Cake(s) for another celebration

I haven't even put away the Christmas decorations and we're still eating left over Christmas treats yet I find it is already time for more baking because a certain somebody is turning 32 on Sunday.  32! What an age.  

For this celebration, the celebratoree wanted a Rocky Road cake from this recipe book that I found at the library.  I really really wanted to make the delicious looking extremely espresso chocolate cake but Jbird doesn't like coffee and I shouldn't have coffee so I went for the rocky road for it's textured appeal.  It's a fun creation to make: a three layered cake with thick rocky road icing in between each layer and all over the tops and sides.  I made the cake today.  It seems almost like a brownie, with 10 ounces of melted chocolate, another cup of chocolate chips, and a cup of toasted and chopped nuts.  The recipe called for pecans but I opted for a mixture of almonds, pistachio, cashew, walnuts, and hazelnuts.  I hope it was a good decision.  Tomorrow I will make the rocky road icing but I'm just going to put it between the cake layers.  I prefer the smooth look of a chocolate ganache on the outside.  To add a bit of texture, I will press nuts, dried apricots, and marshmallows all over the top.  I'll do the ganache on the third day (Saturday).  I find it nice to spread out making these creations as they can take a long time and I start to get sloppy and frustrated after too many straight hours on one project.    For second dessert - what birthday girl wouldn't want second dessert? - I'm making lemon poppy seed mini cupcakes with a chocolate cream cheese icing.  The recipe book had so many great ideas, I couldn't stop at one recipe.  I'm saving a third recipe for Valentines day - Jbird and I only tend to have cake for celebrations. 

I hope you don't mind me not bothering to share the recipe as it belongs to the owners of the book.  I also hope this post will encourage you to consider looking for new recipes rather than sticking to what you already know.