We wanted to end this week with something sweet and joyful, something to remind you of all that is good in the world.
In a word: cake.
Not any cake, but this beauty, which was made by Deborah Halliday Mills, a badass mother runner if I ever knew one. (The Canadian who lives in Jersey is coming to Colorado this summer, and looked for a local race she could, you know, just do while she’s here. So she signed up the Leadville Heavy Half, a 13.1-miler that climbs to over 13,000 feet. Yep. Badass.)
Deb brought the cake to our Montclair, NJ party last week and we were all in awe. I kept saying, “This is better than my wedding cake.” What can I say? I speak the truth.
Oh, and those M’n’M’s dotting the fondant frosting? Oh, those would be personalized chocolate bits. (Like I said: better than a wedding cake.) She wanted to put badass on them, but the candy company wouldn’t allow it. Their loss.
It was as good as it looks: moist, flavorful (I’m pretty sure it was a vanilla cake, but I shoveled it in so quickly, I may have been wrong), decadent. I wish I had a pic of a slice, but alas, I don’t so you’ll have to trust my palate on this one.
(And she didn’t ask me to do this, but if you live in the NYC metro area and need a special cake, she’s your lady. She showed us slides of her other creations—including a tasteful, bodacious one for a lactation consultant— and they were just phenomenal. You can reach her through her blog or her brand new Twitter account.)
The artist and her muses…
Thank you, thank you, Deb; we wish we could share a slice with all of you reading this right now. Hope you all have a sweet, joyful day. xo.
Oh, and if you want to attend one of our mother runner parties, you can request an invite here. (The food will be good, but we can’t promise this cake again. Bums us out too.)
Holy crap! I opened your blog post this morning expecting to enjoy it as usual, but see Deb! How unexpected! Our lives almost seem intertwined. She is a good friend of my best childhood friend. They happen to live in the same NJ town. Before the 2011 NYC Marathon our mutual friend hooked us up via email and we corresponded once in a while. We’d never met.
While hanging out on Staten Island the morning of the marathon I started talking to two strangers. I asked Deb where she was from and when she told me I said I knew someone who lives there. When I told her who and she obviously knew her too I put two and two together and realized that she was “the Deb” that I’d emailed with over the past few months. Talk about coincidence! What were the chances that we’d run into each other among the 50,000 others hanging out on Staten Island and figure out the connection.
Now I see her cake on your blog. I’m still chuckling! And yes, it is an amazing cake!
LLLLOVE it!! …I would’ve loved to have been at the Montclair party (I live in Ramsey). But, I had my own “Spa Party” scheduled for that same night. Bad timing. Ah well. Next time.
Whoa! That’s super cool!
It was a fun night and the cake was gorgeous…so glad you were able to visit NJ!
Wow!!! Now that is a cake. Beautiful job Deb. Thank you for sharing that with us all.
yes! that cake was DELISH! wish I had a slice right about now to go with my coffee ;) great job Deb!!
What a talented mother runner! That cake is almost too pretty to eat, but I’m glad you took pictures and dug in ;)