Cafe

  • Sachertorte ... or Sixertorte
    Happy Anniversary with Sachertorte Happy Anniversary with Sachertorte

    Happy Anniversary with Sachertorte

  • Giant blackboards make super Welcome boards!
  • A slightly demolished Sachertorte
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Happy Anniversary with Sachertorte

Our wedding anniversary was celebrated in great style with a Sachertorte fit for a King and Queen … and, of course, a Princess. I’ve had Sachertorte on my mind some the Great British Bake Off Final.

The Sachertorte recipe comes from the trusty Green & Black’s Unwrapped. A few changes were made; some obvious, some necessary. The original cake has the word ‘Sachertorte’ written in milk chocolate; ours has a ’6′ fashioned from Smarties. The necessary change was the apricot jam; we used lemon jam because I detest apricots (and asparagus and celery … and I wonder where HoneyB gets her finicky food habits!).

The verdict on the cake: HoneyB did not like it – shock horror. It’s a bit of a grown-up cake and finger thin slices are sufficient. 

By |October 19th, 2011|Cafe, Family Times, Featured, Recipe|2 Comments
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    Claire’s Tearooms, Clarinbridge Claire’s Tearooms, Clarinbridge

    Claire’s Tearooms, Clarinbridge

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Claire’s Tearooms, Clarinbridge

Dear HoneyB,

Time goes by so fast and although you are only 31/2 years old, the time will come when you will be off to university. Maybe you will choose to follow in your father’s footsteps and head up to Galway. If you do then you have to know about Claire’s Tearooms in Clarinbridge. This is where we will be stopping for tea when I am dropping or collecting you.

Claire’s Tearooms is set in a beautiful stone house, rich red on the walls, cosy welcoming atmosphere, large fireplace, subtle lighting. The kind of place where real china teacups and saucers are not out of place.


A perfect stop on the road for a Mom and daughter. I’m guessing you will have tea and chocolate cake; and I will have coffee and a brown fruit scone. If your Dad is along for the spin, which of course he will be poppet, he will join in the old world charm and secretly enjoy the cup and saucer clink clicking.

We might talk about subject choices, lecturers, grades or maybe, I hope, about the upcoming gigs, friends and parties. I’ll do my fair share of reminiscing – sorry in advance. I will fear for your safety but trust your judgement, but I will still worry. I have it on good authority that the worrying never ever stops. Sur’ all you have to do is listen to your nannies to know that.

Then we’ll hit the road again, full and happy, having already flipped a coin to see who will be DJ.

Love always,

Mom

By |January 21st, 2011|Cafe, Family Times, Featured|5 Comments
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  • Berry and White Chocolate
  • Flapjack Sprinkles
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Cornucopia Flapjacks

Cornucopia is a well known culinary institution in Dublin renowned for its excellent vegetarian food. Before I left work, the flapjack queen gave me this recipe from Cornucopia At Home.

The basic flapjack recipe needs no tweaks but you can use any filling your little tummy craves. I’ve tried lemon curd and dark chocolate, stewed rhubarb and white chocolate, and here is what I did to make a summer berries and white chocolate flapjack. 

All rather delightful and healthy :-0

Summer Berries and White Chocolate Flapjacks
~12 bars

  • 300g rolled oats
  • 170g brown sugar
  • 170g desiccated coconut
  • 100g flour
  • 300g butter
  • 200g of your favourite summer berries (fresh or frozen)
  • 100g white chocolate, chopped or callets

1. Preheat to 160 C fan and line a 23 x 23 x 5cm (9″) tray with parchment.
2. Whisk together the oats, sugar, coconut and flour in a large bowl.
3. Melt the butter gently and mix into the oat mixture.
4. Press half the oat mixture into the base of the tin. Be firm!
5. Top with berries (no need to defrost if frozen) and chocolate.
6. Now press the remaining oat mixture on top. Again be firm ;-)
7. Bake for 30-35 mins. Cool in the tin, then cut into 12 squares or whatever shapes you like. They are more delicate than flapjacks made with sticky glue like golden syrup but save the crumbs and sprinkle atop some fruit and yoghurt.

