Birthdays

Yay I've actually got round to doing this before the weekend.
I just love birthdays. So what if I am another year older it's time to have fun and one of the big fun bits for me is the cake.
I have always baked cakes for others but except for the rare occasions when my Mum would bake me one I never really had one myself unless I also baked it.  That all changed in 2008.  We were back in the UK for my birthday and I decided to buy a cake for myself and the tradition has stayed.  Unfortunately the photo I took of that first cake has been lost but I do have a photo of another cake that I had for that birthday.  The actual day of my birthday fell on a Sunday and we were visiting a church that was supporting us for the weekend.  I jokingly said when the date was arranged that I expected cake if I had to work on my birthday.  Peter and I celebrated with my shop cake on the Friday and then set off on the Saturday morning.  The church had arranged the most amazing cake and party for me, I was so overwhelmed.  Yes we were there to talk about our work in Tanzania but they forbade any work realted talk for the evening and gave us a wonderful time.  My cake had a firework and musical candle on it.

I still have the candle on my dressing table as a reminder of the generosity of those lovely people.

In 2009 there was no cake as we were pretty sure that Peter had cancer and were trying to arrange for us to get back to the UK as fast as possible.  He did have it and the NHS were amazing.  So the next year we were back in Tanzania.  

When we first went out there English style cakes were just not seen in the area we were living but as time went on they became more common.  This one was baked by a friend who ran a local cafe. 

I picked it up after work and carefully placed it on the floor in the footwell of the passenger seat.  It was covered and being on the floor meant it was out of the sun and wouldn't bounce off the seat on the unmade road home.  It was a very hot day and I wanted to get it home fast before the icing melted.  On the way home I was stopped at a police checkpoint and required to produce paperwork for the car.  I handed over the photo copied documents only to find that I needed the originals (the law had changed -oops!!)  I had to acknowledge that I was wrong and got the standard £10 fine out.  I was then informed that I would need to go to the police station for a receipt.  This would mean giving the police a lift back to the station.  Is it at all possible that I was only stopped so that they could get a lift back?  Of course not being the end of the day was pure coincidence.  Any how I was not having them getting in the car and so making me move my cake.  It took some talking but eventually I was allowed to go and my fine refused even though I was willing to pay it.  I just didn't want a receipt.  The cake survived the heat and was yummy.

Sorry I have put the robot thingy on but Anonymous has found my other blog so I thought I would protect this one for a short while as well.  If he should leave a message on your blog don't be tempted to follow his link, it could be a virus or something yukky.