Tomorrow is International Coffee Day which is a day that my husband will be sure to celebrate with a coffee or three as he is a bit addicted to coffee. I am more of an infrequent drinker, maybe having one cup of coffee every couple of weeks or so.
I thought for this week's post I might share some songs about coffee.
Let's start with the man in black - Johnny Cash
Next up, Bob Marley
Nat King Cole has a song called You're the Cream in my Coffee, but I thought I would share Seth McFarlane's version instead
We are in Adelaide this weekend for a significant family birthday. Any one who has spent any time in Adelaide would know about Farmer's Union Iced Coffee. Back in the day the slogan for this was It's Farmers Union or it's nothing.
So my last song for today is Cold Coffee by Ed Sheeran
Weekly meals
Saturday - Out for dinner
Sunday - Chicken Shwarma (Family dinner)
Monday - Spanish Tuna Pasta Bake
Tuesday - Meatballs
Wednesday - Mexican Chicken Rice
Thursday - Take Away
Friday - Away for the weekend
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
It's the last Saturday of the month and that means it is time to share what I have baked during the month of September.
It's been another busy baking month, helped no doubt by the fact that I had plenty of time thanks to taking a week off work
Chocolate Babka - I started the month by attempting to make a chocolate babka. I say attempted because while I think the braiding to form the patterns is not bad, I am not sure that the dough proved enough. It tasted good though so I might try making it again at some point.
Hummingbird Cake - I really wanted something with cream cheese frosting, and this cake definitely fitted the brief. It also tied in nicely with Cook the Books this month.
Cheesecake brownie - I have been meaning to try making cheesecake brownies for the longest time. Will definitley be making this one again.
Coffee Meringue Shards - When BethFishReads and I did a joint review of Nadiya Hussain's Nadiya Bakes recently, she shared the recipe for Coffee Meringue Shards. I hadn't really noticed this recipe in the book, but I am glad that I made these.
I used these a couple of ways. The first way was with whipped cream, as a sort of coffee eton mess. Simple but delicious.
The second way I used them was by making the coffee cream cake that I originally made a couple of months ago and used these as the decoration.
Today I am making a flamingo cake for my son's 23rd birthday. Yes, that's what he chose, except he wanted a green flamingo! That's something to look forward to seeing in my October post!
Weekly Meals
Saturday - Potato, Pea and Spinach curry
Sunday - Bunny Chow
Monday - Salmon Teriyaki Noodle Stir Fry
Tuesday - Spanish Tuna Bake
Wednesday - Beef Pepper Pie
Thursday - Chicken kebabs, baked potato and coleslaw
Friday - Take away
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
When I posted What I Baked in July post a couple of weeks ago There were lots of comments about the coffee cream cake that I made.
As I mentioned in that post, we were watching one of the Bake Offs and the bakers were asked to make something that was coffee flavoured, and Robert started reminiscing about a coffee cream cake that his grandmother used to always have and so I went and found a recipe that sounded similar and made it for him. He was very happy with it and said it came very close to what he remembered. I even heard him talking to his parents about it and how it bought back memories of his grandmother.
It's a pretty retro cake, but it did taste delicious, even for me who is more of an occasional coffee drinker rather than a coffee addict. I did reduce the coffee a fraction in the cake recipe.
That has made me think about the things I remember about my grandparents, and the foods I associate with my memories of them. I have posted a few times about things I remember about my cheeky grandfather. He always had licorice allsorts in a bowl next to his chair, and a packet of Kool Mints in the car. He was definitely a meat and three veg kind of guy, to the point that he didn't particularly like chicken, so would only ever eat the chicken wings. I do, however, have a memory of having a lot of family in their dining room having a big feast of KFC which at the time was the height of luxury for me.
I do also remember a story that I heard about him and my grandmother. The story goes that she used to regularly make steak and kidney pie. After 20 years apparently he finally gathered the courage to tell her that he didn't really like it.
I also think of them on the odd occasion when I have a cappuccino. When my grandfather was in his 70s or 80s he developed a taste for cappuccino that I don't remember before that, and so they used to head off to the Kmart cafe and he would eat the froth off the top and we would all pretend to be horrified! And that would happen every time! It makes me feel emotional thinking about this today.
