Life’s Too Short for an Ordinary Date.

For years, I’ve made my own date bark at home.

Not because I was trying to create a business. Simply because I wanted something genuinely delicious that was made from ingredients I actually wanted to eat.

Birthdays were always slightly ironic.

Someone would lovingly produce a beautiful birthday cake and, even when it was vegan, it would usually still be made with white flour, refined sugar, margarine and ingredients I rarely choose to eat.

So I’d politely have a tiny sliver of my own birthday cake and leave everybody else to finish it.

I always thought, why should the choice be between a traditional celebration cake and something worthy but ridiculously boring?

Surely there had to be another way.

For one birthday, I even made myself a giant “cake” entirely from watermelon.

Two huge layers of watermelon, piled high and covered in strawberries and berries. It looked somewhere between a birthday cake and a wedding cake, and it made me laugh every time I looked at it.

But as my 50th birthday approached, I wanted something different.

I’m turning half a century old, and one of my favourite sayings is that we should all be Centenarians in Training.

I want to live in a way that gives my body the best possible chance of carrying me towards 100 feeling healthy, vibrant and very much alive.

But I also LOVE food.

And I absolutely refuse to believe that looking after yourself means eating boring food.

Then I had a thought.

What if, instead of another birthday cake, I made an absolutely enormous version of the date bark I’d been making for myself for years?

Not a little snack.

Not three dates on a plate.

A ridiculously oversized, gooey, chocolatey, nutty showstopper that could be carried into a room, put in the middle of the table and make everybody say:

“WHAT is that?”

That was the moment The Big Date began.

Date bark itself isn’t new.

You’ll find versions of it all over social media.

But over the years I had quietly been refining mine.

Changing it. Testing it. Making it nuttier, gooier and more indulgent. Creating my own signature nutty caramel and finding the combinations that turned a simple date bark into something completely different.

Eventually I realised something.

It felt selfish to keep it to myself.

And no, I’m not giving you the recipe.

Not in a million years.

But I AM sharing the finished result.

We’re beginning with four of my favourite creations:

• A birthday.
• An anniversary.
• Mother’s Day.
• Valentine’s Day.
• A dinner party.
• A wellness retreat.

A corporate table that deserves something more exciting than another tray of brownies.

Or absolutely nothing at all.

Because perhaps my favourite reason for ordering The Big Date is:

ME, MYSELF & I.

Have a date with yourself.

Cut it into portions. Keep some in the fridge. Pop the rest into the freezer and steal a deliciously chewy piece whenever you fancy something sweet with your coffee.

You don’t actually need an occasion.

So here I am, bringing DECADATE into the world as I celebrate half a century on this planet.

The Big Date began because I wanted a birthday centrepiece I would genuinely be excited to eat myself.

Something that proves looking after yourself and seriously enjoying your food were never supposed to be opposites.

Here’s to my first half century.

Here’s to the next one.

And here’s to having a much better date.