Scribbles & Munch

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

      You've probably heard this a gazillion times. You want to be a brilliant story teller? Fellow writers, consider the wisdom of Virginia Wolfe: "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." If you haven't embraced it as truth just yet, allow me to offer the following visual: a list of indisputable facts with the breakfast thing sandwiched in there, as a way of helping cement it in your brain.

1) The sun rises in the east.

2) The ocean contains salt.

3) Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

4) There are hats.

      Ok, has it sunk in yet? There are many reasons WHY breakfast is the most important meal of the day, most of them having to do with managing insulin spikes and metabolism, plus the fact that the brain needs sugar and fat in order to function at its best (yes, it's true--balance in all things, my friends, balance in all things). But there's two much more practical reasons for the importance of breakfast: a) if you eat something tasty first thing in the morning, you feel happier, and b) it freakin' tastes good! Hellooooo, life is short! Eat tasty things!
      There's an expression that goes something like, Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a noble, and dinner like a pauper. (For those of us who like to keep our blood sugar a little more stable by eating every three to four hours - and to modernize the expression - let us rephrase this as: Eat breakfast like the 1%, lunch like your Mom had time to make it for you, tea/snack like you actually care about what you eat, and dinner like a health-crazed rabbit.) In any event, the logic goes* that since breakfast is what you eat first, presumably you've burned off all those calories by the end of the day (as long as you didn't over-do it), so it's a good idea to eat healthy and generously.
Which is why I've followed in the footsteps of my grandmother and embraced the idea of eating chocolate cake for breakfast.

      Now, to be clear: I do not eat ONLY cake for breakfast. As a big believer in starting my day with a calm, creative and rewarding activity to set the mood for the next 23.5 hours, I take the time to get up early enough to make a full meal. My breakfast always starts with a glass of water and an egg, usually quickly scrambled in home-made schmaltz**, then followed with plenty of fresh fruit, a cup of tea (or half a cup of coffee if I'm really groggy), and come kind of starchy carb, which could be toast, a muffin, granola, etc. This week it's chocolate cake. And in the interest of kicking up the health-factor just a notch, I have modified the typical One-Bowl Chocolate Cake recipe to be just a pinch more nutritious. Here's what I like to make on Sunday evening and snack on all week long--enjoy!

Z.D.'s Let's-Pretend-It's-Healthy Chocolate Breakfast Cake

Ingredients:
1 & 1/3 Cups spelt flour
2/3 Cups all purpose flour (alternatively, use 1.5 C AP flour & half C whole wheat or oat flour)
1 C unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutched or not doesn't matter here)
1 & 1/2 C sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 & 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
1 Cup brewed coffee, lukewarm
1/2 Cup buttermilk (no buttermilk? use regular milk mixed w/ 1.5 t lemon juice)
1/2 Cup (1 stick) salted butter, melted & cooled
1 T vanilla extract (always buy the good stuff)
1 C petite bittersweet chocolate chunks, optional

Directions:
 -Pre-heat the oven to 350 F, and grease a 9 x 13 inch pan (I like pyrex--if you use metal, you may want to shorten the baking time a bit).

 -Sift together all dry ingredients into a large bowl (or, if you're lazy and have a stand mixer, dump them in the bowl of the mixer and stir on low speed for several minutes with the whisk attachment, pausing to scrape the sides a couple times).

 -Add all remaining ingredients except chocolate chunks, slowly ramp up speed to medium, and blend for several minutes until thoroughly mixed. If using chocolate chunks, stir in now. (Why chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips? Pennies for ounce, block baking chocolate is cheaper, and nibble for nibble, it tastes better, too. I buy it in bulk when it's on sale, chop it up and stick it in a large jar for using later.)

 -Bake for 38-42 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan on a rack completely before covering with the following frosting:

Z.D.'s Quick-and-Tasty Cream Cheese Frosting
I'm sorry, but part of the reason I've never been able to get on board with the cupcake craze is because of the huge gobs of overly-sweet frosting. I fail to see the point of eating dry cake just so I have an excuse to indulge in flavored sugar paste. I like my cake moist, and my frosting to be an accent. So for many cakes I use this frosting because it's tanginess brings out other flavors really well.

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
4 oz (1 stick) salted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (or 1 teaspoon vanilla, if you prefer)
1/2 Cup powder sugar (approximately)
1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg (optional, but I love it)
3/4 C chopped walnuts (not essential for frosting, but very good addition for breakfast cake)

Directions:
 -In a medium bowl with a hand-held mixer (or with a wooden spoon by hand if you want to build serious arm muscles), beat together the cheese, butter & extract until combined. Add sugar & mix at low speed (so as to prevent SUGAR CLOUD!), then add nutmeg & ramp up speed until thoroughly combined.

 -Spread over top of cooled cake, sprinkle walnuts over. Cover with plastic wrap and 'fridgerate when not eating.


*Note: science has not always backed up Z.D.'s logic 100% of the time, double check this stuff with your doctor if you have health concerns.

**Schmaltz: the best thing to come out of traditional Jewish cuisine since beer!