As for my grandmother, she was apparently a very good cook (which is impressive given that most of her life she had to cook on a wood stove), but unfortunately my strongest memory of her cooking related to cooking dog food. She also used to breed Australian Silky Terriers quite successfully, and we used to have to help her clean out the dog kennels at the end of each day. It was a horrible job but we all used to do it. She used to cook up big batches of dog meat so it was either cooking away on the stove or was sitting there waiting to be used. It had a certain kind of smell and occasionally my mother cooks savoury mince that smells just like it, and I struggle to eat it!
Anyway, before I got distracted by those memories, I thought I would share the recipe for the Coffee Cream Cake, seeing as so many people were interested in it. The recipe said to make it in a tube tin but I didn't have one of those at the time (I do now!) so I just made a round cake.
I found this recipe at RecipeLand. I made it pretty much as stated although we don't have any coffee flavoured liqueur or whole coffee beans so I didn't use either of those. I was also quite surprised to see chocolate at the end of the recipe. I didn't use that either!
The other thing that I just realised when I am posting this is that this recipe is a variation on the chiffon/angel food cake that I made last weekend, given that it does call for the tube tin and for the cake to be cooled in the tin but inverted. This is me connecting the dots!
Coffee Cream Cake
Cake
5 large eggs room temperature 1 cup sugar ½ teaspoon instant coffee powder 3 tablespoons water, boiling 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted 1 teaspoon baking powder
Frosting
2 cups heavy whipping cream 2 tablespoons sugar ¼ cup coffee very strong 2 tablespoons liqueur coffee flavor, such as kahlua walnuts chopped, toasted coffee beans, whole chocolate
Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃).
Separate eggs.
Combine egg yolks and 1 cup sugar in large bowl and beat until thick and lemon colored, about 5 minutes.
Dissolve coffee powder in boiling water. Blend in vanilla and dissolved coffee powder.
Combine flour and baking powder and blend into batter.
Beat egg whites until stiff.
Fold into batter. Turn into ungreased 10-inch tube pan.
Bake 30 minutes. Invert onto rack and let stand until completely cool.
For the frosting, whip cream with 2 tablespoons sugar until soft peaks form. Add cold coffee and liqueur and beat until stiff.
Slice cake crosswise into thirds. (I only did halves!)
Use about ⅓ of cream frosting to fill layers and remainder to frost entire cake (save some frosting and pipe rosettes over top for garnish, if desired).
Chill until whipped cream is slightly firm. Press nuts onto sides of cake and arrange coffee beans atop rosettes, if desired.
Chill 4 hours before serving.
Weekly Meals
Saturday -
Sunday - Pork and cabbages steaks
Monday - steak baked potatoes
Tuesday - Sausages mash gravy
Wednesday - Spag bol
Thursday - Honey Chicken
Friday - takeaway
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
It's the last Saturday of the month and that means it is time to share what I have baked during the month of July.
I was going to say it has been a relatively quite month baking wise here but then I had a look and realised that I actually did make a few things over the last few weeks
Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake - I have made this cake a few times now and it is a favourite. One thing I love is the colour of this mixture. I could quite happily watch this cake mix in the mixer for hours. Not sure how the cake would turn out if I did. Probably a bit rubbery. You can see a video of it here - very satisfying!
Honeycomb - Honeycomb has been my list of things I need to try at some point for years. The texture was perfect. Very crunchy and when I broke it into pieces it was very satisfying. However, in my quest to get the sugar to the right temperature it became a bit bitter so then I had to make the next thing to offset the bitterness. I will try this again because the process itself wasn't too hard. I might use the stainless steel pot instead of the black pot next time so I can see the colour of the caramel.
Milk Chocolate Tart - Because of the bitterness of the honeycomb, I was trying to find something to offset it, so rather than making a chocolate tart with dark chocolate I made one with milk chocolate. It waasn't a complete success either as the ganache wasn't as set as I would have liked, but it did taste very nice!
