We’ve made it a little tradition to spend a chill New Year’s Eve at home with friends. In the spirit of the holidays, we decided to host a dessert-luck and bake our first tiered, chocolate cake along with several mini bundt cakes. 

A good friend of mine, Sasha, taught me how to make my first cake some years ago. I ended up loving this chocolate stout cake paired with this frosting recipe. The recipe conveniently uses one bottle of stout and is simple to follow. I used a mini 6” springform pan and my husband helped slice the layers after the cake had cooled sufficiently.

We made a total of three cake layers. After making the frosting and layering on each section, I found it helpful to use the end of a spatula to straighten the edges all around the cake. We let it set in the fridge for about thirty minutes before starting to decorate the cake top with some fresh flowers, mint leaves, rosemary, and raspberries.

We spent the rest of the evening on New Year’s Eve with good friends, more pastries, wine, and some winter dream tea lattes. We gathered around to play Mario Party and some Jackbox games. Our favorite was Trivia Murder Party.

This is one of my favorite photos from that night of my husband with Bori in her little outfit:

We woke up on New Year’s Day to a few left overs and stayed in pajamas the entire day. I can’t say we truly got up on New Year’s Day, but we did finally have our day of rest. We stayed in, eating home cooked meals, cozying up on the couch with a sea of blankets and fluffy pillows, and basked under the sunlight streaming through the windows.

Hope you had a very happy New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day!