making heritage frosting for the first time ever tonight, to cover a chocolate layer cake filled with raspberry jam (Robert talked me down from going weird/nuts and doing a thin layer of habanero jam instead) and ganache for R's birthday. wish me luck! if it works out (it's been so long since i did anything remotely ambitious when it comes to what i jokingly refer to as "structural baking"--layers and frosting usually have me running, especially now that i'm here in the land of ruthless heat and humidity) i might get weird and do a belated classic golden butter layer cake (shirley corriher's with some minor blogosphere tweaks) with franken-buttercream (cook's illustrated's via chowhound) and sprinkles for my birthday. and that doesn't even include Julie's donut cake (and that new raspberry cake, ooooh), which i almost must make sometime soon, ack. CAKE ON THE BRAIN ALWAYS YES. it's been a while.