Boozy trifle

Continuing with the leftover coffee and walnut cake recipes…

Ingredients

3 slices of leftover coffee and walnut cake
1 pint vegetarian orange jelly
Generous lashings of sherry
1 pint low-fat thick custard
Extra thick double cream
Chocolate-coated coffee beans
Dark chocolate

How I did it

Bash up the coffee and walnut cake into chunks, soak in sherry and place in bottom of your chosen receptacle.

Add cooled jelly mix and pop in the fridge to set overnight.

Add a layer of cooled thick custard.

As the cream is already very thick, there’s no need to whisk it – just pop on top of the custard.

Grate dark chocolate over the top and throw on some chocolate-coated coffee beans.

Done!

Come back tomorrow for another delicious leftover coffee and walnut cake recipe.

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Truffles of Awesomeness

Yesterday’s leftover coffee and walnut cake creation is, as the title suggests, awesome. (My Dad used to hate people using ‘awesome’ in this manner, but hey ho – do not fear the truffles!)

These were very easy to make.

Ingredients

3 slices of leftover coffee and walnut cake
170g Toblerone (I won mine from a 25p tombola in Morrison’s car park, but you can source one from anywhere)
Sprinkly things or toppings*

How to make it

Bash up the cake into crumbs of passion
Melt the Toblerone in a bain-marie (I used a bowl in pan of hot water)
Mix well
Roll into balls
Sprinkle with sprinkly things
Pop in the fridge to set

Done!

Add a splash of rum, whisky, JD, liqueur to the mix for total decadence.

*Sprinkly things and toppings can include:

• Icing sugar
• Cocoa powder
• Dessicated coconut
• Melted chocolate

Cake crumbs of loveliness

On Boxing Day, me and my beloved volunteered at our favourite café, The Art House.  It’s not only our fave because that’s where we met, but also because it allows us to be very silly and provides us with a platform for our creativity, be it performing poetry or busking.

The Art House is a not-for-profit CIC run by volunteers, serving deliciously scrumptious vegetarian food and is renowned for its awesome cake.

One of the perks of being a volunteer is the leftovers. We came home with a mahoosive coffee and walnut cake, past its best, but with only one slice gone from it (as well as a few other random slices).

Now, we like cake. We like cake a lot. But even I was overwhelmed by so much cake and, so, I had to think of creative ways to upcycle.

Here we have yesterday’s quest for nomliness – a tiramisu-style, um, well, tiramisu.

And here’s how to make it.

Ingredients

4 slices leftover coffee and walnut cake
2 tbsp Biscoff crunchy spread (just because)
250g of mascarpone
1/2 pint thick, low-fat custard
2 tbsp double cream
Chopped walnuts (taken from top of cake)
Dark chocolate coated coffee beans

What to do

1. Bash up the cake into many crumbs of loveliness
2. Stir in the Biscoff crunchy spread
3. Mix mascarpone with custard and double cream
4. Layer cake and creamy mix
5. Top with chopped walnuts and coffee beans

Done!

Watch out for another leftover cake recipe tomorrow 🙂

A day in the life

Early morning, mist arising
Over the fields to the bluebell wood
Birds singing sweet dawn chorus
Life has never felt so good

I only see two other souls
A gentle man with his gentler dog
Leisurely walking through the grass
Disappearing in the fog

Beyond the stile, a carpet of blue
Tiny soldiers on parade
Upright, swaying in the breeze
To the unheard song that nature’s made

Turn the corner, business park
Sigh, unhurried through the gates
HGVs and fork lift trucks
Drivers unload with their mates

Down the road, metal mountains
Housing clones in starched grey suits
Private roads and cars are speeding
Faster, past me in my boots

Press the numbers, heavy hearted
Through the door and swipe the card
Into my box on the upper floor
Life has never felt so hard

Lunchtime showers, sun is shining
Rainbows arcing in the skies
Escape the box for sixty minutes
Cursing how much one hour flies

Back to work, another coffee
Feeling sleepy, graveyard shift
Decaf doing nothing for me
Search the cupboards for a lift

Find some chocolate, nom nom nom
All perked up for the afternoon
Head down, keep quiet, get the work done
Life will feel much better soon

All packed up and boots back on
Ready for the long walk home
Through the bluebells, cross the fields
Skipping gaily through the brome

Last stretch of my wanderings
Take the bridge over the tracks
Pause to watch the train’s commuters
Weary faces tightly packed

Home now and I’m through the door
Making tea and reading Zen
Puts the worse things in perspective
Eat some cheese, life’s good again