An Ode to Coffee Cake

I have written about trigger foods on the site before. We all have them. Some of us have multiple trigger foods. I have an odd relationship with food. I love it. Well, most of it. I don’t like the texture of coconut, olives are too briny, artichokes taste weird to me and I’m not the biggest fan of deep dish pizza. That’s about it for me, and to be real, I’d eat deep dish pizza if it’s the only option. The other foods I just mentioned, not for me. But I have way more trigger foods than foods I dislike. Let’s discuss.

Donuts are dangerous to have in my home. I am unable to keep Cinnamon Toast Crunch any longer than a few days. I’ll eat ice cream until I feel sick. I love Lil Debbie Treats. Do you all see the common denominator in these foods? They’re all sweet, and two of them are breakfast foods. Well, I’ve found another food that I may not be able to buy on a regular basis anymore, and it’s a breakfast food.

My daughter recently asked for coffee cake for breakfast. I thought, at the time, I like coffee cake, but I’m not going to over indulge. I was dead wrong. I bought some for her from Aldi two weeks ago. It was their off brand coffee cake. She had a few little pieces, they’re individually wrapped, and she told me they tasted pretty good. I decided to try some, and damn were they delicious. I was stoked at how good it tasted. But, further research was needed by me. My dad and I go to coffee shops together all the time, and most of these shops have bakeries within them. Coffee cake is a pretty common option. I’ve tried some different coffee cakes from different shops, and they’re all fantastic. And they’re all pretty much the same. The ingredients don’t really change. Some are bigger than others, but that’s about the only difference. I have eaten a good amount of coffee cake recently. Too much one would say. But it wasn’t until last night that I realized I had a problem with this particular food. I was making myself a rice cake with peanut butter as a post dinner treat. While getting the stuff to make this, I noticed the coffee cake in the pantry. I figured, I went for a run so I can treat myself. Well, I ate two whole pieces in under a minute and was instantly ashamed of myself. That was not needed. But the taste took me back. I didn’t need that second piece, but I still ate it. I have to imagine it’s the cinnamon and sugar that I crave. It’s such a great combo and it works. The sweetness is just perfect.

I do have to find a balance with this food. I cannot continue to eat it as much as I have recently. Something has got to change. But damn coffee cake is delicious. It’s one of the better sweet breakfast options and I’ll hear no slander thrown its way. I need to control myself, but coffee cake is an upper tier sweet treat. There’s no doubt about it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

The Living Room Café has a Coffee Cake That Cannot Be Beat

riverfronttimes.com

Since I became a runner and lost a good amount of weight, sweets went by the wayside. This was the toughest part for me when I started this lifestyle change about seven years ago. I love sweets. They are my favorite part of any meal. There is always room for dessert.

Recently I have found ways around it now. There are plenty of ways to make low carb or keto treats. Atkins has their own line of dessert or snack foods. There is a group of sweet treats that are called Keto Bombs that I buy plenty of when I go to the store. I put fake sugar in my coffee, which I am trying to rid myself of at the moment. None of this stuff is good for me either. I know this. All the fake sugar is bad, and the real sugar is one of the many reasons why I got so heavy in my 20's.

When I do splurge nowadays I make it count. If I am going to eat a dessert or have a full sugar treat I want to make it count. I love doughnuts. So if I am going to have a doughnut, I want it to be as bad for me as possible. It gives me that satiated feeling that I miss. If I am going to have ice cream, I go for a Blizzard from DQ or a waffle cone from a local spot called Serendipity. If my wife makes a cake or a pie, you better believe I will have a few pieces because she is a damn fine chef. When I indulge, my favorite time to have sweets is the morning. I love a nice sweet breakfast. I should eat something savory, and with Atkins I have eggs and sausage. But if I want to go for it, if I am not counting carbs, I will go for something sweet nine times out of ten.

This morning I decided to treat myself for breakfast. Once a week my father and I go and get coffee from a local shop. This started prior to the pandemic, has continued with us picking up and drinking it at one of our houses, and it will continue for as long as my dad wants to do it. Today was our day to go out. I also brought my daughter along with us and my mom even decided she wanted in. It was great. We went to one of my favorite spots called The Living Room Café. Their regular drip coffee is outstanding, and they do some wild stuff that works. Today I had a Sproda. That is cold brew coffee with root beer in it. It's outstanding. They also have cold brew with orange juice and with tonic water. Both are great. Their lattes and cappuccinos and tea, it is all exceptional. They also have steamed milk and horchata and tons of other great, non coffee or tea drinks. Coffee is not the concern for me. But I have only ever had their food twice before. I had a breakfast sandwich once, which was really good, and their house made granola with their yogurt was fine. Today I decided that I was going to try their coffee cake. It looked really good on the online menu. It said it goes great with coffee.

I love coffee cake in general. I was on board. I went and picked up all our stuff and my coffee cake was in its own bag, wrapped to keep it warm. When I got to my folks house I unwrapped it and grabbed a plate and fork. First off, the piece was humongous. My dad said it looked like they gave me a quarter of the sheet pan. I also did not think I was going to finish it because it was so big. Then I had a bite. Then another and another. I gave my daughter a bite. I had my folks try a piece. But I made sure that I ate 90 percent of this all by myself. It was so dense, but felt light. The crumb topping was out of this world. The swirl of cinnamon sugar was such an added bonus. This was like a mix of a coffee cake and cinnamon roll in the best possible way. I kept eating it, without realizing how much of it was disappearing. It was so good. It was so easy for me to keep going back for another bite. This might have been the best piece of coffee cake I have ever eaten. It was the perfect amount of sweet. It was overly sweet, but it wasn't too savory. The piece was enormous, but I could have eaten two or more if I tried. I kept commenting on how tasty it was. I told my folks that if I am going to eat real sweets, this is what I want. This helped with every craving that I still have to this day when I stopped eating sweets daily. It was, quite simply, the perfect piece of coffee cake.

If you are ever in Saint Louis and want to go to a different, yet very good and very cool coffee shop, go to Living Room Café. Not only is the coffee amazing, but the coffee cake is one of the best in the country. Well done.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.