Nothing will please a crowd faster than chocolate cake, and when you add a rich chocolate glaze and cover the cake with all kinds of candy bars, you’re basically asking people to come to your house and never leave. If that sounds okay to you, proceed!

After all, nothing will fill a house full of visitors faster than baked goods. I find that when there’s a candy assortment in the mix, you just have to get used to having privacy invaded on a regular basis.

That’s not really a problem for me, but for Kenny, it’s awful. He’s an introvert, and our house is very loud for him already. Our three monsters make a ton of hullabaloo, and when their little monster friends come over, it’s even worse. I try to hide the chocolate during any and all play dates.

It’s kind of tough when an extrovert marries an introvert. I charge my batteries by being with other people, and I’ve had to really cut that back now that I see what it can do to Kenny. He would never complain, but I know that spending the day around people is not his thing at all.

Whenever we do get together with friends, I have a really great time. But I can usually tell from Kenny’s body language that he’s dying to get home and lie on the couch. I mean, that does sound nice, for maybe an hour or so. Then I really want to get out there again and hang out with people.

Our society really gives introverts a bad rap. We make it harder for them to get ahead in the workplace, we misinterpret their preference for quiet as hostile or unfriendly, and we refuse to acknowledge that it’s okay for some people to prefer to be alone to get their energy. It doesn’t mean that they don’t have friends, or want to do well at work, or anything else. It’s just a different way of seeing the world.

It gets to the point where introverts force themselves uncomfortably out of their natural preferences, and it shows. My mom is an introvert, but she values the qualities that extroverts exhibit, so she goes out of her way to be very social. I admire her for putting herself out there, but as a natural extrovert (not to mention her daughter), I can tell when she’d rather be at home getting some downtime.

Regardless of social preference, we can all agree that a candy bar chocolate bundt cake is a good way to unwind and recharge after a long and stressful day. I made sure to pile this high with as many candy bars as I could: we’ve got Almond Joy, Snickers, Milky Way, Twix, Reese’s, Kit Kats, Nestle Crunch and M & Ms. And have I mentioned the thick chocolate glaze? I think I did, but it bears repeating.

As long as I keep baking cakes like this, people will drop by on any old pretext to share a slice. I love it, and as for Kenny, well, he’s getting used to it. But I don’t want him to change, and we’ll keep meeting somewhere in the middle. Introvert or extrovert, we can all bond over a big slice of cake at the end of the day.