All Coffee Recipes

A few nice free coffee cake recipes images I found:

Triple chocolate mousse cake

Image by Allen Gathman

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

Bottom layer

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used 4 unsweetened and 3 semi-sweet), chopped fine
¾ tsp instant coffee
1 ½ tsp vanilla
4 large eggs separated
Pinch salt
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

Preheat oven to 325 with rack in middle.
Grease 9 ½ inch springform pan
Melt butter, chocolate, and instant coffee. I do this in a glass bowl in the microwave, heating briefly and stirring repeatedly until all lumps are gone. Don’t burn it.
Let chocolate mixture cool 5 min.
Whisk in vanilla and egg yolks.

In stand mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg whites and salt 30 sec, till frothy.
Add half of brown sugar, beat 15 sec more. Add remaining brown sugar, beat until soft peaks form, about another minute.
With whisk, mix 1/3 of egg whites into chocolate mixture. Fold in rest of egg whites with rubber spatula until no white streaks remain. Scrape batter into springform pan and smooth top.

Bake until cake is firm at edges and center has set but is still soft (center should spring back after pressing with a finger), 13-18 min. Put cake on wire rack to cool completely, at least 1 hour. Don’t take cake out of pan.

Middle layer

2 Tbsp cocoa powder
5 Tbsp hot water
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (as above, can mix unsweetened and semi-sweet), chopped fine (I used the food processor)
1 ½ Cups heavy cream
1 Tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Combine cocoa and hot water in small bowl or cup.
Melt chocolate as above, in microwave. Let cool 5 min.
In stand mixer with whisk attachment, beat cream, sugar, and salt at medium speed 30 sec, then high speed until soft peaks form, 15-60 more sec.
Whisk cocoa mixture into melted chocolate till smooth.
Whisk 1/3 of whipped cream into chocolate mixture, then fold in rest of whipped cream with rubber spatula until no white streaks remain.
Spoon mousse into springform pan on top of cooled cake. Tap to knock out air bubbles, smooth top. Wipe inside of pan with damp cloth to remove drips.
Refrigerate to set, at least 15 min, while making top layer.

Top layer

¾ tsp gelatin powder
1 Tbsp water
6 ounces white chocolate chips
1 ½ Cups heavy cream

Sprinkle gelatin over water in small bowl, let stand 5 min.
Put white chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat ½ Cup cream to simmer in saucepan. Remove from heat, add gelatin mixture, and stir to dissolve. Pour cream mixture over white chocolate chips and whisk until smooth. Cool to room temp 5 to 8 min with occasional stirring.

In stand mixer with whisk attachment, whip other cup of cream at medium speed 30 sec, then on high until soft peaks form, 15-60 sec. Whisk 1/3 of cream into white chocolate mixture. Then fold rest of whipped cream into chocolate mixture with rubber spatula until no white streaks remain.

Spoon white chocolate mousse over middle layer in pan. Smooth top. Return cake to fridge and chill at least 2 ½ hours until set.

Garnish with curls of chocolate on top. Run thin knife between side of pan and cake to free edge; remove side. Cut into slices (it helps to run hot water over knife between slices).

Recipe quoted (or closely paraphrased) from Cook’s Illustrated, Nov/Dec 2009.

52.42 – Button!

Image by dichohecho

It’s lovely and sunny today, and even at 6pm warm enough to lie about in the garden like a cat…
This is the lovely navy skirt I bought from H&M at Cabot Circus last Thursday :)

To business!

Monday: The day I finished my little felt bird. Worked 1.05-6.05. Hmmm.

Tuesday: Day off! I had a bit of a lie in, ate lunch at home with Dad then went into town and had coffee with Lilian and Izzy. Lilian went to Peru on Wednesday/Thursday so this was the last time I’ll see her for a few months! I hadn’t seen Izzy in ages, she went to secondary school with me but left after yr 11. They’d had lunch in Starbucks & I joined them with my free drink voucher. I had a dark berry mocha frappuccino which was YUMMY. After Lils’s parking ran out Izzy and I hung around a bit more, it was nice to see her after so long!
Then I went and bought more wool from St Margaret’s Somerset Hospice (they have new stuff!) and picked Kate up.

