For the next year I am doing a project - a different cake each week for an entire year - following the book All Cakes Considered: A Year's Worth of Weekly Recipes Tested, Tasted and Approved by the Staff of NPR's All Things Considered. You can read about the start of my project here and look at each week to date here.

The recipe: The Naughty Senator (Peppermint and Chocolate Rum Marble Cake)

Week 18 is a little late to the party. These last 3 weeks were really busy with lots of newborn sessions, a couple really great family sessions and then our own family photo session and Grace's baptism. So baking cakes just wasn't high enough on my list of priorities.

But I whipped up this one this weekend and I'm hoping to crank out another one in the next couple days to get myself caught up (which means lots of cake for whoever stops by your house this week).

This week's technique was marbling and, as you can see, I think I nailed it. The cake itself is delicious. One of the options on this cake was to leave out the rum, so the two flavours are actually just chocolate and peppermint.

Recipients: No one. This is our first relaxing weekend in a while so we're staying in, just the four of us.

Verdict: Good, I'd make it again. The mint part was a little too minty - it left you feeling a little bit like you'd just brushed your teeth - so I'd probably only put in 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract next time instead of two.

Up next: Paula Deen's Almond Sour Cream Pound Cake