Yesterday we celebrated eight decades of my darling mama. This time last year she was recovering from a scary stay in hospital and we didn’t know if she was going to make it to this amazing milestone. I am beyond grateful that she has, and it had to be an extra special birthday surprise with her family surrounding her, and a menu of her absolute favourites. I went very classic with prawn cocktail and champagne, followed by roast rib of beef with all the trimmings, including cauliflower cheese. Quite daunting cooking for the queen of roasts but she was very happy. The cake was a lemon butter sponge with white chocolate and mascarpone icing and homemade lemon curd, with shaved white chocolate, roses and mimosa to decorate. We drank a vintage Margaux from 2002 which mum had been saving. Such a special day and I know dad would have loved it too. The rib of beef and cake recipe are both from this here newsletter.