Wednesday: Mum and I took Kate in and then proceeded to hang around in town. We had breakfast in Starbucks (fruit toast!) and bought a Guardian & did the crossword and Kakuro and Su Doku. Then we wandered about & went to Primark (shock horror, no navy leggings still) and Whittards (where I showed Mum nice plates).
We went to M&S café for lunch and then I ran off to work (12-5) and Mum went to an exciting meeting for a few hours before picking up Kate and me.
When we got home I tooks some bad photos of plants and the crackly paint in the shed/greenhouse. Thrilling!

Thursday: I took Kate to school, parked and rode and hung about for hooouuurs. I bought Glamour magazine (trashy but £1) and went to Nero. I had a full set of loyalty stamps so I got a free fancy hot chocolate which was v nice. Very thick like what you get in Spain. Yesss. Hmm. Well I read my magazine and went to Primark again, where I bought grey leggings and a skirt with butterflies on and a small bag and a pajama top and a cardigan(slightly odd colour) all for £13.79!
Thennn I worked 12-5 (I hung around in town for three and a half hours, oh the things I do for petrol money…) In the evening we made pizza :D

Friday: Mum had a dentist appointment so we went to that, then we tried to go to the café at East Lambrook Manor but it seems to be a coffee and cake only honesty café. Unfortunately what we wanted was proper lunch. The pub up the road had stopped serving but the landlady directed us to a deli in South Petherton with a café. T’was very nice. I had ravioli and Mum had bits of smoked duck. They were accompanied by a salad of leaves, proper tasty leaves out of the garden with herbs and things. Very yummy. They had luscombe drinks too! And we had coffee and cake there… Nice cake and good coffee. I recommend it.Shame it’s called "Provender".
After lunch we bought various strange foody things from the deli part (some for Dad’s birthday) and looked in a shop down the road which had little toys and pretty things and ethnic things. Then we went to Langport where we looked in Jane Diliway (possibly related to Diliway & Diliway in Glastonbury) which has very nice beads. We got me a red spotty lunch bag! And then we got more foody things from Sue’s Pantry and looked at all the books about how Langport’s a "transition town", it’s all very green…
My Bristol accomodation prospectus arrived! I think I’m going to go for Durdham and Manor Hall. One’s in Stoke Bishop and one’s in Clifton, but the only other self-catered hall in Stoke Bishop is not lovely and apparently where they stick you if there’s no room anywhere else. So it’d be a wasted 2nd choice really… And Durdham’s normally oversubscribed. Manor Hall does look lovely, the reason I haven’t put it first choice is that I think it might be better to be in Stoke Bishop where the majority of people will be living, even if it does involve a 40 minute walk to the city centre / university precinct.

Saturday: In the morning I… didn’t do much. Then I put some left-over pizza in my lunchbag and went to Taunton. It was the first day of preview shopping for the "summer spectacular" which starts on Wednesday so I bought the pajama shorts (navy with white spots!) that I’d had my eye on. Then I ate my pizza and worked 12-5. I had to count how many of the sale items at 50% and 70% were from different departments (within Lingerie ie. 1150 Fuller Bust, 1152 Bra "solutions", 1161 Collections) and remove all the really old stuff that’d been reduced to round prices (£2, £3, £5) to be put away in totes. That was ok… I mostly didn’t have to do anything else while I was at it so it was calmer than a normal Saturday for me.
There was an annoying woman who kept asking us to tell her how much things were (ie read the price tags to her) and who tried on a 32E and a 32F and acknowledged the difference but then forgot when she’d taken them off, hard to explain. She was odd.
Aaand there was another woman who had a go at one of the girls because she’d picked up a bra and expected it to be £6 because that’s what it said on the top of the fixture. It was £16, but it was clearly marked on its label. The sign at the top was over a mixed rack of bras and said "Debenhams T-shirt bra £6" and had a model next to it wearing that one. I don’t describe it well, but she was being unreasonable. And anyway, the price is right next to the size on the label… you have to look harder to see the size than the price, and she can’t've tried it on or looked at it for long! Ugh. AND it’s not our fault… maybe it’s a bit misleading but the woman hadn’t BOUGHT the bra before she realised (we would’ve refunded it if she had) and she shouldn’t take her mistake out on one of us! /rant
Hmmm. Mum and Kate came and chose some underwear which I got on my discount (allowed for immediate family) and went to Whittards and bought me plates and bowls! Yaay. They went in there and found that they were half price :D
In the evening Kate googled what we had in the fridge and found a recipe lemony thymey chicken with courgette & sundried tomato mixed into spaghetti. It was very nice indeeed.

