The first rule of camping

So, this weekend we are going away in Brrenda the Bongo, and meeting up with some ace friends who also have a japanese campervan conversion who we used to live round the corner from in London but realise that we haven't seen them for possibly three years... that's bad. Thank goodness for Facebook eh?

Anyway, as you will no doubt be aware, the first rule of camping is that you have to take a home-made cake with you, no fail. So tonight I have been baking - as seems fairly regular with me, it's an experimental recipe: chocolate fruit cake. Apparently it's a very tasty combination. I'll give full feedback over the weekend.

Interestingly the recipe said to wrap it in newspaper and tie it with string - sounds like the words from a nursery rhyme, but I did it anyway (the first rule of cooking is that you should follow the recipe to the letter on the first attempt, except for mixed peel, which no-one likes and we all know is offcuts from juicers).

Please don't look at the quite horrible pile of gunk collecting at the bottom of the oven.