Kitkat birthday cake

I made a birthday cake for one of Jeff's friends this past weekend.

 You've probably seen them around pinterest and I've always loved the colorfulness of this one!

Don't mind the candy in between the kitkats... I was one stupid kitkat short because my cake turned out a tad bit bigger than anticipated, but I fixed it with some candy I had lying around.

I think it turned out great! And it was delicious :)

Mmm, all the chocolate in this cake makes me want to make another one!! But next time I'll make sure I have enough kitkats because the candy just wasn't the same as chocolate :-)

Happy birthday Jeffie!

My 23/24 week update will be up tomorrow, I just wanted to share a picture of the birthday cake I made for my dear husband!

It's a sponge cake with a whipped cream and raspberry filling and some fruit. My grandmother used to bake one of these for each and every birthday of her grandchildren. I had never tried one before but Jeff asked for it and it is actually very easy!!
It didn't take a lot of time and it tasted de-li-cious.

Happy birthday baby!

A special wedding

My sweet friend Angelique got married last friday! She's the one I made the cake for in April when she got legally married. Friday was the church wedding and the big party!

As you can see I did her hair and her make-up! We curled her hair but her hair is SO straight that they didn't stay very well haha! She wanted a french braid and curls, it was such a creative hair-do she came up with!

Her make-up is easier to see on the pictures of he civil wedding in April:

The person that was going to welcome the people called off last-minute so I offered to help out. I got to be "the door keeper" hehe... It wasn't the most fun job 'cause I missed a big part of the wedding, but they really stressed out when the guy called and told them he couldn't get there!
I'm glad I could help them out :)

Mieke's Birthday

Remember about one and a half month ago that I said I made a birthday cake for my (former) neighbour and friend Mieke? I finally got my hands on some pictures of it!!

It was a chocolate cake with strawberry filling and chocolate-buttercream frosting!
Mmmm :)

I'm sorry if I look a bit err... Not so good as I usually look...
I fell off our stairs that day and couldn't even get changed into something more festive because I almost couldn't move my arm! Jeff wasn't home that week, so I just used all of my remaining energy to finish the cake hah! I couldn't even THINK about putting on any make-up!

I also made these cake pops... usually I use chocolate to cover them with, but this time I used the candy melts. I DON'T like candy melts! They were really hard to use and didn't turn out smooth... I just prefer chocolate :)

Joke's Wedding Cake

I found a picture of Joke's Wedding Cake!

Joshua D'Hondt

Don't you just love their faces? They look so happy to be married and enjoying their party!

I told the caterers they didn't need to put the cake in the fridge because it was a big cake, made with royal icing and it was only for a couple of hours. 

Dear caterers, if someone tells you it is not necessary to put the cake in the fridge it doesn't mean that you can put it next to the frying pans... That's why it did start to melt a tad bit and didn't look as perfect as it did before!

I did like the taste of this cake, very sweet but very good!

Pictures of this week

Saturday was joke's wedding! It was such a great party, everything felt so natural and happy :)

I'll leave the pictures up to her but here's one from when I had just put the cake together, it still needed some work but the owner of the place was kinda looking at what I was doing so I didn't want to take too many pictures. I promise to share a better one as soon as Joke sends me them!

I'm still really enjoying my sweet bunny!
He is so happy and funny all the time :)

cutie :)

And last but not least!
Some friends of ours invited us over for dinner this week and they had a suprise for us!
The guy is a chocolatier (I didn't find a translation... He basically makes things out of chocolate!) and he made us this beauty for our one year anniversary!

 

So sweet! He made something similar for our wedding :)

We told him that we'll be expecting this every year now hah!
I love friends that take the time to think of something to suprise us with, to make us happy! That's my favorite kind of friend :)

What I've been up to today...

In only ONE day my friend Joke is getting married!
She's been counting down for quite some time now and I've been counting down with her haha!

Here's a sneak peek into what I've been doing for the last two days (and hope to finish today).

She made this cake stand herself with things she found in a thrift store! Very frugal and crafty if you ask me... (find out how she did it -here- )

My house is a mess... A BIG mess! There's cake crumbs everywhere and I can smell the frosting on my hands haha :)
The cake is a light chocolate cake with royal icing. I'm always amazed at how much sugar you put in that frosting! Good thing I've been stocking up on it for the past weeks hehe...

Now I can only hope Joke and her husband will like the cake!
It's my wedding present to them so let's hope everything goes well.

Just for the record, this is my third official wedding cake. Number one (see it here) was made in less than 24 hours, number two (see it here) was made not so long ago.
Last week I made a birthday cake and I'm still waiting on the pics from that one...

Craziness!

It's been SO crazy around here!
Jeff is gone... He left me... for a WHOLE week! Blah!!
I feel so lost without him haha! And when I'm out I feel like everyone can see that my husband is not at home and that I'm all by myself this week...
Isn't that weird?!
I had the same thing when we were just married, I couldn't believe it when a guy came to ask me if I wanted to dance with him... I mean, come on! I'm a married woman, mister!!

Oh and btw, he took my camera with him, so no pics that I made today!

