Top | cafemama — an inconvenient life

a routine lemon cake for breakfast

(post, Sarah Gilbert)


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I've never been one to pooh-pooh the concept of cake for breakfast, especially when I re-cast the concept of "cake" and "good fat" for the way I eat now; that is, I believe in the health benefits of maple syrup and honey, animal fats, and eggs from my sweet chickens. I've also been trying to go all-whole grain, all the time, whenever possible.

Lately, Everett's been asking for our family to develop a food routine. He wants the same thing for breakfast every Monday, and the same thing for dinner every Wednesday. This presents a bit of a challenge for a mama committed to local, seasonal eating, and possessed with a strong proclivity toward chaos. Shall we be nice and say "spontaneity"?

So when we had some lemon cake at the farmer's market a few weeks ago, and I said to Everett that we couldn't buy a whole one, because I could make it way cheaper, and also, without sugar, he brightly put 'homemade lemon cake' and 'routine' together and suggested we have lemon cake for breakfast one day a week.

Perhaps Sunday will be cake day. Today I altered my standard maple syrup cake recipe (which in turn is altered from Rose Levy Berenbaum's 'All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake' recipe from The Cake Bible) to make a super-whole-grain-y, sweet and crumbly maple-syrup lemon cake. I glazed it with a mixture of melted butter, maple syrup, lemon juice and a little powdered sugar, which next time I'll craft more finely. I figured the finished product cost about $8 or $9 and was enough for breakfast for three hungry boys, lunch for a couple of cake freaks (I had mine with lots of cream but I'd serve with strawberries in a few weeks when they're ripe for a "balanced" "meal"), a late-night dessert I have planned, and still some left for before-school breakfast tomorrow.

Not a bargain, but not a luxury, either. Because I'm obstinate, I'll end up serving it every other Sunday, a schedule plus chaos equals cake twice a month. A routine lemon cake for (every other) Sunday breakfast. Perfect.