One day, yes, all my teeth will fall out. Most likely earlier than average, considering the amount of sugar going into my breakfasts. But that day is not now, or even later this week and thus, it’s cookies for breakfast.

A little chocolate here, bittersweet and white together, combined for a perfect brownie-like bite. Counteract the richness with a healthy dose of pristine powdered sugar and hello Snowdrops.

It’s summer outside but in the cookie jar, it’s only winter. Snowdrops, or chocolate crackle cookies, are one of those lovely baked goods that are more impressive in appearance that one would expect, considering how easy they are to make. A little rolling of the dough, a powdered sugar bath and voila! Snowdrop cookies by the dozen.

Eventually I suppose, I’ll have to sit down and make a real breakfast. One with flax, orange juice, and maybe some wheat toast, a breakfast that is lacking in large quantities of sugar. There’ll be no sugar in my coffee, no cookies in sight. But hey, I’m about a month off from the end of school. I think a couple cookies are in order.

Recipe on the following page.

Sometimes you want a bowl of comfort for breakfast and what’s more, you want it savory. None of that creamy oatmeal drizzled with maple syrup and topped with brown sugar nonsense. Nope, none of that. Though that can be nice too, I’m never one to knock sugar… But sometimes, what you’d rather have is a bit more cheesy, salty, and hey, maybe topped with a bit of bacon. Yes, that sounds nice.

There is nothing quite like a hot bowl of polenta for breakfast, brunch, or really even dinner. Polenta, that slightly coarser cousin to grits, is a bowl full of body, of rich carbs swirled together with cheese and butter. Topped off with a few slices of bacon and a fried egg, it is the perfect thing to start a day or greet you at the end of one.

To add to the wonder—as if bacon, eggs, and cheese could get any better—polenta practically makes itself. Cornmeal, water, and just a dab of attention results in a beautiful polenta. After that, any and all cheese can be added. Polenta is a great vessel for all the leftover bits of cheese you may have lying around and while I went with the classic brunch trio, you can really top polenta with anything. Leftover greens, garlic, a swirl of crème fraiche, anything goes. Consider a bowl of polenta like a blank pizza crust—anything can be piled high on top. Except this time around, there is no dough to roll.  Bellissima.

Recipe on the following page.

Some of the best things to wander into a kitchen and find in the mornings are swirled and covered with streusel. Though to be fair, some of the best things ever, regardless of time and location are swirled and covered with streusel.

I’m breakfast-cake addicted, as this lemon loaf and pound cake prove. There is truly nothing better than a slice of cake for breakfast. Not that statement really needs any backing-up or further argument. It’s a slice of cake after all, and you’re only young once. Might as well eat cake for breakfast. Especially when there’s no one around to tell you not to…

This cake really isn’t anything special, save for the fact that it’s absolutely delicious. It’s a standard coffee cake, complete with streusel, except in loaf form for easy consumption. Just imagine, a slice of coffee cake on the way to class, alongside coffee, with a good book, or after a night of bar trivia. Yup. Fills in the space in your stomach left behind by pitchers.

Unfortunately, my title-machine was a bit broken. I’m going to say it was distracted by an overload of cake. Hence the hastily tagged on ‘loaf.’ Sorry. If you’re really that disappointed in my creative-naming abilities, I suggest making a cake. And having a bit for breakfast. Any disappointment will disappear, I promise.

Recipe on the following page.

Egg and bacon McBiscuit. The supreme breakfast sammie. There’s nothing quite like it in the morning. With a little help from prepackaged biscuit dough and the ‘egg packet’ technique, it’s so easy to make, there’s no reason not to take a bit of extra time in the morning. Your belly will be thankful.

Click here for the recipe, and to read more.

Cake for breakfast. It’s happened again. A slice of pound cake, barely toasted and drizzled with honey sure is a great way to greet the day. I believe I’ve settled it—the correct time for cake is no longer solely post-meal for dessert but rather, as the meal, first and foremost. Breakfast, being the lovely flexible meal that it is—ranging from chorizo to omelets to chilaquiles to sticky buns—is a perfect time to enjoy cake.

Last week I had the pleasure of road tripping from Chicago to Tampa and back again, stopping along the way at the welcoming homes of many teammates. At one such home down in Georgia, to which we rolled up at around 2:30am after an odd meal in Nashville, there was this Paula Deen Pound Cake. Sitting there on the counter, with a plate to the side where the delicate, perfectly textured cake crust had been reserved, was heaven. Cake for breakfast is the new thing (here in my kitchen) but cake can work wonders at anytime, as this pound cake demonstrated there in that Georgia kitchen.

It is a simple cake. Butter, sugar, eggs, flour, sour cream, vanilla. That’s all you really need to start a day, or end a night.

Recipe on the following page.