By |June 10th, 2010|Books, Cafe, Cooking, Recipe, Restaurant|6 Comments
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Melt Chocolate Cafe, Limerick

You can find the lovely Melt Chocolate Cafe on Little Catherine Street in Limerick i.e pretty much slap bang in the middle of the city. It is wonderful to have such a cafe in my ‘general’ neighbourhood. The staff in Melt are friendly and knowledgable; there is a lovely feel to the place.

Stocking individual and boxed chocolates from Lorge and Aine, hot chocolate to have or take away, bakes, teas and coffees, there is something to suit almost everyone.

Their hot chocolate system comes from Eraclea and spins quietly behind the counter. This provides the instant hot chocolate pre mixed. There is also sachets of flavoured cocoa available. I, being I, went for the dark chocolate ‘flavour’. The lady worked her magic and the sachet was transformed from a powder to a huge mug of thick cocoa served in a tall cacao loving cup.

The only drawback is that I like my hot chocolate thickened with chocolate (oink oink) not with thickening agent. In saying that I bought two sachets to make at home … one Gianduia, one Cafee, but the flavour choice is endless: white/milk/dark with chilli, coffee, pistachio, hazelnut …

By |June 2nd, 2010|Cafe, Hot Chocolate|10 Comments
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9 Today

TBD: Make this sweet treat is a round tin, decorate with 9 candles for a horse rider extraordinaire and sing …

This is a revved up version of the traditional rice krispie bun. And by revved up, I mean adding 5 (five, yes five) mars bars :-0 Tried and tested by HoneyB and ‘the guys’ at creche, these ‘sveeties’ got the thumbs up. Mars bar squares grace the cake stand every time we have a work fundraiser so they are not just for kids. And, if you need even more proof of their popularity, a similar recipe appears in the Avoca Cafe Cookbook!

Mars Bar Squares

~ approx 60 1″x1″ squares suitable for tiny fingers and milk teeth ;-)

~ approx 18 slices if making it in a round tin

  • 120g Rice Krispies
  • 5 mars bars (standard 58g size)
  • 120g butter, cubed

Icing

  • 250g milk chocolate
  • 40g butter, cubed

1. Line either 9″ or 10″ square or round tin with greaseproof paper.

2.  Put the butter and chopped up Mars Bars in a pot on a low heat stirring until melted. Turn up to medium heat and stir vigorously until it thickens. It may separate, but just keep stirring being careful not to let the mixture burn.

3. Pour the mixture over the rice krispies and stir until evenly coated.

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and press down firmly with your digits (sorry, heard that from those Hairy Bikers).

5. Pop the tin in the fridge while you make the topping.

6. Melt the milk chocolate and butter and stir until smooth (use either bain-marie or microwave). Pour over the rice krispie mixture and return to the fridge until firm enough to cut.

7. Cut into itsy bitsy squares (don’t worry as these cut surprisingly easy) or serve as a cake du jour.

By |February 15th, 2010|Cafe, Child Friendly, Cooking, Recipe|4 Comments
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  • Java Republic Hot Chocolate

Java Republic Roastery

A trip to IKEA saw us diverting to Java Republic cafe for a look at their setup. Wow it is amazing out there, the factory is impeccable, with bright yellow machines doing the biz. We didn’t get to see too much but enough to envy the creators. Himself was not too impressed with the coffee but I think it’s because he makes stronger coffee at home. My hot chocolate was good: milky with a decent chocolate taste (not creamy and sweet) and beats Starbucks into second place. It contains 40% cocoa, Green & Black’s Drinking Chocolate contains 60%.

Java Republic Hot Chocolate

HoneyB was thrilled with her Mammut stool from IKEA … but the leg keeps falling off. At 18 months she was a sponge and absorbing everything we said. Now she is an intelligent sponge so can say things at the right times … e.g. leg falls off and she says ‘f*cksake’. Sorry HoneyB – I’m a bad mommie ;-)

My star buy at IKEA was a Raritet two layer food storage box which I can use to transport double the amount of truffles … only at IKEA can you get these sorta gadgets.

