Vanilla Ice Cream Day Recipes: A Selection of the Best

Vanilla Ice Cream Day is fast approaching and with the hot weather arriving, we have decided to combine two of our favourite treats - ice cream and coffee.

Dive into our list of recipes, from affogato to homemade ice cream, below!

Let’s begin with the classic

The affogato is a classic summer dessert that can be made easily. You can enjoy this treat with little to no preparation. You will need to get a scoop (or as many scoops as you would like) of ice cream and then pour shots of espresso over the ice cream. That’s it!

With this being so simple you should think to spruce it up! Add sprinkles or a flake to your ice cream, make it that extra bit special on a hot day! You can find a recipe and examples here.

How about something homemade?

No churn coffee ice cream is the way to go and can be simply made like an affogato! You will need:

• 300ml/10fl oz double cream

• 175g/6oz condensed milk

• 2 tbsp instant espresso powder

• 2 tbsp espresso liqueur (or coffee liqueur)

Whisk all of these ingredients together and wait until a soft peak forms. Then you should have a coffee coloured mixture.

Once you have said mixture, freeze for six hours or overnight and you should have a coffee masterpiece. You can find the recipe, ingredients and a video of how to make this ice cream here.

Something to cool you down…

If you’ve got a blender this is the ideal summer drink! A coffee frappe is a perfect solution to the hot weather. A true coffee treat, you will need:

• 3 medium scoops vanilla ice cream

• 1 cup of ice

• 1 cup of chilled brewed coffee

• ½ a cup of milk

• 2 tbsp of syrup

• Whipped cream (optional for topping off)

• Cocoa powder (optional for topping off)

Then all you need to do is blend all these ingredients together and you will have made yourself the perfect ice cream coffee drink! Follow this method for the best possible results!

Those are just three ways you can celebrate Vanilla Ice Cream Day! Let us know how you are incorporating ice cream into your coffees this week! Look back at all of our other previous recipes and coffee blogs for more tips!

Perfectly Pair Your Coffee With Cake

Coffee is fast becoming the world’s favourite drink - we enjoy it to get us going in the morning and as a pick me up throughout the day. Some people like it black, some people like milk, some like a flavoured syrup and some even like it ice cold. But whatever your preference, we don’t put much thought into what food goes well with a tasty brew... so we thought we’d take a crack at it.

Check out the list below for our favourite coffee and cake pairings!

Biscotti

Perhaps the most popular baked good to enjoy with a coffee, the biscotti comes in many flavours. Generally, you will find almond biscotti in most coffee shops, but don’t miss out on other flavours like cherry or chocolate. Perfect for dunking, we recommend pairing your biscotti with a full-flavoured espresso.

Croissants

Plain, with butter, or jam, these classic french pastries are the perfect breakfast snack. They can be enjoyed with any coffee but why not go for the classic french combo and enjoy your croissant with a cafe au lait.

Doughnuts

Why not go nuts for doughnuts - a classic pairing, coffee and doughnuts are a perfect combo. Whether you go glazed, holed or filled, you can go wrong with pairing your doughnut with a delicious Cafe2U latte.

Muffins

Whether you like blueberry, lemon or triple chocolate, you can’t go wrong with a muffin. These fabulously fluffy baked treats pair perfectly with a velvety smooth flat white.

Chocolate Cake

Perfect with a cappuccino, a rich, moist chocolate cake will never disappoint. But if you are looking for something a little more indulgent for dessert, why not pair your cappuccino with a chocolate lava cake.

Tiramisu

The indulgent coffee-flavoured Italian dessert, Tiramisu, is an all-time dinner party classic. So if you are looking for something a little more adult to pair with this wonderful dessert you can’t go wrong with an Irish coffee.

Banana Bread

A favourite fruit loaf, banana bread is mouth-wateringly moist and matches magically with a chocolatey mocha.

Scones

Not just for tea, fruit scones can be perfectly paired with, well, any coffee really! If you have any suggestions for a perfect coffee and cake combo let us know on our social media channels - if you are looking for a little inspiration check out our full range of coffee and cakes ​here​.

Father’s Day BBQ Tips and Recipes - with a Coffee Twist

Father’s Day is here and hopefully, if the weather is kind, it will be the perfect time to dust off the BBQ and start making some delicious meaty meals as a treat for our dear dads.

