Cake Monster (and other news)

We celebrated Warren's 32nd birthday this weekend with an epic cake inspired by this beaut at Sprinkles Bakes (your life will change after seeing her creations). Since Warren's favorite candy is Reese's Pieces I knew, no matter how monstrous the task was, it had to be done. Yes, it took two days of oven hovering, freezing, and frosting but man, oh man, was it worth it. 

 We had some friends come over to help us eat the monster. Though they liked the cake, we're glad (sad?) to say that the kids just wanted to eat all of our apples and fruit instead...

 Here is the beastly thing all dissected. Yes, those are layers of chocolate cake, Reese's-studded cheesecake, and dulce de leche caramel flecked with peanut halves and smothered in a pound of chocolate ganache.

 Just for funsies, I baked this cake for a little dinner we had with some friends. This is the first cake I've ever made from scratch and layered--with seven minute frosting too! It was excellent practice for the Reese's behemoth. Is it sad that I'm so proud of it? I used this Smitten Kitchen recipe. Pure gold.

As an early birthday present, we saw Beethoven's 9th--one of Warren's favorite pieces--at the Dearborn Symphony. It was a delight. I'll post about some of our other fall adventures in a bit but the final bit of good news for this post is that the newest issue of New Letters has hit the stands! I'm so pleased that my essay found a home in such a lovely, well-curated magazine. The folks at New Letters were a dream to work with, despite my email switcheroo that threw things for a loop. Sycamore Review, an amazing journal out of Purdue, also took a chance and published a weird little lyric essay called "Go So Hae." The editors were amazing and gave wonderful feedback. I can't tell you how happy all this makes me. Hip hip hooray!