Emergency Breakfast-cake (savoury or Sweet)

Intro: Emergency Breakfast-cake (savoury or Sweet)

Oh no, there's no milk left for my cereal!  No problem  - begin emergency breakfast cake procedures.

I have been developing this super simple, versatile little beast for many years now (well, since I left home and started tinkering with food stuffs in a way that was 'misunderstood' at my parents abode).  The main ingredient of the breakfast cake (BC) in this particular example is muesli, but I have had good success with a number of other cereals. 

Primarily I use the BC at times when I feel like cereal but have no milk, but I have also enjoyed it on many different occasion.  The first time I made it for my partner she was very sceptical, but she soon came round, once she had seen the benefits.  Namely, the BC is a food on the edge; skating between savoury and sweet - it and could go either way, depending on your choices of accompaniments.  To make the 'base model' is very simple and quick, and does not require many ingredients.

STEP 1: What You Need

The beauty of the BC is that you can make it as elaborate, or as simple as you like.  It is an ideal platform for food experimentation.  At base it is cereal, water and an egg (though it is possible to make it with no eggs and a touch of flour instead).  For super quick ones, just make the 'base model' - it is nice on its own, or spread on your favourite jam/spread thing.  

Equipment:

• Frying pan (any size will work)
• Bowl or jug to mix it
• Fork, spoon, or other, for mixing
• Cooker.

Base ingredients:

• Muesli
• 1 Egg
• Water

Extra ingredients used in this instalment of emergency breakfast-cake:

• Another egg (2 in total - now that's luxury)
• A sprinkle of herbs de provence
• A few slices of cheddar cheese
• Several cloves of garlic.
• A selection of condiments

Extra ingredients I have used in the past with good results:

• Sliced tomato, fresh basil and mozzarella;
• Broccoli and mushroom;
• Peanut butter, tomato and spinach;

• For a sweet one mixing in chopped apple, banana or other fruit works well;
• Crushed cashew nuts and cinnamon;
• Milk - for a delightful creamy breakfast cake;
• dessicated coconut flakes, ground almonds and fresh ginger pieces;

You get the idea. Almost anything goes here. Experiment away.

STEP 2: Gather and Mix

Find a suitable mixing vessel, and put in an appropriate amount of muesli (how hungry are you?). A normal breakfast bowl's worth is a good starting point.  

Now put in the eggs (exclude the shells, they don't taste good), and some water, any extra ingredients and mix it up a bit with a fork.      

STEP 3: Into the Pan!

Put a pan on medium heat with a little oil (cooking oil that is).  Pour/spoon in your BC mix.  Now is the time to add any 'on top extras'. 

I like to put cheese on top.  When placed on top, cheese serves a double function: firstly, it is predictably scrumptious and yummy, and secondly, it acts as an indicator - it tells you how cooked the main body of the BC is inside.  Of course, for the indicator to be effective, one must learn to 'read the cheese'.  If you look through the photo descriptions below you can be well on your way to accurate cheese reading. 

STEP 4: Grill (Optional)

This step is optional.  I like my BC fast, so I cook it from both sides (top and bottom). Just cooking it on the hob is fine - but you will need to turn the heat down slightly so that it doesn't burn on the bottom and has time to cook through - a lid is particularly important if you do it this way.

If you have cheese on yours, it is easy, just read the cheese. If not poke it a little, when it is just starting to firm up a bit you are good to go with the grill.

If you have cheese on top, you know it is time for a quick grilling when it is just starting to melt.

STEP 5: Final Prep Work

When you are happy with it (I like it when it just starts to brown on top), take it off the heat, and plop it out onto a plate.  Divide accordingly amongst assembled eaters.  In this instance I have it all to myself (insert evil laugh here), as I am alone (laugh trailing into bark expressing bittersweet madness tinged longing for absent BC eating partner), but divide it in two anyway, to create a 'condiment gully'.

STEP 6: Devour (savouring Each Bite)

Like only you know how to you paradoxical human! 

Yum yum.

