Angostura Spice Cakes

In my mind, the perfect Sunday starts with a treat of a breakfast. Today, with only two eggs in the fridge and cereal dregs in the cupboard, our choices were limited. It was either eating out, whipping up hot granola or making pancakes. With daylight savings-induced lateness, we opted to stay in. Pancakes it was. I mean, oatmeal's no treat.

Normally, the Spoonstress and I like to create some funky pancake mixes like banana pecancakes, apple and cottage cheese, etc. I should say, I like to experiment with new varieties and the Spoonstress puts up with my experimentation. Anyway, plain pancakes don't really cut it anymore. But with no banana or cottage cheese, I was scratching for answers.

Then it hit me--Angostura Spancakes. I'm not sure if this name or Angostura Spice Cakes captures them better, but the Spoonstress felt the former sounded too much like canned meat.

Those of you longtime readers may remember my first column on my family favorite, the Angostura Spice Cake. It wouldn't be too hard to recreate it in pancake form (minus the frosting). Basically I added a fourth of a teaspoon of ground cloves, allspice and cinnamon to the batter. I dripped in a few drops of the Angostura bitters, stirred it up and griddled away.

You could certainly taste the spice, but it was subtle. I might add a bit more next time. Nonetheless, I definitely enjoyed my share and probably some of the Spoonstress' portion.

With the remaining batter, the Spoonstress made a silver dollar pancake for the Spooch. It took her a while to wrap her canine mind and chompers around the idea of a pancake, but she eventually got it. And then she had a few more. Not a bad idea, nor a bad way to start a Sunday...at 11 a.m.