To help, we’ve shared some of our favourite BBQ tips and recipes - with a Cafe2U twist using our coffee expertise. From a specially made coffee BBQ sauce, to one of the best coffee rubs around that could take your Father’s Day BBQ to the next level!

New to the BBQ?

To start with the basics first… if you’re wanting to surprise your dad with a BBQ but aren’t sure about cooking on them - you can find the perfect tips for handling and preparing foods here.

In addition to this, here’s some of the basic utensils that you will need to properly tackle the grills:

• Spatula

• Grill mitts or oven gloves

• Long handled tongs

• Meat thermometer

• Cooking tray

• A comedy BBQ apron (not essential but it’s always a good laugh)

Rubs and Sauces

While it’s obviously fine to just grill the meat as it is, you can accentuate the flavour with marinades, sauces and rubs. Here’s one of our particular favourites:

Coffee BBQ Sauce

This homemade coffee rub is ideal if you want to add a little spice to your meat.

Coffee rub is wonderfully versatile and it’s perfect for almost all meat but especially beef. It can be made in just ten minutes and you can find the recipe here.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with other ingredients that aren’t included in their recipe - like rosemary, ginger, or nutmeg.

A Classic

This recipe shows you all the methods on how to make the perfect grilled burgers - from the shape, mixing and what you need to include to make a showstopping pattie. It’s the expert's guide to the best burger and a classic that can make any BBQ.

Something a Little Different…

If you’re looking to be indulgent and want something a bit different to really push the boat out - we recommend these bacon-wrapped cheese hot dogs. A simple and fun idea that incorporates the flavours from a cheeseburger and a hot dog - you can make these on a grill or a smoker and it’s a recipe that doesn’t require too many ingredients!

We hope you enjoy a relaxing Father’s Day using some of these recipes and in particular the coffee BBQ tips - make sure you share some of your Cafe2U inspired BBQs and your coffee creations with us on our social media channels!

Coffee Cupcake Recipe

Here at Cafe2U, we know coffee and cake… and we LOVE cake nearly as much as we do our coffee! So to celebrate the Alzheimer’s Society National Cupcake Day on Thursday 18th June 2020, why not give this delightful coffee cupcake recipe a go?

This will give you the best of both worlds!

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 140g golden caster sugar

• 140g butter

• 3 large eggs

• 140g self-raising flour

• 2 tbsp instant espresso mixed with 1 tbsp water

• A few chocolate-coated coffee beans to decorate (optional)

For the icing:

• 200g butter

• 200g icing sugar

• 2 tsp instant espresso mixed with 1 tbsp water

• 50g plain chocolate, melted

Method

1. Heat the oven to 170c/150c fan/gas.

2. Line 2 bun tins with fairy cake cases (18 in total).

3. Beat the sugar with the butter until light and creamy. 

4. Beat in the eggs, one by one, adding 1 tbsp flour at the same time. 

5. Beat in the rest of the flour and add your espresso.

6. Spoon the batter into the cake cases and bake for 17 mins, swapping trays after 12 mins.

7. Cool on a wire rack. 

8. To make the icing, beat the butter until pale then gradually beat in the icing sugar.

9. Beat in the espresso and melted chocolate.

10. When the cakes are cool, swirl the icing on top.

11. Enjoy - and send us a picture of your finished cupcakes!

The Brewtiful Game: The First Cafe2U Coffee Cup

With national sport on hold for the time being and the coming weekend’s FA Cup Final postponed indefinitely, we’ve decided to create our own competition celebrating the ‘brewtiful game’ with some of our most popular coffees and hot drinks!

This Friday and Saturday will see some of the world’s best cafe beverages battling it out to be crowned champions of the inaugural Cafe2U Coffee Cup.

We will be pitting the qualifying hot drinks against one another on our Instagram and on our Facebook page, giving you the opportunity to vote for the drink you believe should progress from the quarters to the semis and ultimately the much-coveted Cafe2U Coffee Cup final.

In other words, which Cafe2U hot drink favourite truly is the world’s best? Will it be a grande final for your favourite, or will it be a tough result to swallow for others? You decide!