A few days ago I woke up, made a pot of coffee, and then realized, much to my stomach’s unfortunate state of emptiness, that there was nothing to eat for breakfast. Nothing, not even something inappropriate like cold pizza, grilled cheese, quesadillas or other appropriated lunch foods. And so, faced with skipping breakfast and getting straight to paper writing, I took the procrastination route and made cake.

The morning was infinitely better for it, as it soon contained cake. Glazed cake nonetheless.

Have you ever eaten a muffin and realized—much to your secret delight—that it was secretly a ball of cake masquerading as a muffin? This Blueberry Lemon Tea Loaf with Lemon Glaze is secretly a lot of muffins masquerading as a loaf of cake. I threw the ‘tea loaf’ bit in there because it sounds more appropriate for breakfast consumption than a straight-up ‘cake.’ Duh. Some people have tea at breakfast, right? Not me, but gallon-o-coffee loaf just doesn’t sound the same…

The best part about this cake, and keep in mind that there are very many great parts about this cake— the moist blueberries, the tangy lemon zest, the rich moist crumb aided along by a nice half cup (and a bit) of sour cream, the sweet glaze crust on top— is that it is sliceable. Hold on. Sliceable? Take a moment and imagine a slice of toast, very close to the most-perfect-of-all-food inventions. Now imagine a toasted slice of cake. Griddled in a little butter maybe, or perhaps just toasted, with a schmear of jelly or a drizzle of honey.

Yup. It’s time for breakfast.

Recipe on the following page.

Hello doughnut altar, you’re just what I wanted to see at eight in the morning. Tangy buttermilk old fashioned, yeasty chestnut glazed, and sweet chocolate with sprinkles. Yup, this is my kind of mass.

At 400 1/2 North Franklin, in a world not so far away, is a little hole of a place. It’s a tiny box of a store front sliced out of bigger, but not any grander buildings, aptly named the Doughnut Vault. White tiles, mellow blue paint, and racks of freshly fried and glazed doughnuts. Get in line, buy a bag or box or two, and be happy you got up in the morning.

Sometimes cake is complicated. It’s high maintenance. It has four layers, two kinds of filling, and a whipped meringue frosting. It has to be refrigerated. It absolutely needs glitter. Oh yea, and that gold dust as well. Sometimes cake requires Q-tips, skewers, and brushes to assemble. Sometimes, you have to roll the cake, flip it upside down and then hope to St. Pastry it stands up. Against gravity.

Sometimes however, cake comes out of the oven, pops out of the pan, gets a little glaze, and is ready to sit happily on a plate. Sometimes a cake is perfect with just some good-ole baking magic. This Orange Poppy Seed cake is one of those kinds of cakes. The best kind, the kind of cake that’s there in two hours without any fuss.

As a rule of tongue, any baked good that doesn’t require chocolate or brown sugar and still reaches unthinkable levels of deliciousness is special. When something that has fruit and poppy seeds is good enough to be snuck down from the counter in your hands, you know you’ve got the right-kind-of-cake up on the cake platter.

Say hello, poppy seeds. Unlike in some hard little lemon scones, or silly lopsided shortbreads, here in cake-space you really shine. You taste nutty, a little spicy even, and you add a great deal of crunch to the moist, orangey, zest-studded cake crumb. Topped off with a tangy and sweet simple orange glaze, this really is quite a cake.

Take a look. No tricks anywhere from raw ingredients to plate. If there wasn’t time to bake a cake before, if the leveling and stacking seemed a bit much, here’s a cake that’s perfect without. There’s time to bake a cake now, and who doesn’t need a little bit more cake? Cake at breakfast, cake at second breakfast, cake at snack time…

Recipe on the following page. 

Wake yourself up with Irish Coffee. Whiskey, coffee, sugar, and cream.

Click here for the recipe, and to read more.

“Coffee and toffee is my favorite ice cream combination.” That’s all a birthday girl needs to say and POOF. Coffee Toffee Ice Cream.

Yes, another’s birthday is really just an excuse to make ice cream. You caught me.

But look, can you blame me?

It’s a tale/flavor combination as old as time—coffee and toffee. Coffee has a complex flavor profile, and history. What complements a multi-faceted flavor assault of a magnitude to the order of coffee, that extreme nectar, better than the lightening power of cream? What better to highlight the caramel tones of a coffee liquor than a piece of brickly caramel itself, toffee? Coffee itself is such a rich and deep experience (go ahead and commit, it is a profound experience), that it begs to be immortalized in…ice cream.

Yup, this is a food blog (surprise). Instead of painting a picture, or whipping out my carving tools and a casual chunk of marble, I churn some ice cream in moments of inspiration. Which tastes better, a sculpture, or Coffee Toffee Ice Cream?

(Rhetorical question. You know the answer. Now if only there were as many birthdays to celebrate with ice cream as there were moments when I want to make ice cream…)

Recipe on the following page.