Cake 81

My four older daughters were all born 23 months apart, with the youngest, Milly, born on December the 3rd, 1996. The mathematically agile amongst you will have worked out that that means she'll be 18, tomorrow. In order to celebrate, I invited her, her sisters, two of their boyfriends, and Dan and Abi, 'round to the cottage for a party, this evening.

Now, unlike the Minx, who seems to be able to toss a few things into a couple of pots and produce a fine meal, whilst doing two or three other chores at the same time, I find cooking a bit more of a logistical challenge. I need the right ingredients in the right amounts, a recipe, some clear headspace plus approximately double the amount of time that you might think is strictly necessary. I am not by any stretch of the imagination, a multi-tasker. Frankly, I'm barely a single-tasker.

So it's all the more extraordinary that across various conversations with various children at various times, I committed to laying on spaghetti bolognese, a chilli, macaroni cheese, garlic bread, a birthday cake and mulled wine. My desire to please the kids clearly outweighs my common sense.

It was only sensible to take the day off and to start that day with a plan, which was the first thing I did this morning. And it all went pretty well up until 1pm when I lost an hour buying wood and coal, and wrapping presents. However, I'm a good man in a crisis and I had a quick mince pie (and a bottle of beer) to steady my nerves before settling down in front of the cooker with a few Christmas tunes to maintain my good cheer.

I'm pleased to say that having bought a little extra time - a mince pie for Abi but fizz, beer and mulled wine for the young adults - I was all done by seven o'clock. And here's the proof! It was very satisfying to watch all the kids tucking in whilst I had a glass of mulled wine and then watching Milly open her presents*.

And then it was time for the cake! Although Dan and Abi's mum makes their birthday cakes, I've never missed a year making cakes for my older girls. And by my reckoning this is the eighty-first one that I've baked.

*I surprised myself by casually waiving the no presents before your actual birthday rule.

PS I'm not sure what possessed me to add that piece of Toblerone. I think the M was a bit too low so that bit of the cake looked bare. Anyway, it now looks like a coded, albeit festive, signal to the Illuminati.