The Fixtures

After much deliberation from the Cafe2U pundits, we’ve created the perfect blend of head to heads that should stir up a great deal of excitement!

Here’s the tasty fixture list:

Friday 22nd May - Quarter Finals

Flat White vs. Chai Latte
KO: 9:15 am
Managers: STEAve Bruce, Rafael Bean-itez

Tea vs. Hot Chocolate
KO: 9:30 am
Managers: Nuno Espressito Santo, O-latte Gunnar Solskjaer

Mocha vs. Cappuccino
KO: 9:45 am
Managers: Marcocoa Silva, Carlo Ancelatte

Latte vs. Americano
KO: 10:00 am
Managers: Nigel Tea-rson, Jose Mour-tea-nho

Semi-finals

TBC vs. TBC
KO: 4:00 pm

TBC vs. TBC
KO: 4:15 pm

Saturday 23rd - Final

TBC vs. TBC
KO: 3:00 pm

Egg-citing Recipes and Bakes for Easter 2020

With more people staying at home this Easter, now is the perfect time to don your apron, grab your rolling pin and prepare some tasty seasonal treats.

From nice and easy comfort food to wonderful cakes and meals, we’ve provided you with some of our favourite Easter recipes.

Easter Nest Cake

Why not get your long Easter weekend started with an egg-ceptional Easter cake? Easy to make and perfect for young children. Take a look at the recipe here, then simply add your favourite chocolate eggs to fill up the nest. 

Vegan Easter Lemon Sponge Cake

For an alternative taste this Easter, why not give this vegan lemon cake a go? This show-stopper is perfect for people who want to avoid eggs and dairy but still want to indulge a little. This cake will take about an hour to make and looks fantastic, see for yourself here. 

Easter Simnel Cake

Whip up this traditional fruit cake as a Bank Holiday treat. Traditionally made on Mother’s Day, this light fruitcake can now become an Easter Sunday mainstay. It takes only 30 mins to prepare and 1 - 2 hours to bake, but trust us, it’s worth the wait. You can find the recipe here.

Easter Breakfast

It wouldn’t be Easter with cracking into some Easter eggs. So why not get a little creative and have yourself a breakfast to tantalise your taste buds - follow this link for homemade maple, nut and seed granola in an Easter egg bowl! 

Egg-squisite Easter Coffee

As coffee experts, we recommend you treat yourself to some Easter-themed coffees that are perfect for the long weekend. From a ‘Marshmallow Bunny Mocha’, to a ‘Chocolate Bunny Breve’ and an Amaretto coffee for the adults, you can find these and many more luxury coffee ideas here. 

We hope you enjoy a safe and relaxing Easter weekend and make sure you share some of your Cafe2U inspired bakes with us on our social media channels! 

Cafe2U Conference Review 2020 | Cafe2U

Last Saturday this year’s Cafe2U Conference was held at the Coffeesmiths Collective HQ in London. The impressive venue was the perfect backdrop for our annual event and gave all our teams a chance to meet, mingle and celebrate another fantastic year.

The event also provided the opportunity to showcase the major projects we have been working on since last year's Conference, specifically:

• The brand refresh

• The new Cafe2U App

• Our new electric power generated Cafe2U vans

The Day Itself

As guests arrived, they had the opportunity to see one of our new battery-powered vans which featured our refreshed branding, and enjoy a cup of coffee - expertly made by Dumo and Richard of Coffeesmiths and Jon Skinner of Cafe2U.

Goodie bags were also handed out - which included complimentary Cafe2U branded tops and umbrellas - just before our CEO Martyn Ward kicked off the Conference with his opening speech. After giving a warm welcome to guests, Martyn went on to discuss the key messaging for 2020, declaring how we need to get ‘back to basics’ and refocus on doing what we do best. 

After Martyn’s speech, three workshops were run for our franchisees:

• An expert coffee-making skills class run by Dumo and Richard

• Appoly gave a live demonstration of the new Cafe2U app

• Guided tours of the new van

After this, the attendees had more opportunities to chat before the day was rounded off with a dinner and our awards ceremony at a local Italian restaurant.

Our Award Winners

We’d again like to pass on our huge thanks and congratulations to everyone in the Cafe2U family for their efforts this year and in particular to the following award winners:

Special Recognition

• Abi Ward - Cafe2U Castle Donington - in recognition of her charitable work through the year

• Sean Friedberg in recognition of his contribution and input to trialling battery power in Cafe2U vans.

