Cake # 78 Chewy Chocolate & Sesame Bars

Well we officially made it a whole week (and then some) with a newborn and a crazy, "terrible-two" toddler. Don't get me wrong -- I love my daughter, but I am slowly beginning to understand why people thought I was nutso when I said I wanted my kids two years apart. Liam is a piece of cake (haha normally I hate such deadwood phrases -- but since this is a cake blog -- I thought the pun was appropriate) compared to the Tasmanian devil that is Evalyn.

I knew that she was going to be jealous of the new baby, and I am very thankful that she isn't really taking it out on Liam, but somehow I have become the penguin to her batman. Everything I do is wrong, everything I ask her to do is ignored, and she refuses to give me hugs and kisses. Now, Ted gets this treatment sometimes too, but not as much as mean mommy. I can't blame her (though during screaming tantrums, I would be lying if I said the thought never crossed my mind) and I understand why she is acting out, but I am not too proud to say it doesn't hurt when my little girl will not give me a kiss, even goodnight.

See, I made the biggest mistake a mother can make. Instead of allowing the world to continue with the sun only shining on Evalyn, I tried to make her share the sun. And no matter how big it is and no matter how many times I tell her that the sun is large enough to warm all of us, it still makes her sad that she has to share it. I am the exact same way she is, and my heart breaks for her when she is jealous and sad, but when she kissed Liam goodnight and tells him that she loves him, I am so proud of her.

So, to try to make up for it, (but really how can I make up for having another baby short of buying her a pony . . . which she would LOVE) I decided today was going to be all about Eve.

First, we ate whatever she wanted for breakfast, Life cereal and "pony snacks," (fruit snacks) then we colored in her room, played with stickers, and made a birthday card for her cousin Bella. After that, we watched T.V. and painted her toe-nails and her finger nails. Finally, we made the cake of the week together, which is Evie's favorite thing to on Saturday. She loves sifting ingredients in the bowl, she loves throwing away trash, and she loves watching the Kitchenaid mix. So today we made Chewy Chocolate & Sesame Bars, which Evie got to pour in the extra chocolate chips; she also ate quite a few of them while she was mixing them in. Besides sesame and chocolate chips, the cake called for wheat and AP flour, vanilla, eggs, dark brown sugar, butter, and baking powder. It was a really easy cake to make, and one of the first cakes in a while that I actually liked -- maybe because it was more close to a granola bar than a cake. Evie ate two bars -- same as her daddy.

Here is the book's cake:

Here are OUR bars (a word I am trying to teach Evie to say instead of "MINE"):

Let's hope that next week, both Evalyn and Liam will have more time to bond.