I held a coffee morning today in aid of Habitat for Humanity (My friends Amo and J. are heading off to Zambia later in the summer) and it was a great success - that is unless you take into account the fact that we completely underestimated the amount of coffee we needed to have pre prepared, and some of my friends had to stand with empty mugs for an obscene amount of time!!!!!!
Hints for hosting a coffee morning:
1. Have plenty of coffee ready and waiting BEFORE your guests arrive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. Make twice the number of brownies you think you'll need.
3. Prepare something special for the kiddies.
4. Learn from Brownieville Girl's mistakes.:-{{
I have to say that all my guests were more than gracious, and said that they didn't mind the (long) wait for coffee, and I really hope that they had a good time.
At least the cakes, buns and brownies were successful.
Here's what I served:
Chocolate Guinness Cake (with icing, recipe below)
Mint Chocolate Brownies
Caramel Brownies
Lime Drizzle Cake
Raspberry Muffins
Vanilla Cupcakes with Baileys Icing
Fat Free Rhubarb Cake
Whiskey Fruit Loaf
Parkin
Did the blog influence my choice of menu - absolutely. Although I did serve some of the old favourites (Guinness Cake and Fruit Loaf) I really enjoyed finding new recipes to try out on my
Cream Cheese Icing
(for Chocolate Guinness Cake)
300g full fat cream cheese - like Philadelphia
150g icing sugar (sieved)
125ml double cream
Whip the cream cheese lightly (do not go off and do fifty two million other things and over whip it like certain people!!)
Add the sieved icing sugar and combine.
Beat in the cream until it is spreadable (pourable can work too!!!!!)
Top your Chocolate Guinness Cake.
Enjoy.
I will blog about the other cakes, brownies etc. over the next few days - have to rush off the my book club now!
9 comments:
Coffee morning sounds amazing for me, I've never had it! We don't use it in Italy . . .
Oh my God, that looks and sound absolutely heavenly. Are they all Nigella Lawson recipes?
Yum BG - and heck, I'm pretty certain that your guests wouldn't have minded waiting for coffee.... they had delicious food to keep them company during the wait :) What did you make for the kidlets? Or, alternatively, what was a hit?
All looks delicious! I would not have noticed the missing coffee as I got stuck into the treats on offer!
Wonderful selection BVG! You have put me in the mood for guinness cake! You do make me smile with your wait for coffee...I always think people are endeared when things are normal - noone likes anything too perfect! :) Well done you on hosting this for a good cause. Lucie xx
Ah, you guys are all so kind :-}}
No danger of things being too perfect where I'm concerned!!!!
Saffy, I forgot about making something special for the kiddies - they mostly had the mini vanilla cupcakes with Baileys icing (some of the Mums ate the icing for them - some didn't!!!)
The recipes came from a variety of books/sites - will tell all over the coming days.
What a delightful selection of treats BG:) I don't drink coffee, so this sounds like a non-issue for me:P With all that delicious food too:) Don't you just love the blacker-than-black centre of the Chocolate Guinness Cake?:) I can't wait to see some of the other recipes:D
My goodness, I am seriously impressed - that would have caused at least a week's worth of flapping in my house! It all looks wonderful. I wouldn't be fussed about the coffee bit either.
Gosh, the pics makes me wish I was invited! Looks lovely :)
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