What a weekend! Not only did the sun shine, making everyone happy and smiley, but I had a captive audience to feed 😊😊😊

A little while ago it was my father in laws 70th birthday, but as they are international jet-setters it has been impossible to get together to celebrate, until this weekend. He requested a curry, so we spent some time looking at our favourite home curries to design a banquet fit for the occasion! But first the cake….

70th Birthday Rainbow Cake

A cake with 7 layers – 6 cake and 1 mascarpone icing!

This cake looks amazing once cut, a real visual surprise, and perfect for a special occasion. It was not even that difficult, although it did take some time as the layers need to be cooked in batches. The kitchen was in chaos for the morning- actually the entire flat as at one point I was using 3rooms for prep!

Here are the individual cakes once out of the oven…

Once cooled they were stacked using mascarpone icing as ‘glue’.

The I iced the entire cake and topped with some edible silver glitter and some candles. Here we are in the garden enjoying the sun and cake.

There are many recipes for this cake. I used the one from Good Food magazine which you can find on their website. Worth the effort, and I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate a grand birthday!!!

Once cake had been digested I set to work on a curry banquet. As you will know myself and Colin love a selection of curries and it is almost a weekly occasion for us, and an opportunity to try new recipes. Tonight was about tried and tested favourites, but also introducing a variety of curries and flavours. On the menu….

Chicken curry, jalfrezi style

Red kidney bean curry

Red lentil dal

Bombayed Jersey Royals

Basmati rice

Coriander naan bread

Red onion, tomato, chilli and coriander salad

Washed down with a couple of bottles of Portuguese Duoro from Waitrose, which was a good match with the highly spiced food. A spicy, tasty spread!

A walk on Sunday blew the cobwebs away, even though we did have to take a detour avoiding the locals……. After a brunch and a drive home all we could manage for dinner was a pizza. A lovely weekend off in the sun with happiness all around. Perfect.