STEP 7: Breakfast Cakes Around the World

People are making these things!  And eating them too!  Which is great.  Send me pictures and a short description to add to the collection. 
The idea is that it would be nice to have a little library of possible breakfast cake inspirations here.

Comments

[brentp13]

I enjoyed that listing of cake as a healthy food. Because in places like America, plenty of the food is unhealthy. With this signifying that the culture with unhealthy food, might also be sick in other ways.

[suayres]

Back to the comment about eggshell in your food: well, basically they're mostly calcium carbonate, which is quite digestible--check the ingredient list for Tums! But biting into a piece of eggshell gives me the cold grues! So, if you WANT to consume them, process in a mortar & pestle first.

[lasleyjam]

Have to admit it does look good.

[gingerman32]

A great tool for cooking the top of egg dishes, and others, is a heat gun. this is available in hardware stores to do things like peeling paint and melting stuff. Buy the highest wattage you can find.
Heat guns cook really fast, but you can control the speed by moving it closer or farther away from the food. It's not a torch, but electric. No flame.
Heat guns make good roasters for nuts and coffee and such as well.
And you can use it to peel paint.

[vincent7520]

You maybe right about the egg shells but you should remember they have a high calcium content ! …
:)

[bongodrummer]

Really? But they are so sharp. Maybe if they were somehow pulverized, which a mechanical device, say a food blender, they would make a good supplement.

Breaking them down like that might help, but can they actual be digested though?

[vincent7520]

Well… I hope you guessed I was trying to joke…
Actually I really do not know if calcium is directly digestible.

When I was a kid my grand parents used to tell me that having a pulverized bit of egg shell or fishbone in one's food was good for health but I don't know if it was only hearsay or that they, or people they knew, did actually do it.
But I'm sure my grandmother never gave it to us in what ever shape ! …

However, in the village I was living in, I always saw the farming ladies drop egg shells in their respective chicken coops and the hen would regularly pick them as they do with peebles. Maybe that's where my grandparents' idea came from… but of course chicken have a different digestive system than ours !!!…

[bongodrummer]

Haha. yeah, I assumed a jape was afoot. But still, I don't like to discount things out of hand. There is a bunch of 'new' things that I have found to eat recently, which I have been brought up to avoid - green carrot tops, for example.

I too have heard of ground fish bone being used as a supplement. Being a veggie that obviously doesn't appeal, but interesting idea.

[vincent7520]

You mean you don't even eat fish ???…

Fish is so goooooood !!…

(and nice to catch !…)

[vincent7520]

You have such a beautiful sense of emergency !…

[chrisbaker]

I'm too lazy to mix up real muesli, but apparently Kelloggs makes a cereal that approximates the same thing:  Mueslix ("Muslix" in Canada, interestingly).  Anyone ever tried that in this recipe?  The US version contains raisins, dates, and almonds.

[shoppe]

Bulk Barn.

[chirp-o-tron]

I made one of these and it turned out great! To cook both sides, though, I flipped the cake over once one side looked done. This seemed to work pretty well. I used oats and honey granola with 2 eggs, and some dried pomegranate seeds in the cake (as well as some pomegranate seeds I tried to rehydrate on the top) Thanks for the recipe!

[Totysheep]

It's just like pancakes! I had a little leftover milk instead of water and made it with honey loops (dutch version of cheerios) and ate it with syrup!!!

[franktherobot]

trying it wit corn flakes, almonds, bananas, and cinnamon. Even in preparation, the combination of ingredients seemed delicious. Thank you bongodrummer

[P1h3r1e3d13]

 Your “escapee” in step two is, properly, a “foodgitive.”

[Wanders away, chortling]

[heavensshadow]

*rimshot*   I totally chuckled and said it out loud. ;D

[Ninzerbean]

 Will you come over and make this for me - I promise to be skeptical...

[bongodrummer]

lol... I don't know what to say.. From Wales, that might be the bit far for an emergency.... 

[heavensshadow]

Wales?!   Ooh, that's where I first tried muesli! I miss it so, nothing here in the midwest really compares to the stuff I had overseas....send me some!  :D    Your recipe sounds ace, albeit bizarre. I may just have to try it.