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Best Mother's Day Brunch Recipes from Our Favorite Food Bloggers

11 top food writers share the recipes they'd serve at a fabulous brunch for their moms, from an elegant quiche to sticky lemon rolls (12 Photos)

Erin Renzas on May 7, 2010 at 10:44AM

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Best Mother's Day Brunch Recipes from Our Favorite Food Bloggers

photo by Melanie Einzig courtesy of Food52

Food52

Food52 is the brainchild of New York Times food writers Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. They stand by their mantra that home cooks are the best cooks. Each week, Food52 hosts a recipe contest: Readers vote and the winners go into the book, Food52, which will be published this year. This recipe for a delicious spice cake was a finalist from their Best Recipe or Technique Your Mother Taught You Contest.

In true Southern tradition, this is a cake that makes a statement. The spices are pervasive, the icing concentrated and sweet, the height of the cake breathtaking. You might expect a cake like this to be heavy, but ENunn's mother's recipe produces a cake that's finely textured and featherweight. A slice of this impressive cake is the perfect ending to a Mother's Day brunch.

“Being from the South, I come from a rather, ah … kooky family in which relationships are tangled but the food is straightforward and good. This is my mother's spice cake, but I got the recipe from my sister. I won't go into the whole story of why I didn't just ask my mother for it because it would take a million years and you'd be bored to death. I fashioned a pumpkin version of sorts for the food section at the Chicago Tribune when I worked there, but Mother's original is superior: murky and dark and complex underneath, but with a crazy sweet caramel icing on top. Just like the South. And just like the South, you'll keep going back to it even past the point when it seems to be verging on an unhealthy addiction. It's that good.”

—ENunn

Get the recipe for Faulknerian Family Spice Cake with Caramel Icing