If Muffins Are Allowed, Why Not Cupcakes for Breakfast?

Who made the rules for breakfast?  Who said they were correct?  I grew up with the notion that a real breakfast consists of eggs, bacon or sausage, but on the weekend, pancakes or waffles were added.   Tell me what the difference is between pancakes with syrup, whipped cream, or chocolate chips and a piece of chocolate cake.  Is it frosting, or does it just mess up our categorical thinking about what and when foods are allowed? Do we really think that stack of chocolate chip pancakes is healthier? 

While we are on the subject of breakfast discriminatory practices, let’s talk muffins and cupcakes. Take a moment to imagine biting into a soft cupcake with its luscious frosting, then licking the frosting off your lips. Now think of biting into a typical dense muffin. 

Does it bring you the same joy? 

You don’t have to say it out loud, but there is an almost imperceptible level of joy in eating that cupcake. Why wouldn’t we want to start our day with a small amount of joy? Now Costco makes a pretty good blueberry muffin, but honestly, if my choice is one of their massive blueberry muffins or one of their cupcakes? I’m eating the cupcake. What do we have against frosting for breakfast, yet accept glazes? Glazes do not stop at doughnuts, looking at you, cinnamon rolls. 

However, the biggest hypocrite of them all is doughnuts.  How is a deep-fried dough ball with chocolate glaze, whether puffed or cake, viewed as acceptable, but a chocolate chip cookie or brownie is worse? If I pair it with a big glass of milk, does it help? 

I do have one exception. The only doughnut that could give an eyebrow to a cookie or brownie is the freshly made apple cider doughnut made in Apple Valley, just outside of Placerville. It is the quintessential autumnal breakfast. Barring that, eat your cookie or brownie guilt-free. 

Then there are the pie people pushing their breakfast version but calling it a “Danish”. I am not a fan of the pie-like filling in these buttery, flaky pastries. Yet my parents thought these were okay alternatives to a regular breakfast. I guess. It had fruit on it, but I still pull a face when I think of the lemon ones.  (shivers) 

But that opens up a whole other conversation about pie. What is it about eating a slice of pie that we feel like we are doing sugar responsibly, but cake well, that is dessert.  I often hear “just a small piece for me” when cutting into a cake. Yet I find the same people watching carefully to see how I slice up a pie and whether their piece will be the same size as everyone else’s. 

But I digress. 

I don’t know who made these rules, but in my mind, sugar is sugar no matter what form it comes in, yet somehow we are shamed for having it in a particular form at a particular time of day.  

Now, am I advocating for sugar breakfasts? No, and if you tell my kids I said these things, I will say I was writing this under duress.  However, if you decide to go the sugar route for breakfast this Sunday morning, I encourage you to broaden your horizons; the choices are endless. I encourage you to include the truly frosted varieties.  Embrace all your options!