So let me tell you a little bit about this cake.  I made the sandwich and the bag of doritos from one chocolate 9x13 sheet cake.  I cut two foot long strips for the top bun and bottom bun, split each of those to get some filling in there, carved the edges to make it look like a bun, and covered them with ivory fondant, which I then shaped and painted to make it look a little more like the real thing.

The middle of the sandwich contains gumpaste and fondant of assorted colors, making it look like a ham and turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, and onions.

I placed the cake on top of an actual Quizno's sandwich wrapper, so it looks like you just opened up this sammie and are about to dig in!

For the bag of chips, I carved a piece of chocolate cake to look like a small, crumpled, and open bag of doritos.  I had a bag of chips in front of me to help.  I actually crumpled up the bag a little so I could really see what I needed to do.  Now, for the actual chips, I had a dorito "model" in front of me.  An actual dorito is yellow with bright reddish-orange powder on it.  Well, I had yellow petal dust and red fondant, so I switched things up.

I cut triangles out of the fondant, poked a bunch of bumps onto the underside, and laid them in different ways on crumpled paper towels.  When they were dry, I dusted them with yellow petal dust.  The overall effect was very nice and life-like, if I do say so myself.

So what do you think?  Would you totally eat this or what?

With love, Ev

1. The Pantheon

We found the Pantheon by accident on our very first night in Rome.  We enjoyed a nice dinner on a street corner and then decided to walk down a cute street and BAM!  We found ourselves staring at the beautiful Pantheon!  The sun was almost finished setting, which made the place look sooo romantic.  We really enjoyed it.  Here are some pictures of the inside:

Did you know people are straight up buried inside every church in Rome?  Raphael, the amazing Renaissance artist, is buried in the Pantheon.

Aaaaannd the outside is mighty fine as well...

Journaling + red wine + Pantheon = BLISS!!!!

2. The Colosseum

The Colosseum was our favorite part of the trip.  Our tour guide, Valentina, was wonderful.  She is actually an archaeologist so she was very knowledgeable.  These pictures don't even do this place any justice.  I'm honestly ashamed to show them to you, because you truly have to experience this place in person.  You have to hear about the history of it too, because I will mess that up as well.

Meeting up with our tour group.

Drew at the Arch of Constantine (Constantine was Rome's first Christian Emperor...in case you didn't know).

See this line?  Yeah, don't be like them!  Book your walking tour through Viator.com and not only will you skip the line, but you will have the best tour guides EVER!

Inside the Colosseum: You can see where the "stage" used to be, where they have rebuilt part of it.  All of those tunnels and rooms underneath were where the gladiators and animals were kept.  And if you look at the left side of the picture, you can see a large Iron cross. That's where the emperor would sit.  Best seats in the house!

3. The Roman Forum and Palatine Hill

The Palatine Hill was nice.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think its the place where old legends say Rome was originally founded, thousands of years ago.  Cool, huh?

See those trees?  Those are Umbrella Pine Trees, the tree that produces pine nuts.  You know how pine nuts are so expensive?  Well, in Rome, you can just walk around and pick them up off the ground.  I love these trees.  They are gorgeous!

Meet our fabulous tour guide, Valentina.  We absolutely heart her!

My feet on the Via Sacra, the 2000 year old road that used to be the main road in Rome.  Emperors walked this road.  Julius Caesar walked this road.  As a matter of fact, his tomb is at the end of this road, and people still pay their respects every day.  Amazing.

Inside the Roman Forum, you are actually a few meters below the level of the modern city.  They had to dig all of this up!  And Valentina told us that only 35% of Rome's ruins are uncovered....the rest is just waiting to be found.

4. The Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica

First of all, let me just point out how incredibly HUGE the Vatican is.  Did you know that if you spent one minute on every piece of art in the Vatican, you would be there for 12 years?  12 YEARS!!!  That's insane!  And remember how I said every church in Rome has people buried in it?  Well, guess who's buried in St. Peter's Basilica???  Welllllll, ONLY Jesus' buddy Peter and a few Popes.  No biggie!  So basically I was walking on their heads.  And that seems very wrong.  I'm glad I didn't know it at the time.

So since the Vatican is so massive and there is so much art in there, you can pretty much bet that we took a few hundred pictures.  But I'm only putting 6 pictures on here.  Think of it as a teaser, but its really just an attempt at keeping this post from becoming a novel.  Enjoy!

Background: St. Peter's Basilica

We were actually in Leonardo DiVinci's private rooms!  Well, they aren't private anymore, of course...but we stood where he stood...where he was inspired.  Amazing.

