My favourite birthday cake recipe — theguardian.com

My wife is a good woman in every way, but she and her family observe some peculiar customs. Mercifully, I have been spared the sight of her father dancing naked in his socks, but I have been forced to navigate many of their eccentricities. For example, there is a total omertà on singing. On the rare occasions when the family attends church, my father-in-law, Jeremy, refuses on principle to join in with the hymns – instead miming the words as awkwardly as John Redwood pretending to sing the Welsh National Anthem. (If you're too young to remember this exquisitely painful episode, go to bit.ly/1mSCb9a.)

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