A trip to IKEA saw us diverting to Java Republic cafe for a look at their setup. Wow it is amazing out there, the factory is impeccable, with bright yellow machines doing the biz. We didn’t get to see too much but enough to envy the creators. Himself was not too impressed with the coffee but I think it’s because he makes stronger coffee at home. My hot chocolate was pretty good though and beats Starbucks into second place. A long way to go for cocoa though so I’ll stay loyal to the ‘Bucks in Blackrock.
 
HoneyB was thrilled with her Mammut stool from IKEA … but the leg keeps falling off. At 18 months she was a spongs and absorbing everything we said. Now she is an intelligent sponge so can say things at the right times … e.g. leg falls off and she says ’f*cksake’. Sorry HoneyB – I’m a bad mommie ;-)
My star buy at IKEA was a Raritet two layer storage box which I can use to transport double the amout of truffles … only at IKEA can you get these sorta gadgets.

HoneyB was thrilled with her Mammut stool from IKEA … but the leg keeps falling off. At 18 months she was a spongs and absorbing everything we said. Now she is an intelligent sponge so can say things at the right times … e.g. leg falls off and she says ‘f*cksake’. Sorry HoneyB – I’m a bad mommie ;-)

My star buy at IKEA was a Raritet two layer storage box which I can use to transport double the amout of truffles … only at IKEA can you get these sorta gadgets.

http://www.javarepublic.com/iopen24/product_info.php?cPath=0_76&products_id=1247

http://www.javarepublic.com/iopen24/index.php

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/categories/departments/kitchen/15937-2?pageNumber=0

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By |August 5th, 2009|Cafe, Hot Chocolate, Products, Shops and Suppliers|2 Comments
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  • LorgeShop
  • LorgeCoffeeTruffle
  • LorgeLimeTruffle
  • MurphysChocolateWhiskey

We're all going on a Summer Holiday …

Well actually Sir Cliff we are just back from our summer holidays in Killarney and would definitely go back again. There’s so much to do and I must mention the excellent Kennedy’s All Weather Pet Farm (the important words here being ‘all’ and ‘weather’!), bike hire from the friendly O’ Sullivans, and the NP.

The jarveys were out protesting against horse nappies … HoneyB was definitely on their side saying ‘horsies no wear nappy mom, nooh’. The disruption increased our drive to Lorge by 20mins but it was worth it. A small cottage at the side of the road in the middle of the countryside we found Lorge happily chocolatiering. LorgeShop

We tasted some excellent truffles, my favourite was the Dark Chocolate and Lime and a very close second was Valrhona Guanaja ganache. The truffles had a thin coating which allowed the filling to take center stage. So unlike many mass produced confections, the filling was not hidden under a thick shell of chocolate. They were delicate some dipped, some molded. The praline was strongly nutty with a sweet hit, rather than vice versa. But they were so fresh … the freshest truffles ever.

LorgeLimeTruffle

And if that was not enough, we had to have a Hot Chocolate, with a hint of Ginger. It shortened the trip home ;-) Himself wiled the time away taking photos of the truffles balancing on the gear stick!LorgeCoffeeTruffle

We also visited Murphy’s Ice Cream cafe on Main St. It is such a fun relaxed place, the staff are so friendly and enthusiastic. On our first visit we chose Dark Chocolate, Chocolate & Whiskey and Strawberry. The girls’ favourite was the Dark Chocolate, the boy’s favourite was the Whiskey.

MurphysChocolateWhiskey

MurphysBrownIceCream

Next visit we went for a tasting plate i.e. a selection of 5 ice creams: Honeycomb, Raspberry Sorbet, Peanut, Milk Chocolate, Guinness. My favourite was the Peanut … chocolate chips, peanuts and vanilla ice cream … divine. Ha ha would you believe I just checked out their website and the recipe is there !!