Franchise Partner of the Year

• Matthew and Kelly Harrison - Worthy winners of this award, who can enjoy a trip for two to Vienna.

Outstanding Achievement Award

• Gary and Rachel Wilson - Cafe2U Bristol North 

Supreme Bean of the Year Awards

• Dan Elsey - Cafe2U Chesterfield West

• Gary and Jo Bonnick - Cafe2U Ashford

Most Improved Franchise Award

• Ian Esslemont - Cafe2U Guildford 

• Andrea Whitaker - Cafe2U Waterlooville

Barista of the Year

• Angela Bakun - Cafe2U Merton

• Runners up were Eduardo Calatayud and Jay Huang

Cafe2U Highest Grossing Single Event

• Tony and Carol - Cafe2U Milton Keynes Central

Cafe2U Top Launch of the Year 

• Awarded to FDM Mustafa Dol - Cafe2U Ashford launch 

Cafe2U Sets Out 2020 Vision

2019 marked an important year for Cafe2U. Not only were we officially recognised as the UK’s number one mobile coffee franchise, we were also listed in the country’s top 20 franchises overall. However, 2020 is set to take things to a whole new level.

Firstly, we will be investing heavily in our green credentials, building on the ongoing research into recyclable cups and our recent trial of moving from diesel to battery power. We are determined to lead the way in the field and with 2020 set to feature our third annual ‘Green Coffee Week’, it will be a key focus for us in the year ahead.

Secondly, we are excited to be launching our customer app. This investment is directly for the benefit of our franchisees, allowing them to engage with their customers like never before. The app will alert customers to where they are and notify them when they are arriving, feature a digital loyalty card and also allow customers to see the latest offers and drinks available. Delivering this state-of-the-art technology is just one part of the tools we develop to make our franchisees’ businesses so successful.

In 2020, we will also be rolling out a brand refresh for Cafe2U, taking the look and feel of everything, from website to cups to uniforms, to the next level. We have worked with a team of design experts to ensure our brand represents where we are as business in 2020, leading the way in both the coffee industry and franchising as a whole.

Our mobile coffee shops will continue to serve award-winning coffee to their customers, supported by our market-leading customer service throughout 2020. With our developments and dedication to push Cafe2U forward as a business, we will offer franchisees support like never before. 2020 is set to be a landmark year for the business which will be 15 years old - but we won’t just stand still - the best is yet to come.

Christmas Coffee Bakes

There is only one thing that can make Christmas even better… FOOD! That’s why we have selected our favourite Christmas coffee bakes to share with you, our amazing customers:

Christmas Coffee Cake

This Christmas Coffee Cake is the perfect addition to your Chrimbo brunch. We recommend that you prepare this cake the night before, so you can enjoy Christmas day with your family and this gorgeous cake.

https://joythebaker.com/christmas-morning-coffee-cake/

Espresso Martini Christmas Pudding Recipe 

A creative twist on a Christmas favourite! It takes a bit of time to make, but it is definitely worth it. This is a grown-up treat for the holidays.

https://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/m/espresso-martinichristmaspudding.html

Cranberry Coffee Cake

Cranberry sauce is one of the main components of a Christmas roast, and with this recipe, you get to enjoy the nations favourite Christmas condiment in a coffee cake - the perfect way to get you in the festive mood this holiday season! 

https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/cranberry-coffee-cake/

Coffee Chocolate Crinkles

These crinkles are a perfect way to end Christmas day or a wonderful after-dinner treat! 

https://www.abakershouse.com/coffee-chocolate-crinkles/

Gingerbread Latte Cake 

Probably our favourite on the list, this Christmas showstopper is flavoured with fragrant spices and a gentle hint of coffee. Add some decorative edible Christmas trees on top to really impress your guests!

https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/cakes/gingerbread-latte-cake

So there you have it, just five of our favourite Christmas coffee bakes for you to make this festive season. And if you are looking for any last-minute Christmas gifts, make sure you purchase a Cafe2U eCoffee Cup and our very own coffee blend. 

Make sure you share your Christmas bakes with us on our social channels and have a very Merry Christmas!