After a few hours shopping in Totnes yesterday, I really needed a sit down with a hot drink and a cake. So my friend and I went to the Green Café, ordered hot chocolate, and a rock cake to share. While we were waiting I spotted this sign 
http://www.kascare.org/ and thought okay I can do that. 
Then the drinks arrived 
Or rather the ingredients 
So I had to stop knitting 
and start mixing
But in the end it was delicious. Have you ever had to mix your own hot chocolate in a café? It was certainly different for me, but at least it proved it was the real thing and not some instant stuff!
The rock cake was pretty good as well but it wasn’t around long enough for a photo 🙂
Lucid Gypsy 
Looks like a wonderful way to spend time recovering from shopping 🙂
Yes, very relaxed 🙂
That is you knitting? What a very lovely photo. Hot chocolate is never like that in Australia – at least where I’ve been! Did you finish the square?
I don’t like photos but sometimes it has to be done! No, the squares are 8 inches and quite fine wool so I’d still be there now!
Wow, a very industrious day for you Gilly: knitting squares for charity and making your own hot chocolate. You must be feeling very productive indeed. 🙂
Moi? nooo 🙂
What a very good idea to have both wool and needles there. I imagine the charity benefit am so does the café and the clients enjoy a spot of knitting over their hot drinks. Everyone’s a winner.
It’s a very social, just the sort of place I’d like to run!
Go for it’
I’ve never had to mix it myself in the cafe, but if you buy Butler’s hot chocolate, it’s actually a pack of 10 pieces that you melt in hot milk. The outside is hard chocolate and the inside is soft. Delicious and much nicer than powdered chocolate.
That sounds delicious!
Oh, now you have my brain working overtime. There is somewhere that we visit that serves hot milk and a wooden spoon lathered in chocolate.
Stir, stir and stir again…….
That sounds lush as well!
What a brilliant idea! I want to visit Totnes now!
Haven’t you been? If not then make it a priority in spring or summer – stop at Dartington hall on the way!
Looks like it was the real deal and not powder mixed with hot water. I love the knitting idea.
Thanks Colline (and for the retweet!) did you check out Kascare the charity they are knitting for?
No – I think I will have to now 🙂
I think its a question of getting the right amount of choccy – lots!
What a delightful place! I have never learned to knit (yet) but I think that is a brilliant idea. And I have never seen hot chocolate like that either.
It’s never too late to learn to knit Kris, but I began when I was about 5!
I’ve never been to a cafe like that. I think I’d enjoy it a lot. But I HAVE to know: What on earth is a rock cake? I’ve never heard of it, and I’m wondering if it’s like something we have here in the States that we call by a different name. Even if you don’t have a photo, could you explain it please?
The simplest thing to make ever!
Rock cakes
Ingredients
225g/8oz self-raising flour 75g/2½oz caster sugar 1 tsp baking powder 125g/4½oz unsalted butter, cut into cubes 150g/5½oz dried fruit 1 free-range egg 1 tbsp milk 2 tsp vanilla extract
Preparation method 1.Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a baking tray with baking parchment. 2.Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl and rub in the cubed butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, then mix in the dried fruit. 3.In a clean bowl, beat the egg and milk together with the vanilla extract. 4.Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until the mixture just comes together as a thick, lumpy dough. Add a teaspoon more milk if you really need it to make the mixture stick together. 5.Place golfball-sized spoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking tray. Leave space between them as they will flatten and spread out to double their size during baking. 6.Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden-brown. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a couple of minutes then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool.
less than 30 mins preparation time 10 to 30 mins cooking time
Makes 12
Try these light, crumbly tea-time favourites while they are still warm from the oven. So easy to make, and lots of fun for children to join in too.
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
Wow, thanks, Gilly. I didn’t intend for you to go to all this trouble to provide the actual recipe, but now that you have, I just may have to try them. They sound terrific.
🙂
I like how the proprietors of the Green Cafe think. What a marvelous idea, and how relaxing. Lovely picture of you. This is new to me, mixing my own drink, but what a fabulous idea. ❤ I feel all warm and cuddly now to hear of such a place.
Maybe you’ll visit one day!
I must put that on my bucket list. I never had one before. ❤
and some more of England?
What a lovely thought? 😀
Just use lots of choccy Tess 🙂
Is that chocolate?
Yes!
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
What a brilliant idea Gilly ~ the knitting and the DIY hot chocolate! It could only happen in Totnes! 🙂
Too true 🙂
What a great idea, Gilly. The knitted squares will probably look a bit rough though with lots of different people knitting a few rows each. 🙂 Yes, I’ve also had to mix my own chocolate drink in South Africa. It was extra delicious.
The best hot chocolate I’ve ever had was a chilli version 🙂
Mixing your own hot chocolate – I so like that method; like you said, you really know what goes into your beverage then. Just curious, what will those knitted squares be used for? Perhaps someone makes blankets out of them ?
Google Kascare 🙂
Lovely – I was given two choccy stirrers just this last weekend for my birthday, so yet to try them out! And as a knitter, I thought this was brilliant (if I’d forgotten to take my own knitting along!).
Sounds like a nice birthday present, hoe you had a happy time!
I think I’d rather mix it myself as well. Did you actually finish knitting?
I didn’t Rommel, the market was calling me!
Yes I have…..in one of the old traditional cafes in Buenos Aires. I think the knit-a-square concept is a brilliant one.