I Tried Lemon Cake French Toast and It’s the Perfect Excuse to Have Cake for Breakfast

Lemon loaf cake was one of the first recipes I really mastered as a teen when I was teaching myself how to bake. I still adore lemon loaf cake, but when I saw Josh Elkin turn it into lemon cake French toast on Instagram, I realized I may have just found a new way to love it all over again. And because I certainly have had a leftover slice of lemon cake for breakfast, turning it into French toast seemed like a fun idea I hadn’t yet tried.

Get the recipe: Lemon Cake French Toast

The ease of this recipe centers around the store-bought loaves from your grocery store’s bakery section. Already sliced and ready to go, all you have to do to prep your ingredients is whisk together a few eggs and milk. Melt some butter in a nonstick skillet, quickly dip the cake slices in the egg mixture, and fry until golden-brown, about 2 minutes per side. To really gild the lily, whisk together a quick glaze of powdered sugar, milk, and lemon juice to drizzle over the top. 

I was a little nervous that this French toast wouldn’t work out — surely the moist cake would disintegrate once dunked and fried, right? But I was pleasantly surprised! As long as you just quickly dip both sides of the cake into the egg mixture, it holds up just fine. I actually left a couple of slices of cake out overnight on a wire rack to dry out to see if they fared better, but I actually preferred the recipe as indicated. The extra-moist interior was super tender and was what made it so good.

Probably the best part about this was how easy it was. I put it together on a busy Thursday morning as a midweek treat during the first week of school for my kids, and still had time to pack lunch boxes. 

The only thing to note is that this recipe is definitely sweet — it’s cake! But it works as an occasional treat. I used salted butter to griddle the cake, and I would definitely recommend going that route to contrast with the sweetness. Using homemade lemon cake, however, may give you less sweet results. You could also skip the glaze, or maybe opt for a blueberry sauce that some commenters mentioned, but I still probably wouldn’t eat more than one slice. It’s definitely not an everyday breakfast, but a fun treat if you ever have extra loaf cake that needs using up.

1. Use salted butter to griddle the cake slices. The salty-sweet crust is what makes this so good.
2. Keep the heat down. As Josh Elkin notes, keep the heat on medium to avoid burning the French toast.
3. Skip the milk in the glaze and just use lemon juice. The extra-tart drizzle is a good contrast with the sweet cake.