Three salads and a vegan ginger cake

For someone who loves cooking as much as I do, I get really shy about cooking for anyone apart from me and my other half. I'm not sure why - I just don't want to feed people bad food!

I know people who aren't vegan are sceptical that vegan food can taste nice, and I don't want to prove them right - which I did the last time I cooked for some friends. It ended up in a horribly grainy sorbet and cookies that fell apart at the first touch of my hand. Fail, fail, fail.

But with a friend's birthday was on the horizon, I decided to steel myself and offer to make lunch for them as a birthday present.

Here's what I cooked up:

Top left is tabbouleh, top right is pasta salad in a dill and miso sauce, and bottom left is kale and avocado salad from a recipe here . I also cooked some vegan ribs (recipe here) and some harissa roasted potatoes.

It was all - whisper it - absolutely lovely. I surprised myself, and probably my non-vegan guest, who was particularly keen on the ribs.

It was all nice, but not as nice as this:

This is a ginger cake, it's rich and sticky and spicy, and the recipe is here. It's not vegan, but is easily veganised and it is wonderful. Go make it now - you'll make someone's birthday.