I still have an exam comming up tomorrow and yet I've been baking cakes!
My friend and neighbor Mieke has her birthday today and she's throwing a party... So I have the honor of making her cake! I'll make sure I get a picture of it somehow...

 I totally stole this pic from her facebook and I didn't ask permission. I'm hoping that if she finds out, she'll remember the cake and forgive me ;)

I'm also making cakepops and frozen banana covered in chocolate! Well, the bananas might be gone before the party starts... Oops...

 via - but I made it with milk chocolate, it's a lot better this way

In addition to all the baking I've also decorated our whole hallway as a suprise! I wanted to do it at night but I still heard them talking in their study, which is RIGHT next to the hallway... So I had to get up really early to get it all done! But it looks great (at least I think so!) and I'm sure she'll be happy :)

I just REALLY like to serve people. If they have something coming up like a birthday or a wedding I simply think about what I would want people to do for me without me asking for it. And then I just go out of my way to give them a great day! 
This is something that is NOT "me", I'm 100% sure that it is a gift from my Heavenly Father! 
It's a gift that often gets me very tired haha! But I just really really love to serve and make people feel special and loved :)

Now I just need to get studying and cleaning all this mess... After my exam I'll be heading to my parents' 'till Sunday :) Jeeej!!

Raspberry-chocolate cake

Yesterday we went to my SIL's birthday party!
Ofcourse I had to make a cake :)

 

It was a chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache and raspberry filling... I liked it, but I never seem to LOVE my cakes like other people do... What's up with that? Maybe I'm just so tired of working on that cake so I can't appreciate it as much??

 

Don't you love this picture? Sophie got a new photo camera as a birthday present from her husband and I love how pretty the pictures are!!

And a picture of the two of us.

I was getting very tired because my sweet husband brought me breakfast in bed at 8am haha! Thanks sweetie :)

I need some help!

This is a call for help to the wives that are still in college...

How do you do it?

Both the housekeeping and the studying in only 7 short days??

I've got the housekeeping (I think)... But the studying?
It's just not working! I feel like I'm drowning in all the work I still have to do for school!

What a regular day looks like for me:

7.30ish: I get up, have breakfast while checking blogs&Facebook
9am: My Quiet Time! (which I haven't been doing lately due to not enough time...)
10am: Workout, followed by a shower (same thing, not enough time this past week...)
11.30: I get ready for lunch with my husband! He works at just a 5min walk from our home!
12-1pm: Jeff and I have lunch
1.30pm: I start the house keeping: ironing, dishes (I hate it... It's a never ending story!)
2.30pm: Facebook&blog-time
3pm: I start our dinner and in the meanwhile I get some more housekeeping done such as making our bed, cleaning up etc before Jeff comes home
4.30: Jeff comes home! Party in da house!! We relax a bit together, talk about our day
5.30: Dinner
6.30: We either have a course/something else to go to (mondays: baking, tuesdays: assertivity course for 4 weeks, fridays: prayer meeting) OR we hang out together with a movie, which is important for Jeff...

What am I not seeing? Am I spending too much time with my husband??
Oh and I even forgot to mention my "projects" such as 

home made bread!!!

or this:

 This is just a sneak peak... 

It's for tonight and one of my readers is going to eat it, so I'm not showing the whole cake just yet!

So tell me, what am I doing wrong?!

I realize I have LOTS of time compared to mommies/ people that are working... But you see, my school isn't shouting for attention like kids do. And I don't have anyone that's mad at me if I don't show up for some studying time, like a boss does... I have to do it all by myself and y'all, that's just so hard!! And I LOVE homekeeping... Just the same as I would LOVE to stay home to care for my babies. But I still have 1,5 year to go before we even can think about that! So for now I need some help :)

Love,
Evelien

Count your blessings

I've been a bit down lately (hence the no-blogging), so I thought I should count my blessings to lift my mood a bit!
I'm really blessed but still depressive thoughts keep creeping in my mind...
So here we go!

* I have an AMAZING husband! He loves me and wants nothing more than to make me happy!

* I have this little bunny that is just the cutest thing ever!
When I'm having my quiet time he comes sitting next to me to snuggle and nap...

 

* I spent a lot of time doing my favourite hobby... Baking!

* We have a great place to live in, even though it's just for now.

* I have some amazing friends!

This was at a Goodbye Party in our basement (Church venue, not part of our home)!

* I believe in the greatest God and I know that I'm a saved Christian! This is the greatest blessing ever and a source of joy!

What are some of your blessings??
Am I the only one that sometimes forgets about them and starts to be all sad and sorry for myself? Haha!

Valentines Day on my own

Jeff will not be home untill 10pm... He went to a conference very early, and even though I did set my alarm clock very early, he was already gone! It's a good thing I left him some chocolate on the breakfast table before we went to bed yesterday ;) And some freshly baked bread from my baking class! He loves it!

After his conference we're going to an assertivity training. Not as exciting as it sounds haha, but still, we're doing something together!

But because he won't be home all day long, we can't really do anything for valentines day... He doesn't like this day anyways, but I do! I love all the cheesieness and the pinks and reds haha! It's just once a year you can really do this kind a stuff even though your man doesn't really care for it ;)

Baby if you read this, I love you!! 

