Book group

On a well thought out limb a month ago I asked on facebook if any of my local friends would want to do a book group and guess what, a lot of people where interested! I was really excited , the last book group i was in lasted for ... it want to say a little over 2 years??? It was a good long while and I loved it. I am happy to have a new and different group now- the other one kinda fell apart as people moved and them the remaining 3 of us all had babies one after another and book group ended. haha.  I have been so excited. We had our first meeting last night. I hosted (I was super nervous-silly) The book was Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool. For dessert I made that yummy cake Micheal liked that I decided to call Michael cake.
I felt like it went pretty well I am so excited to keep this up every month, I have missed having a book group and this seems to be such a wonderful mix of nice people! There was so good disscussiong- admittidly i did not find good topics from teh book to really delve into but i think it was okay- as it was the first month alot of time was spent kinds introducing ourselves.

Recipe for Michael cake (so I don't forget it later)
For cake:
Chocolate cake recipe-I have been using the kind arthor flour gluten free dutch chocolate cake recipe)
2/3-3/4 cups toffee brittle bits
1/4 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips
caramel ice cream topping (homemade or the good stuff-not that cheap syrup)

For filling:
3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 small package cheesecake flavored pudding mix (or vanilla or white chocolate)
1-4 TBS powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Mix cake as recipe says then add in toffee bits (retain a few for sprinkling over the top of cake)
bake -I like to use my 6 in rounds for this since they are more fun.
when done remove from oven let rest for 5 min in pans and then place on cooling racks.
Meanwhile prepare filling and heat up caramel
Now make the filling using the whisk attachment of your stand mixer place heavy whipping cream in bowl. With the mixer on low or the "stir" setting slowly add in the dry pudding mix. Whip until it is just shy of a buttercream consistence and add in vanilla and mix add powdered sugar to taste but you probably need at least a little bit to take away from the pudding flavor. Should form into a very light fluffy buttercream consistency. If you beat it too stiff add a Tbs or so of milk and mix on high for a min -it will soften back up.
when cake is warms but not too hot to handle carefully with a bread knife slice each round in 1/2 so you have 4 round layers. Place bottom layer on pan poke with fork or toothpick and poor warmed caramel (a few Tbs) over top of the layer.
Next top that layer with a generous amount (1/4 of the filling mixture)- eyeball it.Then add the next layer of cake and repeat for all layers.
You are done. You should have a tall yummy looking cake that is beautiful left "naked"- in other words you dont really have to "frost" the cake- but I guess you totally could I did that once and used plain whipped cream on the outside it was yum.