This is the first time I've baked a cake from scratch... so I'm probably easily impressed by how well this came out ;) I did find the cake to be a bit dry, but not too much so - however, I did make a change by using 2 9-inch round cake pans instead of 1 9x13 inch pan as directed. Tried to adjust my baking time a little bit, but probably was just a bit off in doing so. Everything else was fantastic - spices, amounts, the ability of the cake to stand up to my novice handling for the 2-layer assembly, and even the method of combining the ingredients was clear enough for me to follow. I would definitely recommend an electric mixer for that part - and while it may just be inexperience, I'd call the stage before the brown sugar addition more 'granular' than 'pebble-like', as I never saw anything that looked like well-structured little stones. Batter consistency was thick but pourable in a 75-F degree kitchen. I frosted & assembled a 2-layer cake using "Cream Cheese Frosting II" from this site, which took a little work to get reasonably even on the sides, but came out fine & tasted fanastic :D Will make again!! - maybe using a more 'standard' ingredient mixing approach as discussed elsewhere in the reviews for this recipe.