If you're prone to lurking on Twitter or Facebook, you'll probably know it was the Babety's first birthday the other day, and we celebrated today with a May picnic which would have been TOO perfect if the weather had played ball...but it didn't, so it was just right (phew).

There were many, many presents (I don't think you ever get that many presents again do you?...thank you wonderful gorgeous godparents!)...and good friends, and laughter.

...and there was chocolate cake (made with love by MOI) from a recipe by the brilliant Jo Weinberg from her book How To Feed Your Friends With Relish.  Lucky I got a picture of it because the whole lot was eaten instantly, which probably had something to do with the fact that it contains THREE blocks of best chocolate (two melted and one cut into gravelly chunks that you get inside the sponge and it melts on your tongue and is like heaven) and two whole blocks of butter....ho hum...  Here it is in all its glory, with crystalised violet and pink petals left over from last month (see my recipe for these here) and those lovely shiny silver sugar orbs.  A real joy to make ...me, pots and pans, radio 4 and peace...bliss (I miss baking regularly because my garden shouts at me for attention).

I also made a new jug of lilac syrup and concocted some rather yummy, alcoholic, (strictly for grownups) jelly which was so blush-inducingly successful that I'm going to put it in my next book...here's a sneaky peek:

If you've got any birthday party images, do post a link to them here in the comments - I'd love to see them.