Happy Valentines Day Lieverdie!! 

My very first Wedding Cake!

I  thought I'd share the wedding cake now that the crazy weekend is over :)
Here it is!!

 Tadaaaaa!
It was a red velvet cake with royal icing. I had never made either red velvet or royal icing and I was amazed at how much sugar you need for the royal icing... Very unhealthy but SO good!
The couple was really happy, the guests kept saying how amazing it looked and tasted and I was happy that I didn't ruin their wedding cake haha!


And here's the happy couple cutting their cake:

I'm so happy about how it turned out and already 3 people contacted me to make a cake for them haha!
I told them I'll think about it because not all of those people are close friends and I don't want to ruin our budget on cakes for other people, especially if we barely know them!

I am very very happy and VERY very tired!

My 23st birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday! And I had an amazing day, thanks to my wonderful husband.

I already got my "big" present, which is our sweet bunny Janneman.
He's so cute and funny to watch! He jumps around, sits on our lap and 'makes us' pet him, he's just the best bunny ever!

One of my readers asked me what the funniest thing is that he has done so far. He tried to jump the seats and failed twice! He looked a bit bummed about that and I really laughed SO hard! Jeff was very disappointed that he missed it twice because now Janneman is able to get on the seats so it's not as funny anymore ;)

Jeff also got me some earrings so I also had a present yesterday.

We went to eat breakfast in IKEA (1 euro! And so yummy!)
and we got some new bedding. My in-laws gave me a coupon for IKEA and I already knew which bedding I wanted!

Now I need some more BIG pillows to put behind those small ones! Haha!

After that we went to pick up some  stuff for the wedding cake I'm going to make this Saturday. It's so exciting but I'm totally confident it'll work out! It just has to!

We ate lunch with another coupon we got for our wedding. The place we went to was called "Caffè Caffee" and it was so cozy there! The food was very good as well and the service was great.
Definately a place we would go back!

In the afternoon we kinda chilled, got some more wedding cake stuff and then I had my very first baking class! We made cheese cookies (which I didn't like. I felt like they needed salt but the teacher told us it would be salt enough... Now they taste like something's missing... Guess what that is?! Yeah...). We also made croissants with a filling of ansjovies (nobody really liked that besides Jeff hah!) and a filling of mozzarella and sundried tomatoes which was very good! And one of the students made some cocktails and those were also very good!

I had so much fun in class and I'm already looking forward to the next one!

And then there's one more surprise I got!!!
About a week ago I got an e-mail from Kelly from Something Shiny that I won her giveaway!!! I was SO excited. When she sent me the package I thought it would take about 3 weeks to get to me, but it arrived yesterday! On my birthday! It was like she sent me an extra surprise birthday present :)

 These stamps are too cute!!
I love them :)


Now I'm back to my study for my last exam... I'm so tired of it! And it started freezing and somehow our heating went off! I'm hoping Jeff will be home soon 'cause I'm just freeeezing... :(

my crazy idea for a friend's wedding!

I guess I can tell the 'crazy' idea I had for the wedding of a friend of mine, 'cause I just had to tell the bride what I was planning...




I'm going to make her wedding cake!!



WHAAAT?!
Hihi...

I just asked one of the organizing people when I would be able to bring in a wedding cake and she looked at me and said: but I thought the bride wanted me to make a cake??
Haha! I was so sad!
The woman apparantly had asked the bride if she should make a cake (they weren't going to have one, but the bride was a bit sad about that) and that woman was going to make something not really wedding-cakey but different. She told the bride she couldn't make a real one.

But that woman (she's very sweet!) told me that she'd happily let me make the cake if the bride would prefer a real cake so we had to ask!!
And she looked at me and was so happy haha!

I'm very nervous now 'cause I can't go back anymore now...
So exciting!!

I'M GOING TO MAKE A REAL WEDDING CAKE!!!
FOR A REAL WEDDING!!!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!

I'll let you all know if it worked out the way I planned it...
The most difficult part is that I don't have a lot of time. I'll have my last exam on friday and the wedding is saturday! Buut somehow it'll all work out, I've got it all planned in my head :)

Baking Class

I'm taking a baking class!!!
I just found the class about 3 hours ago on the internet and it starts Monday (my birthday!) and i've decided I'll have to take it!

 

This will be me in a couple of weeks

Minus the hair, I'm a brunette

At first I thought "oww, it's one evening every week... So much time!!"
But then I remembered the time that I went to music classes THREE times a week. So what's once a week?!

The only sad thing is that it starts on my birthday so we can't go out for dinner as I planned :(
But my sweetie went ahead and took a day off so we can go out for lunch together!!
Oh and I still have an exam on friday so I'll loose an entire evening, which isn't as bad as it sounds hehe... I never do anything in the evenings except the evenings before exams - such as tonight!

Again, not me, I'm a brunette...

Can you see (or read) that I'm a bit excited? Excited and very stressed out since I still have to do a lot for my exam of tomorrow...
I'll go do that and try to get some sleep and pass that exam!