An Easter Birthday

My MIL's birthday happened to fall on Easter this year. It's the first time this has happened in her lifetime and won't happen again for another 200+ years. We invited them for Easter dinner. We grilled a lamb roast on the rottiserie that turned out excellent. We marinated it in olive oil, garlic and fresh rosemary overnight and then used a spice rub on it. We put together the spice mixture from 14 different spices. Here's the rub recipe we used:

Raz el Hanout

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cardamom

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon mace

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

3 tsp tumeric

2 tsp nutmeg

We served the lamb with a shiraz wine/honey /lamb dripping reduction along with couscous, grilled asparagus with sea salt and a green salad. We didn't get any pictures of our meal because we were too busy plating it and trying to eat it while it was warm.

Now I'll get to the SWEET part of the meal- the cake. I saw this cake done on a local tv show and deicded it sounded light & fresh. And can you believe I had to go to 3 different stores to find an Angel Food Cake mix? (Thanks Harmon's for finally coming through for me!)

Key Lime Coconut Angel Food Cake
Ingredients:
1 round angel food cake
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup lime juice (preferably Key lime)
1 teaspoon grated lime zest
1 container (12 ounces) Cool Whip
1 cup flaked coconut
Key limes and strawberries for garnish
Method:
Cut cake hortizontally into 3 rounds. In a separate bowl, beat milk, lime juice, and lime zest with a whisk until smooth. Add cool whip, only to combine.
Spread 1/3 of cool whip mixture in between the first and second layers, and an additional 1/3 in between the second and third layers. Use the remaining mixture to "frost" the entire outside of the cake. Sprinkle with coconut. Garnish with cut limes and strawberries. Makes 12-16 servings.

Here's how it turned out. I was a little disappointed with the taste. Not bad, just not as scrumptious as I was hoping for. It looked pretty good though.