Neil's Birthday

Neil's birthday was on June 26 and this year's cake was a Devil's Food Cake. Unfortunately I couldn't find my regular recipe so I turned to epicurious.com for help.

I was a little concerned at the amount of sugar listed in the recipe, but I trusted the authors and the result was a very large food cake that was rich without being sickly. I decorated it with chocolate icing and Maltesers a'la Nigella Lawson. Despite the fact we were heading to a friend's for a pot luck dinner an hour later, we did the candles and wish thing and shared a slice as we got ready.

Dinner at Andre and Pierre's was a combined birthday for Andre (who was off overseas to celebrate) and Neil. The usual suspects were there and we were each responsible for a course (and several bottles of red wine.

On the menu:
Tomato and basil risotto (Me)
Warm roasted winter vegetable salad (Jackie)
Roast ram (Joh & Pierre)
Followed by Chocolate and apricot tart with rhubarb ice cream and marscapone (Sarah)

Boy was I feeling rotund after that meal!