Mom recently celebrated a big birthday. I’m always up for a celebration, every single day is really and truly celebration worthy. However, when it comes to birthdays, especially Mom’s birthday, I wanted to get a little extra.

We decided together to buy a new bracelet for Mom’s big day. It’s something we have both thought about buying for a long time, and it is a piece we will both cherish forever. Nothing could be impressive enough to truly celebrate Mom, but we did the best we could

Then Mom and I went to Plancha for a nice al fresco lunch on a gorgeous Florida afternoon on her actual birthday, and we went to tea at the Four Seasons to continue the celebration. She also went to dinner with Dad at Knife and Spoon a couple weeks ago. Like I said, we decided to go big!

It was a lot of fun, and I hope it was as special to Mom as our time together was to me. Though these outings are things we have done before, to do something familiar and fun made our time extra special in my opinion. Here’s to a great year full of more celebrations big and small!!

I also did some baking, and this devil’s food cake with almond butter filling and ganache frosting was just the beginning. There was also a pecan pie and almond butter and jelly cake. All were delicious, but there was something extra special and decadent about this cake.

It begins with a classic devil’s food cake that is an Ina Garten recipe, so I was pretty sure the cake would turn out. Of course it did! The cake is so rich and decadent and chocolate-y, even though it isn’t since I used carob. The almond butter filling brings all those peanut butter cup vibes, as goes the totally and completely irresistible ganache frosting that is so easy to make.

Whether you need a last minute Thanksgiving dessert, a birthday cake, or you just want to celebrate the dawn of a new day, this layer cake is up for the challenge.

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