{"id":73013,"date":"2023-04-07T07:00:51","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T14:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/food-fight-on-this-national-holiday-eat-cake-for-breakfast"},"modified":"2023-04-07T15:48:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T22:48:24","slug":"food-fight-on-this-national-holiday-eat-cake-for-breakfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food-fight-on-this-national-holiday-eat-cake-for-breakfast","title":{"rendered":"Food Fight: On this national holiday, eat cake for breakfast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coffee cake isn\u2019t a delicacy that demands attention or flash. It doesn\u2019t need to be wrapped in fondant or adorned with buttercream roses.<\/p>\n

You can gussy it up with macerated blueberries, a spiced apple compote or a custard, but it’s just fine on its own, no makeup needed. This is a dessert, after all, that can be eaten without a plate or fork, and is socially acceptable to have for breakfast.<\/p>\n

Coffee cake is confident. Functional. Just your basic crumb cake base\u2014butter, eggs, sugar and flour. It usually includes sour cream, but if you\u2019re too lazy to go to the store like me, plain yogurt will do.<\/p>\n

There are, however, a few requirements: It must be spiked with a strong dose of cinnamon, and it must, obviously, be accompanied by a cup of coffee.<\/p>\n

Today is National Coffee Cake Day (I don\u2019t know why; I don\u2019t ask these questions), and the Post and Business Journal celebrated by ranking two Bundt-style staff-baked versions, as well as a sample from Sweet Jill\u2019s Bakery on Second Street.<\/p>\n

A note on the Sweet Jill\u2019s entry: Staff writer Alicia Robinson reportedly made a coffee cake, but proclaimed in a panic that it was \u201cas hard as a brick.\u201d I\u2019m sure it would have been fine, but I do understand; you\u2019re not a baker if you\u2019re not a perfectionist. So Sweet Jill’s was chosen as a stand-in.<\/p>\n

We rated each of the three cakes from zero to five on two criteria: Taste and appearance.<\/p>\n

And the resounding winner: City Editor Hayley Munguia.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>
Long Beach Post reporter Alicia Robinson, left, and City Editor Hayley Munguia serve up some coffee cake. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This month\u2019s Food Fight judges sounded like seasoned food critics in their comments, taking note of the winning cake\u2019s appearance, moist texture and \u201cstrong cinnamon flavor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPerfect glaze execution,\u201d one anonymous commenter wrote. \u201cClingy and overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n

I came in second place\u2014which I’ll take as a win in beating out the pros at Sweet Jill\u2019s, despite the fact that my coffee cake glaze wound up in a grayish puddle on the plate. Or, as one commenter wrote cynically: \u201cPooled at the bottom and ruined \u2026 like my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

I strayed from my go-to recipe\u2014which involves a cup of oil, boxed yellow cake mix and instant Jello mix\u2014in favor of a more homemade version, but should have skipped the glaze. It\u2019s coffee cake, after all\u2014no frills needed.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re too lazy to bake, that\u2019s fine. There\u2019s many places to grab a slice around town, starting with Sweet Jill\u2019s (5001 E. Second St.).<\/p>\n

Other bakeries to try:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Doly\u2019s Delectables, 245 E. Broadway.<\/li>\n
  • Babette Bakery, 1401 Atlantic Ave.<\/li>\n
  • Jongewaard\u2019s Bake N Broil, 3697 Atlantic Ave.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Today is National Coffee Cake Day, and the Post and Business Journal celebrated by ranking two Bundt-style staff-baked versions, as well as a sample from Sweet Jill\u2019s Bakery on Second Street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":73011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[32082],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[3296],"class_list":["post-73013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-food-fight","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73014,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73013\/revisions\/73014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73013"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=73013"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=73013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}