Most normal people two hours before a holiday are packing and getting ready to go to the airport. As two hours before heading to Heathrow I was making sugar vegetables, I do not put myself in the category of normal people. This is probably the reason that I am now sitting in Thailand with a random assortment of clothes and belongings that were very hastily thrown into my case. The cake was for Leon's 70th birthday - Leon is the head of Meat and Fish at our local Waitrose and during Masterchef very kindly gave me some training in different cuts of meat and tried to help me learn to identify fish on sight - I have to say I still have not mastered the later. Leon's wife Tracy is an expert in cheese and also gave me loads of help on cheese identification just in case they came up in the Masterchef identification round - sadly neither meat fish nor cheeses came up but at least I felt a little prepared! I have made this allotment cake several times before and yet everytime I make it, it looks a little different. I particularly liked the sweetcorn stalks. Happy Birthday Leon xxx