Spice Cake with Coffee Toffee Crunch

First of all, I would like to start out by saying that I did not make the cake pictured to the left...Sunset Magazine made this cake. I was reading the November issue of Sunset and I came across this cake and it looked just divine! I decided to make it for Thanksgiving. The article said you can bake the cake up to a week in advance...even better. I made the spice cake this weekend and it was basically a disaster. I guess I didn't butter and flour the pans enough because they all stuck. I was able to salvage half of one cake (Blake and I ate the stuck part for dinner, and yes, the cake is divine), and the other two came out a little better, though not at all like they were supposed to. Instead of six glorious layers of cake between layers of cream cheese frosting and coffee toffee crunch, we will have 2 and a half layers...not as beautiful as Sunsets, but oh well. Pictures may follow depending on how dreadful the cake turns out.

I love baking. I think it is one of the lost arts. There is just something about fresh bread, warm homemade cookies, cakes, and pies that means comfort, especially as the weather cools.

A few years ago, my mother went to Cake Making School (yes, there is such thing). She was a cake-making fiend for a time. She would come out with these amazing creations. The cake to the right is what she made for Blake's first birthday. Her cakes would always amaze me. I have such a hard time getting a cake not to stick let alone being able to stack them and put colorful polka dots on it.

I guess my cake isn't a complete loss yet, we'll see on Thursday how it turns out.