Apollo

Drew's feet on the 2000+ year old marble tile floor in the Vatican, which 30,000 people walk on every day.  The Romans certainly built things to last.

La Pieta

So go.  Go to Rome.  I promise all of these sights are completely, 100% worth everything that goes along with the city.

With love, Ev

P.S. Next time: Florence.

And on my front porch...

And in my kitchen...

We are having a costume party at our house on Halloween and we are soooooo excited!!!  This will most definitely be a weekend to remember.

With love, Ev

Drew trying to learn Italian at the Mobile, Alabama airport.  We didn't learn much.

Rome was our first stop.  We left the states (Atlanta, to be exact) at 4:30 on Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Rome at 8:30 Wednesday morning.  We tried to sleep on the plane so that we could enjoy our first full day in Rome, but that didn't happen.  We were forced to watch crappy movies on our 9-hour plane ride.

We got to the Rome train station and were automatically lost.  No clue where to go.  This is when I started to dislike Rome.  This is when we started getting stressed and cranky.  It lasted the entire trip.  Thanks, Roma.  We appreciate it.

Remember those cute outfits I told you about?  Yeah, they never left the suitcase.  It was waaaaay too cold.  Too cold for the Italians, too.  They were having some weird cold snap or something and we arrived smack dab in the middle of it.  I didn't puchase a jacket until 4 days in, but we will discuss that at a later time.

On the street of our hotel.  I was suffering from the freezing cold.

Rome was quite an experience.  Let's start with our hotel: Hotel Ars.  The Ars is located far away from the city center.  We had to get on two different buses to get to all the good spots.  We also had to take the Metro train to a couple of major locations, such as Vatican City and The Colosseum (another entry, coming soon).

I was honestly a little scared of our hotel location.  Drew was not.  It was really nice, but in a very non-touristy part of town, and let's face it, I'm scared of everything anyway.  The hotel was very nice on the inside.  Very contemporary architechture and decor.  The only downside to it was the fact that once it gets cold, they turn off the air conditioning for the entire building for all of winter.  We were A/C-less, which is no fun at all.  HELLLLOOOOO!!!  I come from a place where we run the A/C all year long, even in winter.  You can't turn off my cold!!!  Other than that, it was nice.

The absolute BEST part of our hotel location were the places to get coffee and pizza.  Since we were mingling with the natives, it was the best food and coffee we could get.  Everything in the city center was Olive Garden worthy...and I don't like Olive Garden.  That right there is Americanized crap that they call Italian food.  So if you want to know what the Italians are serving the Americans in Rome, just mosey on over to your local Olive Garden.  Bon appetito.

Here's where we enjoyed our first and last meal in Rome:

Oh yeah.  Yummy stuff right there.  I had no clue what they were saying but I somehow got hot and yummy pizza out the door and into my mouth, so all was well.

This coffee shop was the best!  It was truly the last coffee we had in Rome.  We enjoyed a couple of machiattos here at about 6:30am on our way to catch a train to Florence.  We also graced them with our presence every morning on our way to the bus.

See the woman in the picture?  She was out barista every morning.  The only English she knew was "Do you speak French?"  But she couldn't speak French either!!!  Ha, I loved her!  She made some awesome caffe.

Before I wrap this up, let's talk about how the Italians drink their coffee.  First of all, they drink it standing up.  They drink it quickly.  Afterall, it is just a shot.  When you walk into an Italian coffee shop, there aren't usually any chairs.  Only the tourist places have chairs and they charge you a ton to sit down.  No, the natives walk right up to the coffee bar, order an espresso, get it in about 10 seconds flat (they were super fast), pay next to nothing for it (waaaaay cheaper than Starbucks), and walk out the door.  I swear this entire process takes less than two minutes.  This was difficult for me to get used to because I spend a good hour every morning drinking my caffe americano and playing on the internet. 

Which leads me to my next point: I thought Italians didn't like to rush?!?!?!  They were rushing like crazy.  It was mad, I tell you.  MAAADDDD!!!

Next time: Pantheon, Colosseum, Roman Forum, and The Vatican

With love, Ev

The Hubs enjoying a glass of vino rosso at the Pantheon

Hello all!  Thanks for all of the well wishes.  We had a wonderful time, but I have a lot to tell you (and show you, of course).  The thing is, Italy was not all beautiful and perfect.  It was busy, and noisy, and dirty.  We are going to get down to the real nitty gritty in the next couple of weeks, as I take you from adventure to adventure. 

I don't have any cakes lined up for this week or next, so expect a lot of Italy talk.  If you are not ok with that, check back on November 6th for a super cool cake.  Otherwise, you will hear from me very soon with details from our first Italian city: Roma.