Unfortunately we did not get to CocoaBean and Skellig factory … next year hopefully.

By |July 20th, 2009|Cafe, Chocolatiers, Hot Chocolate, Shops and Suppliers|1 Comment
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Shall I compare thee to …

… a mars bar.

Below is a nutritional comparison between a mars bar and a cuppa hot chocolate. To me, a mars bar is the traditional fill-me-up calorie laden bar and I wanted to see if a hot chocolate was hiding some serious calories behind a pretty cup.

The results are clear: for my everyday cuppa I’ll be sticking to cocoa powder and low fat milk for my hot chocolate.

Brand Name Calories
kcal		 Total Fat g Comments
Mars Mars Bar 261 10.4
Green & Black’s Cocoa powder 115.5 4.3 200ml low fat milk and 1 tsp cocoa powder
Green & Black’s Cocoa powder 145.5 8.1 200ml milk and 1 tsp cocoa powder
Starbucks Tall Classic – cream 249 9.2
Alice Medrich Bittersweet* Hot chocolate recipe 263 18.4 Low fat milk
Alice Medrich Bittersweet* Hot chocolate recipe 277 20.06 Whole milk
Starbucks Tall Classic + cream 319 16.2
Twinnings** Luxury Hot Chocolate No info available on the tin or their website. Tut tut.
Starbucks Tall Signature – cream 363 19.1
Starbucks Tall Signature + cream 433 26.1 The signature drink is the most calorie laden beverage on their menu :-0
Butlers Hot Chocolate No info available and no response to email query. From tasting I would imagine it is higher than Starbucks Signature.
Insomnia Hot Chocolate No info available and no response to email query. From tasting I would imagine it is higher than Starbucks Signature.

* The recipe serves 6-8 but I only get 4 servings so figures are based on ‘my’ cups.

** I’m guessing since it’s a mixture of chocolate shavings and cocoa powder.

PS: Thanks to Starbucks for actually publishing a booklet on nutritional information.

By |September 2nd, 2008|Cafe, Chocolatiers, Cooking, Hot Chocolate, Products|0 Comments
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Insomnia

‘I can’t get no sleep’ is the tune (maybe ‘tune’ is too mild a word) I always think of when I hear the word. After a ‘refreshing’ walk on the Dun Laoghaire pier we decided to relax in Insomnia (aka the cafe in Meadows and Byrne). We had two choices a) sit outside and share our drinks with the elements, dart, traffic, smokers and pigeons or b) chill inside. We chose the latter and with a bit of table manipulation we managed to squeeze the pushchair to an empty table. There were lots of empty tables … just not lots of room. It is not very well laid out compared with the fabulous Starbucks Blackrock who have set the bar very high.

Himself chose a plain old coffee and it had, as promised, 2 shots of espresso. It was very good indeed. I had a hot chocolate which should be renamed Sweetie Hot Chocolate, because it was so sweet that I don’t think I’d ever order it again. It came sprinkled with milk chocolate shavings – nice touch. When himself was ordering he said no to marshmallows for me … goodness, did they think it needed even more sweetening???

The drink has been specially formulated using a secret blend of cocoa beans from Madagascar, Ivory Coast and Ghana by the chocolatiers at Lily O’Briens (whose founder Mary O’Brien is on the board of Insomnia). Could they do a bittersweet blend please pretty please?? And for those who really want a sugar hit, how about Angel Hot Chocolate made with white chocolate. Maybe when Honeyb is older, she can tell me what it tastes like.

I do applaude Insomnia though for making chocolate an important part of their cafe culture. Lily O’Brien chocolatiers are working on a range of Fairtrade chocolate specifically for Insomnia. And indeed, maybe the next time we are in Iceland we will be warming up over a cuppa Insomnia (just this year an Icelandic company purchased a large stake in the coffee chain).

By |August 12th, 2008|Cafe, Hot Chocolate|0 Comments
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