My 44th birthday has come and gone. 🎂 Normally we like to go out to a fancy restaurant, but with everything still closed due to Covid, that wasn’t happening. Instead the Snook ordered us a four-course takeaway meal from Mural Restaurant, a local Michelin-starred place, which he then assembled according to the instructions.

We also had lovely matching wines which came in cute little numbered bottles…

The first course was spinach ravioli with cauliflower puree and tarragon oil, paired with 2019 Scheuermann Grauburgunder. Also sourdough bread with beetroot butter (which was quite sweet!).

Second course: steak (cooked in butter, garlic, herbs) served with parsnip puree and braised onion, along with a 2017 Blaufränkisch Kirchholz. The steak had been cooked sous vide, so all he had to do was brown off the exterior in some herb butter and slice it up.

Then it was time for dessert! A little slice of buckwheat cake with white chocolate ganache and citrus compote, paired with a 2019 Riesling Röttgen Kabinett.

The very final course was cheese! A spread of a few special Swiss cheeses and chutney, served with a 2012 Gewürztraminer Goldert Grand Cru. The chutney was very savoury – almost like an onion jam.

On my actual birthday, the Snook said he was going to bake me a cake. As you know, he’s really good at this. I’ve had the epic swimming pool cake, the potato-chip beaked duck cake, an over-the-top “bûche de Noël,” and many more. A few days before, he asked me what sort of design I wanted. “Something Moomin-ish,” I said. And what flavour of cake? “Funfetti. You know, sprinkles.” With that as the brief, he went to the supermarket for supplies…

He baked the cake (from scratch, of course!) in a giant sheet, and he also made German buttercream for the icing.

Then he cut the cake into six pieces and stacked them with layers of icing in between before starting to sculpt. “The trick,” he said, “is to cut away everything that isn’t Little My.” Everything he cut off, he stuck back on to help build out the shape.

Then it was time for more icing and decoration! Her eyes were made with “Oblaten” (edible German baking wafers that you use to make Christmas cookies), her hair was strawberry gummy strings, and her face details were done with licorice string. She had a few Smarties as buttons down her back, and a red bow to complete the look.

HOW GREAT IS THIS? I’M LITTLE MY, AND I LIKE TO BITE THINGS.

He’s very talent, and I am a very lucky girl!