Until then, enjoy a few teaser photos.

With love,

Ev

There was a whole lot of this.

And a good bit of this as well.

Remember last month when I told you our love story on our 2nd anniversary?  Well, in celebration of said anniversary we are taking a little vacay.  No big deal.  We are just going to spend a week in...ITALY!

That's right.  Rome, Florence and Venice.  I feel so dang spoiled right now, and we haven't even left yet!

I've got my Samantha Brown / Jessica Schroeder inspired outfits all packed up.  I've got my Dr. Scholl's for sandals so I can look fabulous and be comfy in the fashion capital of the world.  I've got my 3-1-1 liquids in my carry-on.  I've got my Anthony Bourdain-sized appetite.  I've got my Italian phrasebook.  I've got Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons."  I've got my man, who could ask for anything more?!?!?!

Okay, okay, I know I'm bragging.  I've been bragging about this for months.  My poor facebook friends are probably sick of hearing about it.  Fortunately for them, and my phone bill, I won't be doing any facebooking while abroad.  You're very welcome, fb friends.

So, please enjoy your week.  You better believe I will have tons of pictures and some food stories for you.  Did I mention Italian food is my favy fave?  Yeah, I'm pretty much going to die everytime I eat.  No biggie.

With love,

Ev

See this woman?  I LOVE THIS WOMAN!!!!  That would be my MIL (mom-in-law).  She is the bomb dot com.  The picture above is of her at a children's home in Guatemala.  She is a very frequent visitor of Casa Para Ninos Aleluya.  I have been 3 times, every time with her.  The picture below is of her and her beau, Billy.  Together, they are the most inspiring married couple I have ever met.  I love them both with all of my heart and am so thankful to have them in my life.

So why the MIL worshipping today?  Well, she just had a pretty big important milestone of a birthday!  She's 60!!!  Wow!  Of course, she needed a cake, and I delivered (hahaha, literally!).

This was my first ever topsy turvy cake, and I can't believe I successfully put it together, and covered it in buttercream!  Most topsy turvy cakes are covered in fondant.  In fact, if you google "buttercream topsy turvy cake" you will see some disasters...just sayin.'

I learned how to make a topsy turvy cake from My Sweet and Saucy.  Her topsy turvy tutorial, with pictures, is wonderful.  It turns out that this kind of cake is just an optical illusion.  Nothing is really on a slant.  Check her out!

Now check out my miniature MIL going downhill in her bubblegum pink convertible:

With love,

Ev

Please go to the link below and place your vote for my Hubs (Drew) in the "Hottest Husband Contest."  Actually, the contest is called "Hottest Husband" but its really all about WHY each lady thinks her husband is the BEST.  And, well, Drew is THE BEST!  Duh!

Hottest Husband Contest on Busy Bee Lauren's Blog

To place your vote, simply leave a comment on Lauren's blog with his name.  That's all!  Well, you should also read why he's the best...its all on there.

I really appreciate your help.  He deserves a little recognition, for reals.  And this is just the semi-finals.  If he wins this round, he goes on to compete against the winners of the other rounds.  Let's make him a winner!!!

With love, Ev

Soooo....ever been to a beach wedding?  This was my first one.  I kinda wish I wasn't a guest, because if I could have just gone home after dropping off the wedding cake, I would not have seen two long days of work melt into oblivion.  It was sad.  I wanted to cry.  Thanks, Mr. Humidity.  Thanks a lot.

Anyhoooo, this cake was still beautiful!  It has a bit of a shine on it in the pictures I took, but no worries.  At least it tasted good!  The daisies are made of sugar paste.  I think they pretty much made this cake.  So cute!  I absolutely heart daisies.

Congratulations Rebekah and Shane!

With love, Ev

P.S. I took these pictures and I'm pretty darn proud of them!  What do you think?

Isn't this the coolest cake ever?!?!?!  I had a lot of fun with it.  And it was pretty simple.  I baked two 4-inch round layers, split them both to make 4 layers of cake, and then filled and stacked.  After letting the crumb coat set up, I rolled out some fondant (keeping it pretty thick, about 1/4 inch), laid the cake down sideways on the fondant, cut the bottom and the top (leave room for the rim), and then rolled it up. My two semesters of college ceramics definitely paid off here.

The picture below shows my hand on the handle for scale.  Its a very small cake, only 6 servings.  The black "coffee" at the top is made of royal icing.  I handpainted the cheesy sayings.  I wanted this to look like one of those "#1 Dad" mugs some men get on Father's Day.  And finally, you can't have coffee without the morning paper, right?  I covered the cake board in newspaper to give it a truly authentic look. 

What do you think?

With love, Ev