Sunday: In the morning I was woken by my radio alarm (6.48am) and listened sleepily to something nice about Mendelssohn. Then I got up and had toast aaand got dressed aaand went to meet Meg. She texted to say she’d be late so I went the long way over the hills, it was beautifully sunny and I had a lovely drive! I parked in The Crescent car park and shamefully abused M&S’s free loo. Then I met Meg and we shoppped. In Debenhams we found presents for me (top up of favourite perfume), Meg (invisible knickers (NOT pervy, just anti-vpl)), her Grandmother (chocolates), our friend Caroline (secrets!) and my Dad (also secret!). We spent far too long in there wandering around & trying things on. Meg tried a few fancy dresses as she’s going to a ball in June, there was a lovely black and white one and a Coast one which was a lovely shade of green.
Theeeennn. We went and got a picnic from M&S and sat on a bench. I had their lovely raspberry jelly :D Then we went to Monsoon (where she worked/s) and found more nice things for Caroline, and belated birthday necklace and knickers for me.
Then we went & got insurance for her new phone, finally found my full-length navy leggings in Primark and tried on far too many pairs of shorts before she went home. I bought mince and bread from Sainsbury’s. I got a french stick, a wholemeal loaf and a wholemeal cob thingy for £1… yes! I arrived at that magic time again :D 4pm on a Sunday it seems. I could’ve had deformed hot cross buns, minty cookies, oniony bagels or large amounts of doughnuts but I refrained…
When I got home my family plus cat were sitting about in the garden & thinking about getting garden furniture out. It was amazingly warm! I was lying on the lawn at 6pm! Aaand we had gammon for supper.

Done! And 58 minutes to spare :D
My taste is back but my sense of smell is still a bit iffy. Meg tried loads of perfumes today but I couldn’t smell them :s

Most Spattered Cookbook Award

Image by Tommy Weir

One of my finalists would have to be Nigel Slater’s Real Food. And the chocolate cake recipe in particular.

I’ve had the book since it came out, must be over ten years, and every birthday, every occasion where anybody might drop in, has resulted in a quick check for eggs, good chocolate and a haul of this off the shelves.

And look at the state of it. I’ve had to write some of the ingredients in with pen, the page is that far gone. So here it is, get the top two ingredients right and you’re set.

Nigel Slater’s Chocolate Cake

- 5 eggs, large, organic, free-range
- 180g good chocolate, 70% cocoa butter.
- 1 strong, small espresso
- 140g butter, diced
- 200g golden caster sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbs cocoa powder
- 90g plain flour

Preheat oven to 180C/mark 4
Butter and line a cake tin with parchment

Melt chocolate in a glass bowl over boiling water
As soon as it softens, add the coffee, leave alone
Once nearly fully melted, stir gently, barely stretching the chocolate
Add the butter and stir in slowly.

Separate the eggs
Beat the whites till stiff peaks
Add in the sugar to the whites

Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa in a bowl

Quickly mix the egg yolks in the chocolate mix
Stir chocolate mix firmly and gently into the egg whites
Add the flour mix and fold in, mix with a large metal spoon, take care to keep it aerated.
Pour the mix into the tin
Bake for 35mins, checking with a knife. It’s nice to be a bit fudgy with the chocolate at the end so not super dry…