Paul & Silas

Being a twin is very exciting, especially when you're identical. I can remember so many adventures or I should say stunts we pulled off on our teachers, prefects, matrons and even reverend brothers during our secondary school days. So when ever I see a set of fraternal twins, I just whisper to myself, "they ain't about that life"...lolz.
Pete has this close friend; Hauwa who tasted our birthday cake and loved it. Then her younger brothers who are a set of fraternal twins; Paul & Silas had their birthday coming up and Hauwa wanted to decorate their day with a cake from Penslaj confectionaries.
Pete and I were named after our paternal and maternal grand fathers respectively, but when I heard about the order, I started wondering what the story behind their names 'Paul and Silas' were, because I didn't want to agree it was only biblical.

Hauwa wanted the exact type of cake she tasted, nothing more, nothing less. A coconut cake! And since we just got the recipe, we couldn't wait to bake it again.
When the day came, the cake was baked and we started staring at it. We brainstormed and searched for the perfect design. This is a set of twins we're talking about here and nothing we had done in the past will pass for what we want to present. They love football and the colours green & white, that was what we had to work with. We then decided to pray about it and design as the spirit leads, it took few hours but we got it right

We got a feedback of how happy the twins and their friends were, during their party; They loved the cake and Hauwa was the hero in this episode for making her brothers' day. I'm thankful for close friends and happy days, I hope you enjoyed the read. Looking forward to the next post and let's hope it will be about you.

Daddy's day

Daddy has a thoughtful habit of calling us on our birthday to sing the happy birthday song. No matter where we are in the world, before the stroke of 12 mid night, we get his call, but the thing is; In our family everybody's birthday falls within July except for Daddy's own. He was born in October, and when ever his birthday comes up, we're all done with the feeling of birthday celebration, so that day usually goes-by like every other day.

This year we decided it should be different. Me and Pete woke up, went to sing for him, then did the usual cheering that follows. Daddy then went out to engage his day and we went to work on his surprise party.
To start with, since we knew the cake will be eaten by us at the end, why don't we bake something we will enjoy but be appreciated for it...lolz. I was in the mood for a fluffy cake, so I chose a vanilla cake but Pete wanted a cheese cake. We then had this constructive argument briefly before we finally settled on baking the two cakes.(yeah! the joy of having twins...lolz).
My vanilla cake didn't have any problem making, but getting cream cheese for Pete's cake made us realise 'the hustle is real'....lol, thank God for shop rite though. By the time we got back, the vanilla cake was coming out of the oven. Then the cheese cake mixture entered within the hour.
So we had two cakes at hand, looking so delicious we contemplated devouring it immediately. then like, when we offered daddy a piece, we'd tell him it's his birthday cake. but we resisted the temptation and went forward with the perfect design for our colourful two step birthday cake.
In the middle of our little project, daddy walked in, with his usual swagger; doing the Denzel walk...lol, only to nab us at what we were doing, so we couldn't surprise him anymore. He came along with a few of his nieces and nephews, who had it in mind to visit him casually, but then realised it was his birthday. Our cousins entertained us while we crafted butter into our desired design until we finally finished.

Although not surprised, daddy was very happy,

We took pictures, ate, drank and made merry for the rest of the evening with the whole family.
Daddy's last birthday was a very memorable one, a day we all cherish, and I hope you enjoyed the read. see you on our next post, let's hope it will be about you.

Her royal sexyness

Before camp, our most exciting moments were with our Twinee friends Taiye & Kehinde (aka Tc & Kenny) back in the university. They have this quality about them that always pull awesome people (the cool kids) towards them. So when they introduce someone to you, just know that person is amazing.
On this evening while I was at home being awesome as I usually am...lol, Kenny rolled up and was telling me about his friend Zainab (aka Zay) from Quest group back in school, whose birthday was coming up. Zay tasted me and Petes birthday cake and just loved it, so she told Kenny she wanted to meet the bakers.
Kenny and I went to get her, and brought her to the house for a session of cake tasting and reminiscing the good old university days.

