I am now 32. The day has been celebrated by much and varying kinds of cake. It started out pretty badly after Jem pulled her becoming-traditional-Friday-night-teething-from-hell which meant basically I had to wake up every 1-2 hours to feed her or daub Bonjela on her gums and then feed her, and I woke up feeling wrung out and gnawed-upon. My honey and I horse traded for recovery naps and I won on account of being the one who had been chewed all night, plus the fact that I was the one closest to homicidal.

All in all, it meant that my lazy morning baking cupcakes with my eldest daughter turned into a dash to the finish line with green food colouring and cream cheese icing everywhere.

Food colouring. Just say no. Your carpet will thank you. On an unrelated note, why do icing nozzles not have freaking lids?

In the end we had three kinds of cupcake – red velvet, vanilla butter & dairy/gluten free chocolate in a variety of shapes and icings. Including tiny penguin cakes. As it turned out we didn’t need to make quite so many as we only had a few friends & family over for high tea and many of them were as culinarily ambitious as we were – more, in some cases!. We had homemade croissants, cakes, chocolate mousse, chocolate crackles and cucumber sandwiches. Yes, all the food started with C. Next year I will try for a T-party and everyone can bring treacle tarts and tortes. No, wait, I tell a lie, there were also scones. Mmm scones.

Also next year I will have to invite twice as many people to eat all the FOOD. We now have a fridge full of cake. Not a bad position to be in, of course… And I mustn’t complain, because the cake is going to vanish way faster than it should over the next day or two and the last thing I need is people turning up triumphantly to ‘help you eat the cake’ only to discover that there isn’t any. Embarrassing!

I received some very nice presents from my nearest & dearest, including a vase, several additions to my Arthur Ransome hardcover collection, pretty stationery, a cupcake book (YAY I am addicted yes), a dragon bag, having my car rego paid (thanks, honey), and a hand-drawn castle picture from Raeli. Also I have collected pledges for an outfit to wear to my launch and that mother’s day chair that we still haven’t gone shopping for. The best thing is that I managed to snap a rare picture of my mother with the girls, in which she is not grimacing or pasting a fake ‘get me out of here there’s a nutter with a camera’ smile on her face. Score!

No reading or sewing or general me time other than an hour hiding from the world under my doona and a 10 minute shower, but hey. There are other days for that. I imagine. At some point.

And Jem of course, after the night from hell, was the perfect baby all day. Sinister child!

I have just come from reading ‘Dulce Domum’ to Raeli (the Wind in the Willows chapter, not the Ellen Kushner story) and am enjoying the first moment of peace I have had since… well, this time last night. Ah, silence. So underrated.

Thanks everyone for your lovely birthday wishes! I was quite overwhelmed by them all. Now, you know that if you want to do something extra nice for my birthday, there is a certain book you could pre-order… those of you who already have done so can be proud that you’ve given me exactly what I wanted for my birthday! Though if any of you have the power to arrange for Cesc Fabregas to sit out his contract with Arsenal instead of bunking off to Barcelona, I would not say no. Love you all!

Tags: arsenal, baking, birthdays, cesc fabregas, cupcakes, family, jem, raeli, wind in the willows