Dad’s birthday cake was a black forest one. The words were dark chocolate piped on thin pieces of white chocolate.

The cake came out with this ball of fried ice-cream, with a sparkler doing its thing at the top, and a rather impressive smokey effect going on at the bottom (later I was told this was achieved with liquid nitrogen). Dad gave the fried ice-cream to my younger sister, and she and her boyfriend proceeded to demolish it with gusto.

Here’s the cake after being attacked by the knife.

The cake was really nice. The cream was really delicious and addictive – it had icing sugar or something in it, it wasn’t just plain cream. The sponge was light and soft. My sister in law was rather keen on the chocolate words, and while she munched on Happy Birthday I ate the cream she left on her plate.