money and buying these new ingredients, I am making them with my own hands and love:)

I've only tried making these cupcakes once, so obviously I have no great results yet. But, I hope to have a success story soon.

Day 167 - Carrabbas.

Rob and I love Carrabbas. Not only do they serve great Italian food, but they bring many sentimental memories to mind. We are slowly growing out of our sitting, eating, and drinking phase in life. But we will always enjoy a nice meal, some great converstaion, a glass of wine (or martini), and some romantic time spent with just the two of us.

Day 168 - I am not, nor will I ever be southern. Not in my heart at least. But, I do have to say that very slowly but surely, the south has been growing on me. First, my children are southern;) Second the weather. Third are the people I have met. And last but not least, the food. Our friends Carrie and Chris were kind enough to invite us over for some food and sports (no worries, the sports still aren't growing on me ... just the food;), and the food was sooo yummy. And get this ... spicy too. At least says me and Isabella. I may not know who was playing what game on tv that night, but I do remember some very yummy food:)

Day 169 - We went to visit the state house today which is something I've always wanted to do. At the state house was a monument built in 2001 that shows the suffering and achievements of the African American culture. Not only do I think the sculpture was beautifully made, but it was nice to see something at our state house that represents many of those who sacrificed for this great city who weren't powerful white slave owners.

To make it even better, this rose was already there. Someone still cares enough to leave such a pretty flower. So of course, I took a picture:)

 Day 170 - Wouldn't it be nice if people did this? It amazes me how much people care about "their land". Even people who don't own, but rent. Some keep their land looking pretty, some keep it looking presentable, but most just basically care about it being treated with respect. And why wouldn't they? It's theirs and they want it treated right. Is the earth not ours to care for though? Next time you throw trash on the ground, out your car window (and yes, that includes cigarette butts), or in the water ... let me know and I can bring my dogs over to poop on your lawn.

Day 171 - I love picking people up from the airport, but I hate dropping them off. I think that everyone I love and care for should move here;) But that's not likely to happen. So, I will just continue enjoying my family and friends who love us enough to visit our crazy house when they can:)

Love you guys!!!

Project 365 - Day 163

Out of control.

So when we first moved here we had some cords and whatnot that we didn't know where they belonged. We thought, we will put them in this box, put the box in the closet, and if we don't need in a year or so ... we can get rid of it. Well, a year or so later, this is what our box looks like. Hmmm ... maybe we took that idea a bit too far.

So what is the answer to this dilemma? Move the box to the garage of course.

A Baker's Friend

In October my friend Rebecca Webster and I baked for our church's one year anniversary. We had only made fondant once before for my daughters second birthday party. It was a challenge, but one ... in the end ... enjoyed. I loved having a friend in the chaos with me. It also helped that she is way more talented than I:)

Rebecca herself holding her masterpiece. She does not have a blog for me to credit her, but I will make sure she knows that this post does exist.

Pistachio cupcakes with sugar cookies on top

I called this the cupcake graveyard

Happy Birthday Vive



The other two cakes, cupcakes, and cookies were all gone. The pretty cake saved for last. No one wanted to cut into it, so our friend Robin did the job for us.



My silly friend had to go and get stationed somewhere else;) I still want to call her late at night when I thought of some crazy idea I want to try. We only got to do this and my sweet Anne's birthday cake together. I hope she is still baking. I know I am! I'm sure I will love to look back at my first large project years from now when hopefully I am a master at baking;)

Project 365 - 162

I do not make New Year resolutions. I think the idea of making one is great, but I have made many before and have never followed through. That being said, I had a drive to make an effort to be closer to God this year through the Bible. I didn't want to call it a resolution in fear of just putting it off. I just wanted to do it. I had told Rob about it and he said he's all in. Funny enough, the sermon at Church was about getting more into the Bible.

So we started. We aren't following a plan or a schedule. We are just reading. It's only been 3 days, but so far it's been great. I also love having Rob to read along with.

Will I make it a priority every day? I hope so. But I have failed before. Try and try again, that's what they say right.

Project 365 - Day 161

Today Rob and I had to deal with some realities of this world that we had hoped to never face. And of course with the bad comes a restless mind.

Bringing children into this world is a daring act. We are given these little creatures that we love more than we knew we could. All we want to do is keep them in our arms forever and never let a hair be harmed. But we can't do that. We have to be prepared to accept that the world will hurt them, just as it has most of us.

While thinking too much I was pulled to these frames I hung in their bedroom. To think that not only were they small enough for these dresses at one time, but that these dresses were huge on them. These are the dresses my girls wore as we left the safety of the hospital and were brought home. As difficult as those times were for a very tired mom and dad, I wonder, were these the easy times?

Project 365 - Day 160

New Years Eve.

We were able to spend a good part of the evening with our church. We had a bonfire and people who were ready to bring their trees could burn them. We of course weren't ready for that.

The fire was beautiful ... and warm.

We then went home and finished celebrating our normal way. Opened a bottle of champagne, had one too many, watched the ball drop, jammed out to some Hillsong, and brought in the New Year with lots of laughs ... just the two of us. (the girls were fast asleep)

Looking forward to the New Year and enjoyed reminiscing of the year now passed.

Happy New Year!