Baking Hot in Finsbury Park

It was our friend Andy's birthday party yesterday and we started off the afternoon in Finsbury Park. The grass was covered in beautiful red and brown autumn leaves.  The sun was strong and golden at an unseasonable 30 degrees in London. One of those gorgeous afternoons catching up with an extended circle of friends and drinking lots of wine and eating lots of cake in the park. The only thing was we were able to do this in October rather than August!

I made chocolate Guinness cupcakes based on a Nigella Lawson recipe. I was originally worried that the cake mixture was too runny as all the ingredients are melted together on the stove before they are cooked and I hadn't made cake this way before.  But I shouldn't have worried the cakes turned out really moist and chocolatey with an undertone of spice from the Guinness.

The picture above is from Nigella's website.  And my cakes are below!  I made cupcakes and a few special cakes in little heart shaped moulds.  The Boyfriend argued against the use of strawberries but I thought it was a nice accompaniment and the cakes went down very well with everyone at the picnic.  

I mentioned before that I want to get some practice baking as I'm thinking of making my own wedding cake when The Boyfriend and I get married next year.  I've not baked much in the past at all and I really enjoyed the practice.  I've also discovered that one of my favourite bloggers is going to do a series on baking classic cakes.  I may try to bake along with the blog. All advice very welcome.