anniv2

19th March was our anniversary. For my grandparents it falls on 20th. Confused? You can read more about that here.

20th March (today in the US) is my brother’s birthday. 

The V in my blog posts stands for my husband’s name Vikram.

My brother’s name is also Vikram. (No, there isn’t a lack of names in India. It just happens to be that the two most important people in my life are named Vikram.)

The similarities don’t just stop in their names. Their heights are comparable. One is 6ft 3 (the husband), the other 6 ft 4. Personality wise they are alike as well. So are their looks. People have actually congratulated me and my brother for a happy married life during my wedding. Its not something every girl wants.

There is a difference though. While the Vikram I am married to will go for a spinach-celery-lettuce smoothie, the brother Vikram would go for a large oreo double chocolate shake with whipped cream on top and shaved chocolate added for good measure. Of course I go after my brother. After all he and I have the same genes- some call it the fat genes, I call it the only-way-to-live-life genes.

Since we are celebrating our anniversary and my brother’s birthday, I thought to write today’s post on the Vikrams in my life.

Actually, I have written before about the brother Vikram, you can check the post here if you want to know just how awesome he is. I might not talk about you today, but I know you know that I love you a lot.

Today, let’s just concentrate on the husband Vikram, or V as he is known on the blog, since I feel that V never gets too much of my attention.

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Vegan Chocolate Cake

275 meters swimming, 16km bike riding over our hilly town and a 5K run.

Finally, completed my first triathlon! 🙂

Now, the embarrassing part- I was one of the lasts to finish.(*sheepish look*)

While my swimming and run timings were pretty decent, everyone dusted me off in the cycling round. Before you make fun do understand, for me, the cycling part was the toughest. I only started cycling a month and half back, after more than a decade of not getting on a cycle. And it was a real task for me to do uphill cycling, which was almost 50% of the entire route. One of the roads we biked on is actually called Mountain road (not even Hill road- its called mountain!). So it wasn’t easy for me. And that’s why it took me a lot of time. And the wind didn’t help either when climbing uphill on the cycle.

Anyway, the idea this time for my first triathlon was to complete it. Next time I’ll probably think of actually competing!

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I started 2012 with a resolve to make more layer cakes.

So, I made the sky high carrot cake for two (which turned out great). Then, I made the momofuku birthday cake (which had a few mishaps but tasted great nonetheless). In between the two, I  made the lavender chiffon cake again for my for my friend’s birthday in March. And then there was the mascarpone meringue layer cake thrown in as well.

But, three layers had been the furthest I had gone with my layer cake resolution.

And then came this cake.

The original cake is a two layer cake with oodles of oreo cream cheese frosting in between. But I decided to go big and made a four layer, very chocolatey cake with an oreo cream cheese frosting. Did I hear someone say yum? You betcha, it was!

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