Birthday and a Giveaway!

10th of July/last Sunday was my birthday and I really had a fun-filled weekend!! V really made it special! I would also like to thank my beloved friends and family for their wonderful wishes all day/weekend along. It really means a lot.

So what’s up with this “Birthday Giveaway”? I know it was my birthday, so I am supposed to receive birthday gifts..ryt? But I thought why not giveaway something special on my birthday to my lovely readers?  That will make my birthday even more special! So here I am with my very first giveaway on ZaikaZabardast. But before I start on the giveaway, let me take you through my birthday celebration! 

Since my birthday was on a  weekend, the celebration started on Friday evening only. We went to play Laser chase game for the first time and oh boy, that was FUN 🙂 An hour full of running around, hiding, targeting your enemy and kill them (only for 3 secs though) …On other side I was happy because it was an awesome workout :). After coming back from Laser Chase game, we watched a movie “Jumper”..which had a different concept but it was okay. One time watch. But it was a great start to my Birthday Weekend 🙂

For my birthday brunch, I sooo wanted to go to The Wild Cow vegetarian restaurant.  But V had different secret plans for me. So he took me to the restaurant on Saturday itself (Birthday benefits…lolz). I just love this restaurant. The atmosphere, people, and most importantly their food is just awesome. And it’s all VEGAN. We ordered a house special and a home style special followed by lavender n coconut cupcakes. The food was fabulous and satisfying. But we did not really enjoyed the cupcakes..they were too sweet for us. But overall it was amazing. It was worth to drive 30 minutes to the restaurant.

So after the  Brunch when we came back home and V was all set to bake a cake for me! He does not like to spend soo much time in kitchen since he is super busy with his research all the time. But on the special occasions he puts on his Head chef cap 🙂 and I love that :). He was so excited that he wanted to bake a big 12″ cake. And I was like why do we need a BIG cake for only two of us?? But I was not aware of the fact that he had invited few of our good friends for my mid-night birthday celebration. 🙂

So I handed over my recipe card to him and he started the procedure. Although I was not allowed to enter the kitchen, I was not able to resist my curiosity with what he comes up with and of course I wanted to capture the moments. 🙂 It was reallly special to me since he is the only one who has baked a cake almost on every birthday (4 out of 6 times since 2005). My mom is not in to the baking but she will make alll the other delicacies I like let’s say fruit salad, special dinner, lunch etc… Oh I missed it 😦 But back home they made all these delicacies to celebrate my birthday! And we celebrated it here 🙂

So back to the “Baking session” , V baked a beautiful chocolate cake in no time 🙂 ! Impressive that was. Not only that,  he also wanted to decorate the cake! Both of us are not a big fan of Butter cream icing…it’s just not for us. But we love the traditional heavy cream icing, Ganache icing etc…So he decided to make a white chocolate Ganache icing.  It does not end here; he also wanted to make a beautiful chocolate heart out of liquid chocolate. So he really did all the hard work….melting the chocolate, piping it and designing it on the parchment paper. Plus he wanted to make a border of cherries to give it even more elegant look!!  Totally appreciate the hard work. I am proud of him 🙂 Do I need to say how the cake was??? It was the most beautiful and delicious cake I have ever had! Muahhh Hubby 🙂

So around 12 on Saturday night few of our good friends came home to surprise me and the party began!

On Sunday, we went out for lunch with friends at Bombay bistro which is the best Indian restaurant in Nashville/Franklin. Had great time with friends while having lunch and shopping..of course I have to go to the mall on my birthday!! Haha it’s not like that, but the mall was just few minutes away!

After fun-filled afternoon, we came home and took rest for a while and then we decided to go for a movie “Transformers”. Every time when we go to this theatre which has this restaurant close by, we HAVE to eat there (More birthday benefits) 🙂 So we went to Noodles and company for dinner and then for a movie. I absolutely loved my whole birthday weekend. Can’t ask for any more 🙂

SO now you know why that one hour of workout at Laser chase was so important to me…hahah 😀

I think it was enough of my birthday celebration, now let’s talk about a real deal!! “Birthday Giveaway”! Again I am suppose to receive gifts on my birthday but to make it very special I thought to share something with you guys!

So I have decided to bake some delicious flavored cookies for you guys and You can have it if you win this giveaway. I will ship it to whoever wins the giveaway (Sorry it is open for USA residents only!).

Actually I am planning to giveaway 2 full boxes of freshly baked cookies right from my kitchen to your doorstep (Of course USPS,UPS will deliver it).  It has Lavender-lemon cookies, Chocolate chunk hazelnut cookies and Mango saffron pistachios shortbread cookies!! Take a look at what you can win!!

I am sure you will not like to miss a chance to win this!! Right?? So here’s what you need to do to be the FIRST two winners of my VERY FIRST giveaway on ZaikaZabardast! 

Mandatory entries:

1. “Like” ZaikaZabardast on Facebook. Leave a comment letting me know you “like” ZaikaZabardat.
2.  Subscribe to ZaikaZabardast’s email updates. (Do not worry, your emails will be safe in my hands 🙂

Once you are done with both the steps, come back to this post and leave a comment HERE,  letting me know you are subscribed and liked the FB page. If you do not comment on this blog post and just follow me on Facebook or subscribe, your entry will not count. So please do not forget to leave a comment here.

And if you are already a subscriber and you already like the Facebook page, do not forget to mention that in a comment below.

Optional entries:

1. Share on your Facebook wall about this giveaway and increase your chance to win a giveaway! Again leave a comment below letting me know that you posted!
2. Follow ZaikaZabardast on Twitter. Leave a comment letting me know you are following.

Just make sure to comment every time as a separate entry!!

Giveaway Rules:

• This giveaway will run from 7/14/11 to 7/17/11 your 11:59 pm. And winners will be announced on 7/18/11. The giveaway is officially closed.
• This giveaway is open for USA residents only. Sorry folks from outside the USA 🙂 You can still enter a comment!
• I will use the Random number generator software program to choose 2 winners on 7/18/11.
• Winners will be notified via email. Please make sure when you leave a comment, you leave a valid email address so I can contact you if you are the winner. (Do not worry, your email address won’t be published on my post, it is just for me and it will be confidential) !
• Two winners will receive one box full of freshly baked cookies. It will be shipped to your address.