Cake for breakfast? Yes, please! From blueberry coffee cake (aka boy bait) to marbled chocolate banana bread, these recipes will motivate you to jump out of bed and start your day.
The recipe for this old-fashioned blueberry coffee cake traces back to a 1954 Pillsbury Recipe & Baking Contest. Its creator, 15-year-old Renny Powell, called her tender, easy-to-make cake “Boy Bait” for its habit forming effect on young men. (She won 2nd place in the junior division.) My version is updated with lemon zest to complement the flavor of the blueberries and a crunchy cinnamon streusel topping. GET THE RECIPE
Heavy on the crunchy streusel topping and spiced with fragrant cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom, this peach coffee cake is a natural for breakfast, but it’s also wonderful topped with vanilla ice cream after dinner. GET THE RECIPE
Tender and sweet-scented with a gorgeous ribbon of melted chocolate running through it, this banana bread is the perfect way to start the day. Plus, it’s fun to make: you spoon the banana and chocolate batters into a loaf pan alternately, then artistically swirl the two together with a knife. GET THE RECIPE
This gem of a cake comes from Marcy Goldman’s much-loved cookbook, A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking. It’s tender with tremendous depth of flavor — there’s coffee, orange juice and booze in it! — and the taste of honey shines through. GET THE RECIPE
Studded with juicy red grapes with hints of vanilla and citrus, this is a simple and lovely Italian-style cake — perfect for breakfast, brunch or tea. It’s called a “harvest cake” because it’s traditionally made during the grape harvest season to use up the small grapes not going for pressing. GET THE RECIPE
Rich and tender from the addition of sour cream, and jam-packed with chocolate chips, this is the kind of old-fashioned, homey cake that appeals to just about everyone — and it’s super-simple to make. GET THE RECIPE
Chai is the actual word for tea in many countries but when we say chai in the States, we’re usually referring to Masala chai, which is a smooth and calming beverage made of black tea, milk and fragrant Indian spices. Its flavor goes beautifully with bananas, so this quick bread is infused with warm spices like cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and allspice. GET THE RECIPE
If there were ever a cake for lemon lovers, this is it. Lemon zest and lemon juice are added to the batter, which lightly perfume the cake. Then, while the cake is still warm from the oven, it’s doused with a lemon syrup to further enhance the lemon flavor. Finally, the cake is drizzled with a tart lemon glaze, which adds a pop of intense lemon flavor in every bite. GET THE RECIPE