Can't stop craving coffee

The whole point of this earlier post was to cure my coffee cravings my making a coffee cake. It worked reasonably well.

Inspite of some strong cravings and the fact that on any given work day I walk past at least six establishments where I could purchase a cup, I have been off the liquid bliss for quite a while.

As a result my sinus headaches all but disappeared.

I got over-confident last Sunday morning when I found myself at a friend's house for brunch. A friend who has a fantastic coffee machine. It would have been rude to refuse a cup.

That latte was out of this world.

Did I ever pay for it though.

A few short hours later and I started to lose my sense of smell and I knew I'd pushed it too far. Just proof that coffee really isn't for me.

So I'm back on the coffee cake wagon.

Today's coffee cake version is care of Delia Smith, the merticulousy magnificant English cook.

While my list of 'favourite' chefs/cooks/food writers

is long and varied Delia will always be number 1.

I promise you, that no harm can come to your baking

or cooking when a Delia recipe is being followed.

Here is the recipe for Delia Smith's Austrian Coffee and Walnut Cake with Coffee Cream.

The only variation I made to the recipe

was to use only mascapone in the coffee cream,

I simply doubled the amount required.

The Saving Game Continues - Coffee

I love coffee. I could drink it with breakfast and still crave a cup as I wonder from my bus top to my office. I love the taste of a sweet cup of coffee and I love the smell of freshly grounds beans. Pre-ground coffee is convenient but you'll never experience coffee in it's true form without ever grinding your own beans.

In in effort to be money-wise for the last few months I've only allowed myself to purchase a coffee once a week, generally on a Friday morning. Rather than stick to my much-loved coffee bars I'm going to devote 2009 to the year of sampling as many of Adelaide's coffee bars.

For control purposes I will only be purchasing a small, skim latte. It's the appropriate coffee for a morning and it just seems fairer to each establishment that way.

Last Friday I kicked off with a coffee from the Museum coffee shop. My colleague had assured me that any coffee purchased from this shop would be of a very high quality and very pricey. Well it was neither. My latte came to $3 and was bitterly disappointint. Literally. I had to put two extra sugars on top of the two that the would-be barrista placed in my cup. In terms of the service the staff were lovely and couldn't be faulted. Needless to say I won't be going back there. And a word of warning to any current and future colleagues of mine, don't ever give a half-Italian who has been raised on coffee, false hope in terms of coffee brilliance. She'll never trust you again.

Today, I'm happy to report that I've struck gold. Or is it beige? I purchased my Friday Morning $3 coffee from here Crate and Barrel's cafe. Talk about heaven in a cup. My skim latte was just the way I like it. Milky but still with enough of a coffee kick to keep me happy. There was no bitterness whatsoever to the blend and it only needed one sugar. I rarely ever have only one sugar in my lattes. The staff were relaxed and smiley. It's going to be so hard not to go back there next Friday.