Zay's cake was a very exciting order, She had tasted so many cakes and she couldn't settle for only one type of cake, so she ordered a combination of Red velvet and Lemon cakes.
Pete and I decided to take a page from Sun Tzu's 'divide and conquer' to attack the order, because we definitely wanted to impress. Pete baked the red velvet cake, while I handled the lemon cake and we took recess making her Samosas and spring rolls from time to time before the cakes finally entered the oven.
Our next point of deliberation was what to use to layer in between the cakes. Zay, as we got to find out, is very stylish, energetic and full of life, the very exciting type to be around, and they usually have a very sweet tooth. We decided to go with chocolate, because apart from it all, who doesn't like chocolate?...lol
Designing the cake came up and Zay had so many colours she chose, for it to be beautiful but not cumbersome. The design we had that went with her order and also took us on a little trip down memory lane, was the same we used for our birthday cake.

When Zay saw the cake, the first question she asked out of admiration and suprise was "is this my cake?!!!" she came to get her orders with her friend and they were both happy about everything. At that point I realised how contagious happiness is, because everybody around was filled with joy, they made all of us laugh and smile uncontrollably.
It was another good day we all remember and cherish, I hope you enjoyed the read. Until my next post, and let's hope it will be about you.

19 Dec, 2014 Peace's birthday

One of those days in camp that I woke up feeling so good with myself, and ready to face the day like a social beast with plans to make as many friends as possible.
I go for morning parade where I never pay attention but I'm always excited about the activity. I went to the back of my platoons line and started gisting with my secondary school mate and friend Abutu (the architect) about the good old days. Then this pretty petite girl (another architect) joins us. I introduced Abutu as my school son, we laugh and he tells her I'm a twin. The conversation that day got so interesting we forgot to ask her name until the parade ended.

On the day of swearing in, in the mist of a crowd of people wearing their crested vests and khaki trousers, with big smiles on their faces, Peace finds Peter, looking bigger and not smiling at her as Sammy would've, so she immediately knows this is the second twin. They start talking, he gets her name and she gets to know how much we enjoy baking, he even shows her some of the designs he did in the past. Her birthday came up after camp, then Sammy & Pete immediate came to her mind.
She didn't  have any specific type of cake she wanted, but she wanted to get a feel of what we can do. Naturally we get excited about her type of order because we can try the latest tutorials or lecture we've got.
LEMON SPONGE CAKE It was! and our hands were on the plough.
Peace has this warm smile, that makes you think of rainbows and Roses. We started thinking of a design that will bring out this soft character in her. We then decided to make a basket and fill it with roses.

When Peace got her cake, she was so excited... she started smiling ear to ear. it was a very memorable and happy day for us all.
I hope you enjoyed the read, looking forward to our next article. Let's hope it will be about you. ;)

25th February, Nkem Anameze's Birthday.

Me (Sammy) and my twin were walking back to our hostel in NYSC camp on this hot Faithful day. We then noticed this pretty girl staring at us with that "are you guys twins?" look. While preparing for a witty come-back to the question, we both stared at ourselves, then looked at her again as if to say "guy, see babe!"...lol. When the "are you guys twins" question came, surprisingly all that came out was a chorused "yes" and a few hand gestures.

We got to meet her again on a different note, and it came out that we are passionate bakers, she got a taste of the red velvet and banana cakes, then the rest was history.

Nkems birthday came up on the 25th of Feb and boom! Red velvet immediately came to mind. Knowing how red velvet takes quite sometime to set and have the required taste for that required oomf feeling, the mixture had to be prepared early enough. Funny thing is that this was the period Abuja had power issues, so it was made in the dark. 

The cake is layered, so the mixture had to enter the oven twice.

The design begins!

And WALLAH!!! 

So the next day Nkem got her cake, like early in the morning

This point is why we do it all, the customer loves the design and is happy, our artistic ego is massaged, everybody feels like a million box.