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Café culture: Jenny McNeely samples the ritual refreshments of London, Vienna and Madrid

LONDON

Le Chandelier 161 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, www.lechandelier.co.uk

The English are renowned for their tea-drinking proclivities, but stewed pots of Earl Grey and limp salmon-paste sandwiches are a thing of the past. Afternoon tea has become chic, and Le Chandelier in East Dulwich is an ideal place to top up your caffeine levels. Teas are sourced from China, India, Taiwan and Japan (the menu stretches to several pages), and everything is served on delightfully mismatched china. The Champagne Afternoon Tea includes a cheeky flute of Gremillet with your clotted cream scone. When in south London: A short walk away on London Road, the Horniman Museum has exhibitions on anthropology, natural history and musical instruments. The lovely grounds, with sundials and sunken gardens, offer panoramic views of the city.

MADRID

Chocolatería San Ginés 5 Pasadizo de San Ginés

When a city never sleeps it needs something to keep it going, and in Madrid late nights are fuelled by chocolate con churros. A heady combination of fried, sugary dough sticks and thick, bittersweet chocolate, it’s the perfect early-morning snack. Next to the Church of San Ginés, Chocolatería San Ginés has been attracting worshippers of its own since 1894. Busiest at 4am, round off a hot night in the city at one of its cool, marble-topped tables.

When in the Centro district: The church of San Ginés is one of Madrid’s oldest churches and contains paintings by the great master El Greco.

VIENNA

Café Central 14 Herrengasse, 1st District  

Vienna is not the city for grabbing an oversized, frothy concoction in a cardboard cup – coffee is taken in lofty surroundings with a newspaper and the best part of the morning at your disposal. Everyone from revolutionaries to literati has dreamed and plotted in the coffeehouses, and Café Central has seen Lenin, Trotsky and Freud within its high-vaulted interior. Like many iconic coffeehouses, the prices can be steep, but you’re buying a little slice of history with your sachertorte. When in the 1st District: Visit Vienna’s Imperial Palace, the Hofburg, which contains the National Library, Imperial Treasury, Museum of Ethnography and the Spanish Riding School – you’ll need a coffee to fuel all that sightseeing!

Cupcake corner

Have your own tea party by whipping up scrumptious chocolate cupcakes faster than you can say ‘baker’s dozen’  

Ingredients:

300g dark chocolate, broken into chunks 200g self-raising flour 200g light muscovado sugar, plus 3 tbsp extra 6 tbsp cocoa 150ml sunflower oil, plus a little extra for greasing 284ml pot soured cream 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract  

Method:

Heat oven to 180C/fan (160C/gas mark 4) and line a 10-hole muffin tin with paper cases

Whizz the chocolate into small pieces in a food processor

In a large mixing bowl, tip in the flour, sugar, cocoa, oil, 100ml soured cream, eggs, vanilla and 100ml water

Whisk everything together with electric beaters until smooth, then quickly stir in 100g of the whizzed-up chocolate bits

Divide between the 10 cases, then bake for 20 mins until a skewer inserted comes out clean (make sure you don’t poke it into a chocolate chip bit)

Cool on a wire rack, and finish with a topping of your choice

www.bbcgoodfood.com

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