jamesclay, Author at Time for a coffee

January 9, 2011

Baking Cakes

These cupcakes (or fairy cakes) are based on a recipe for a loaf cake.

It is based on a recipe from the BBC Good Food magazine for a chocolate loaf cake.

I had to adjust the ingredients as I had run out of cocoa.

Ingredients

175g softened butter , plus extra for greasing
175g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
140g self-raising flour
85g ground almonds
½ tsp baking powder
50ml milk
1 tbsp cocoa powder
50g plain chocolate chips

Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3.

Add paper cases to a bun baking tray

To make the cake batter, beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, flour, almonds, baking powder, milk and cocoa until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips, then spoon into the cases.

Bake for 10-20 mins until golden, risen and a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.

You could then drizzle melted chocolate over them, ice them, or leave them plain.

January 7, 2011

Old Empire

Old Empire is a very nice India Pale Ale. Despite the light colour it has a strong flavour. Though well flavoured it isn’t too heavy. I really enjoyed it and found it a great beer to drink whilst sitting down and having a chat.

January 4, 2011

Middle of nowhere…

Anyone who knows me, will know I am somewhat of a coffee snob! What that actually means is I like real coffee and I don’t like instant coffee.

Today I was at the Royal Forest of Dean College delivering some training and alas all that was on offer, coffee wise, was either Tesco Instant or powdered instant vending coffee from the canteen.

As I had a bit of a break at lunchtime, I popped out to Coleford to get a real coffee. I had missed my morning coffee as it is a bit of a hike for me to get to the Forest of Dean and traffic was quite busy.

After looking around Coleford I popped into Kaplan’s Café for a coffee and had a two shot Americano.

It was very reasonable coffee and I enjoyed it, certainly not an Illy or similar, but still very nice.

Just to note that the “edited” photograph of the coffee is using the Instagram App on my iPhone and the coffee was certainly not that yellow!

January 3, 2011

Poaching Eggs

When poaching eggs I use to use one of those poaching pans, you know the kind a frying pan that has four little “cups” into which you break your eggs over boiling water. The eggs come out as though they were a top sliced football.

Having once asked for poached eggs in a hotel and getting those that had been done in just a pan of simmering water, I knew that I would have to attempt to do it.

I was surprised by how easy it was and since then I have always poached my eggs in this way.

Simply put, bring a pan of water to the boil, I then stir the boiling water into a “spin” and crack the egg into the spinning vortex. Turn down the heat to a simmer.

At this point I put my halved bagel (or slices of bread) into the toaster when this is done then I know my eggs are done.

A lot of books I have read (and seen Chefs on the TV) say that you should add vinegar to the water to “stop the egg from breaking apart” as you cook it. Personally I don’t add vinegar as I find it has a minimal or negligible effect (in other words I have seen eggs break apart even with vinegar in the water) and it also adds a vinegar flavour to the egg. I certainly noticed this when I last had poached eggs in a hotel recently.

I find that actually the best thing is to use really fresh eggs, it is old eggs that fall apart when poaching and not the use of vinegar, however I may be wrong on this. Though as you can see in the picture of my eggs above, still nice and whole!

December 30, 2010

The coffee drinking experience at Druckers

Out of the many cafés in Weston-super-Mare, I have visited Druckers more often recently.

It’s not that the coffee is the best, I’ve certainly had better. I often like the idea behind the cakes I see in the display cabinets, but often find them to be slightly disappointing. However the ice cream is usually very good, even if they no longer sell the blue banana ice cream that they use to. The chocolate is very nice indeed as is the mint ice cream. I do quite like the biscuits and toasted teacakes too.

Most of the time the service is quite efficient, helpful and speedy.

I think though the main attraction is that the place isn’t cramped unlike the Costa branch in the nearby Waterstones. The same can be said for the coffee shop in Marks and Spencers. Both of them are full of tables and somewhat cramped. As a result they always feel very busy and rushed even when they are empty! Druckers has a lot more room and as a result feels more relaxed.

For me the environment in which you drink the coffee is just as important as the coffee itself. That’s why I go out to drink coffee, it’s the whole experience, and not just the coffee.

December 28, 2010

Birra Moretti

As well as liking real ales I also do like Italian beers, especially when I am eating Italian food. I have always thought when eating a particular cuisine that you drink what would be drunk with that cuisine in that country. So when I was eating an Italian meal recently at a branch of Bella Italia I took the opportunity to have an Italian beer, this time I had a Birra Moretti.

This was a very nice Italian beer, full of flavour and perfect with the Italian food and Italian-esque atmosphere. It was stronger in flavour than some Italian lagers.

December 27, 2010

Christmas Dinner – some thoughts

In the end our Christmas dinner went down very well.

We now have a tradition of having our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. We do this for a few reasons.

On Christmas Day itself, the children are often too excited to sit down for a long meal, so don’t eat or enjoy the meal or the occasion. It also usually means I spend a fair few hours in the kitchen, which means I miss them opening and playing with their presents. I also find it quite demanding to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible, whilst creating a wonderful dining experience.

Having the meal on Christmas Eve means that we can both spend a bit more time preparing the meal (less stressful in itself) and enjoy eating the meal (as do the children). As a result for them it helps pass the time on one of the more exciting days of the year as they anticipate the arrival of a sleigh full of presents been pulled by eight tiny reindeer!

As to what we eat on Christmas day itself, well we have lots of lovely leftovers, cheeses, pickles, hot bread, etc…. quick and easy to prepare and delicious.

We did this for the first time last year and were slightly apprehensive about how it would work and go down, but in the end it worked fantastically. Therefore this year it was a no-brainer we would do the same again and have our Christmas Dinner a day early on Christmas Eve. Worked a treat.

December 21, 2010

Lemon Slices

Made some lemon slices at the weekend using this recipe.

Having now made them a few times, I can make them quite fast, though still have to follow the recipe carefully.

The biscuit base works well and can be used with other things. Getting the lemon custard right is key for these. The recipe calls for a lot of lemons, this time I only used two, but it seemed to work just as well. If you double the sugar, you get a more meringue type texture to the lemon custard.

They also work best served chilled. You can dust them with icing sugar, however I miss this step unless I am serving them to guests as storing them can then get messy.

December 20, 2010

Not having that for Christmas!

Well still in two minds about what to eat at Christmas.

Last year we went for a four bird roast, this year (with less people) thinking about something small and not very exciting. What with the weather and all, probably have to go with whatever is on sale at the local butchers or supermarket.

December 16, 2010