A piece of cake – recipes galore online

There’s nothing like a birthday to bring the family together round the kitchen table of an evening. Their enthusiasm has little to do with any emotional attachment to each other, of course – it’s the lure of the home-baked birthday cake that encourages them to set sibling rivalries aside for a few minutes. In the 60s and 70s, when I was growing up, birthday cake recipes were pretty uncomplicated. You baked your Victoria sponge or chocolate cake, sandwiched the two halves together with some strawberry jam, plus butter icing or cream, popped the requisite number of candles on the top, and bingo: one birthday cake! Today the cornucopia of cake recipes (take a look) available online for hungry birthday boys and girls would keep even a robotic Gary Rhodes busy for months. There are recipes for cakes in the shape of Barbie dolls (remember her?), cakes customised as cars, gluten-free cakes masquerading as fairytale castles. You name it, you’ll find a cake recipe for it.