Welcome! You’re At Isabelle’s—home to all things tasteful and tasty.
I first came across Morning Glory muffins in a baking book called Butter Baked Goods. I borrowed it from my high school library, and come to think of it, I never returned the copy—it's still sitting on my mom's bookshelf (whoops!). ANYWAYS, accidental theft aside, I got the book because I was getting really into baking around grade 10. I heard this book had a recipe for the best homemade marshmallows, and for some reason, that felt like a skill I had to master. I remember flipping through the book and feeling particularly intrigued by the idea of a Morning Glory muffin. I honestly don’t know why, because looking back at that recipe, the muffin really doesn’t look anything special. I think I just read the ingredient list and realized it’s basically loaded carrot cake which sounds lovely.
But clearly, this is not a muffin recipe, so let's talk cake. This recipe is a baby between a Morning Glory muffin and a classic carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Baked in a loaf pan because that makes it feel more acceptable to eat for breakfast. When developing this recipe, I initially thought I could just add all the other mix-ins to my regular carrot cake recipe—but the results were not good. So instead, I spent the weekend baking four variations before getting it just right. And let’s just say it's taking all my willpower not to eat half the cake in one day.
This cake is loaded with your usual Morning Glory suspects: carrot, apple, coconut, walnuts, and cinnamon (no raisins here). But I've also added a generous amount of fresh ginger, orange zest, and freshly ground cardamom. It's topped with cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut chips (optional, but very delicious). The end result is borderline more mix-ins than cake, but that's just how I like it.
