A Surprise Party to Celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary with Family and Friends

It's been a lovely and busy weekend, the highlight being a surprise party on Saturday night at our home, organised by Shannon, to celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary. Of course she had a few very talented co-conspirators who assisted with this achievement, but essentially she pulled off a real coup. I like to think that I am fairly perceptive and know what is going on around me. Well she can write the book now on how to pull off a real surprise. I've trained her well ha, ha. 

Everyone brought a delicious salad or nibbles and  Shannon bought some very tender steak so a BBQ was the perfect way to entertain on our patio, followed by Mud cake for dessert.

This magnificent chocolate Mud cake was baked and iced by the lovely Elise, who made it right through to the quarter-finals of Masterchef, collecting quite a fan base along the way, and is a good friend of Shannon's. It was 3 layers, with a chocolate ganache topping and layers joined with butter cream and salted caramel. Shannon decorated it with a beautiful posy of fresh flowers on the day of the party. Unfortunately there is no likelihood of my obtaining the recipe for this cake, Elise's secret weapon, but it was unbelievably rich and delicious. It was such an interesting phenomena that as all of our friends were eating it there was complete silence, almost a sign of reverence for the cake, which continued even after they had finished eating. Have you ever experienced that when your friends are eating something so good either at home or at a restaurant that everyone just goes quiet and savours the deliciousness of the meal?

Sparklers on a cake add to the festivity of the occasion. 

We had a 10 hour drive home from Cairns on Wednesday, and Shannon managed to conceal the cake in her car, packed in freezer blocks in a broccoli box along with an Anniversary gift from Neil, Shannon, Matthew and Myrtille, a beautiful patchwork quilt. Unfortunately Matthew and Myrtille couldn't be with us as we only left Western Australia a week ago, but they were here in spirit and called us on Saturday night and on Sunday.

Shannon's lovely Tonkinese cat, also came along for the ride and didn't let on about the secret either. I'll try to include a photo of Nala at some stage. Thanks to our friends who were available to help us celebrate, it was a memorable night and one to always remember. 

Over the next week whilst Shannon is home we will be going out more than usual  and having a great time, so blogging will not be as often or catching up with other peoples blogs. After she goes home though, there will be time for that. I am prepared to just drop most things and enjoy having her home.

Have a nice week and thanks for visiting my blog.

Best wishes

Pauline