Coffee Cream Cake - We were watching one of the Bake Off shows and they had a recipe on there for a coffee flavoured biscuit (I think it was Junior Bake Off but I could be wrong). My husband started reminiscing about how his Oma used to always have a coffee cream cake, so I set out to see if I could find a recipe that replicated it. He was very happy with the result, although he remembers the cake having almonds, instead walnuts. I expect we will be having this one again. Today I even went an bought a better tin for it, and also to try making something else.
In addition, my husband made himself a big batch of rusks which he does once a year or so. They are very nice dunked in a cup of tea.
Weekly Meals
Saturday - Pork chops, mushroom sauce, mash and beans
Sunday- Steak, broccolini and mushrooms
Monday- Roast chicken
Tuesday- Bangers and Mash Pie
Wednesday -
Thursday- Beef and pepper pie
Friday - Take away
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
As you read this, we are in transit on our way back from visiting Uluru in Central Australia. It is the first time for the both us to see the world's biggest monolith, and visiting Northern Territory, not to mention the first time leaving our home state of Victoria since the end of 2019! My plan is to post about our visit in next week's Weekend Cooking post.
Yesterday I posted about a book called Sweetheart by Sarah Mayberry which is part of a multi-author series set in a Vermont cafe. As you would imagine there's plenty of food mentions when you read a book set in a cafe, but for this week I thought I would share this quote about coffee and wine!
Part of the reason for choosing these quotes because I am not much of a connoiseur when it comes to wine or coffee. What I do know is when I like or or I don't but that's as far as it gets. I do like the idea of the processes that goes into making both of them. I like the idea that both coffee and wine vary depending on where it is grown and can be influenced by so many things from the makeup of the soil, how rocky it is, whether it was picked under a full moon. That all fascinates me. But yes, give me a glass of wine or a glass of coffee and the most I can probably tell you is if it is smooth or not.
"Come on in to the apartment and meet Larry," Beck said.
"Sounds good," I said, wincing at how bright and chirpy I sounded.
Beck's mouth twitched again, as he led me down a short corridor. After passing his office and the packing room, we walked through a doorway into a large space that run the full width of the building. Two big metal machines were spaced along the far wall, while pallets piled high with burlap sacks filled a corner.
"Are these the roasters?" I asked, forgetting to be nervous for a second as I went to examine the large circular tray attached to the front of one of the machines.
"Yep, these are our babies," Beck said. "That's the cooling tray. Beans go in there, and once we get past first crack, and we're happy with the roast, we pour them out here to cool. " He pointed to a large hopper on top of the machine, then to the tray.
"First crack is when the beans open up in the heat, right?"
He raised his eyebrows. "Bang on the money."
"I did some googling," I admitted. "But Google didn't tell me how you know when you've got first crack."
The space was scrupulously clean, and the delicious smell I'd noted the other day in the packing room was stronger here, a mixture of the baked bread scent and caramelized sweetness he'd just described.
"So this is where the magic happens," I said.
And then a bit later
Beck glanced down at the wine I'd brought and a broad frown crossed his forehead.
"I wasn't sure what we were having and the guy in the store said this was good with almost anything," I said.
"Where'd you go? Hunger Mountain Co-op?"
"How did you know?" I asked, surprised.
Beck stepped over to the fridge and retrieved a familiar bottle.
"We bought the same wine," I said, getting the joke
"From the same manager, I'm thinking, since I got the same spiel."
We both laughed and any residual tension I'd been holding melted away.
"If it sucks, we can go back and complain together," I said.
"Let's give it a shot."
He opened the wine and poured two glasses, handing mine over. We both took an experimental sip.
"I'm tasting wine. I think there's a top note of wine in there, too. And maybe a little wine on the palate afterwards?" I said
"Definitely," Beck said, taking another mouthful and swirling it around his mouth ostentatiously, sucking his cheeks in and out and generally looking ridiculous. "Pretty sure the grapes were picked on a Friday by a redheaded man with big feet and a gambling habit.'
"Insightful," I said.
"It's what I do," Beck said with a casual shrug.
Are you a coffee or wine connoisseur?
Weekly Meals
Saturday: Peri Peri Chicken with chips and salad Sunday: Leftovers Quiche Monday: Leftover Leftovers Quiche Tuesday: Wednesday:
Thursday: Friday:
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.
