We invited nine supporters from our Amps community to creatively capture the spirit of Amps Breakfast. This is Rhia Cook’s response.

Rhia Cook is the editor and designer of Potluck Zine, an independently published magazine that celebrates personal stories of cooking, eating, and sharing food. Her piece brings together her skills in writing, collage, page layouts and—naturally—making food to create a mini-zine inspired by the icebreaker questions we use to ease into each Amps Breakfast.

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“I love the ice-breaker questions asked at the beginning of every Amps Breakfast, so I made a mini-zine that celebrates them, the seemingly random but deeply personal answers they generate, and the sense of connection it gives me to the other Amps. Since Amps Breakfast is virtual at the moment, I also included a recipe for a chocolate cake that I would love to share if we did gather in the same room, because cake is a pretty good ice breaker too.”

What’s your favourite sound?

You ask us “What’s your favourite sound?”

And I think

John says “The tippy tap of rain on a window”

And I nod my agreement

Steven and Adam say “The sizzle of bacon in a hot pan”

And I smile

Sarah says “The glug-glug-glug of wine into a glass”

And I laugh

You ask me “What’s my favourite sound?”

And I could say the clink of a paintbrush on the side of an ink bottle

Or catching the murmurs of someone singing to themselves

But my favourite sound is hearing your favourite sounds

Coffee in hand on a Tuesday morning

Recipe: An easy chocolate cake to share with online friends

Ingredients:

• 175ml olive or vegetable oil
• 175ml buttermilk or natural yoghurt
• 2 eggs
• 170ml boiling water
• 1tsp of instant coffee
• 250g of sugar
• 80g of cocoa powder
• 230g plain flour
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2tsp of bicarbonate of soda
• 1tsp of baking powder

For the icing:

• 150g of dark chocolate
• 50g of milk chocolate
• pinch of salt
• 300g double cream
• 1tbsp honey or black treacle

This recipe is an adapted, slightly simplified version of Raveet Gill’s Lazy Chocolate Cake from her book Sugar, I Love You.

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 160c fan/180c and line 2 x 20cm cake tins with greaseproof paper
2. Weigh out all your dry ingredients (bar the instant coffee) and mix together in a bowl, whisking to make sure there are no lumps left. If there are, use a sieve to get them out. 
3. In a separate bowl, measure out your olive oil and buttermilk/natural yoghurt and add in your eggs. Mix these together- it’ll look lumpy and a little weird, but that’s okay! 
4. Boil your kettle and make a black coffee with the ratios stated- 1 tsp of coffee to 170ml of hot water. Once the coffee granules are dissolved, add this to the olive oil/yoghurt/egg mix. 
5. Add the wet ingredients to your dry and whisk together until combined
6. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre of them comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. 
7. Once the cake is cooled, make your icing. Start by chopping your chocolate into small-ish chunks and placing in a heatproof bowl with the salt.
8. Pour your cream and honey/treacle into a saucepan and heat until scalding but not boiling- when little bubbles appear around the edges
9. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it sit for a minute before you begin to stir (from the middle first so you don’t incorporate air. Once it’s smooth and the colour is even, pour half the icing over one of your cakes, then place the other cake on top and finish with the remaining icing. Slice up and enjoy!

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To mark the two year milestone of meeting online each week since March 2020, we asked some Amps to create a piece of work that both reflects their practice and celebrates building community, forming connections, and the joy of Amps Breakfast!

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This blog is one of several celebrating Two Years of Virtual Amps Breakfasts. Breakfast is a weekly opportunity that brings together supporters of Creative Dundee’s Amps network to chat and connect. New faces are always welcome—join Amps and come along!