Easter Sunday isn’t just about ham, green bean casserole, and chocolate eggs. Try these two yummy brunch ideas for a coffee-flavored celebration.

Today is Good Friday. For Christians, that means the symbolic end to 40 days of reflection, prayer, and sometimes sacrifice. Two days from now, a mythical bunny will hop into homes and bring children loads of candy that will only rival Christmas and Halloween in their multitude. But all that chocolate doesn’t mean the adults can’t have fun too.

For starters, Easter is primarily a time when the cooks of the household concentrate on getting dinner right. But as the kids are running from their bedrooms to see what the Easter Bunny brought them, mom and dad can enjoy a few coffee-centric breakfast treats of their own.

A sweet beginning to a fun day

A website called familyfun.com has a recipe for a special streusel coffee cake that’s packed with a yummy brown sugar streusel and covered in a cinnamon crunch topping. If you’re interested in making it, you can find it by clicking here. The dish has a sour cream cake at its base that calls for your basic cake ingredients plus a little lemon zest. The whole thing gets topped off with an easy homemade icing consisting of powdered sugar and milk (I’ve made icing this way before and I don’t cook. So if I say it’s easy, that means it actually is).

One of the website’s posters suggested making this cake the night before you serve it and chilling it until you’re ready for it. I would also suggest combining this cake with a coffee that has more bold than sweet notes like an Indonesian Sumatra or any coffee that originated in Africa. You’ll need something to offset all that sugar.

Giving EB a run for his money

So maybe you gave up alcohol for Lent and a sweet little coffee cake just isn’t enough to really help you celebrate. In that case, the Food Network’s lovely Giada De Laurentiis is here to help with a recipe for spiked iced cappuccino. It’s got coffee in it, so that makes it acceptable to drink first thing in the morning, right?

Giada’s recipe calls for two cups of freshly brewed espresso that’s been left to chill, ½ cup of sugar, three tablespoons of water, some crushed ice, six tablespoons of amaretto liqueur, and one cup of whole milk or whipping cream.

You’ll make a syrup from the sugar and water by combining them in a saucepan and stirring them over medium heat. Set the syrup aside and let it cool. Next, fill six 8-12 ounce glasses halfway with the crushed ice. Divide the espresso equally among the cups, pouring it directly over the ice. Pour one tablespoon of syrup and one tablespoon of amaretto into each glass. Give each glass a stir to blend, cover with the whole milk or whipping cream, and enjoy

Remembering what’s important

On a slightly more somber note, in the midst of the recent earthquake and its subsequent tremors, the people living in the Italian villages that were affected have taken up residence in a makeshift tent city. The New York Times reported yesterday that a mess hall of sorts in the town of Paganica wheeled out five red and black espresso machines to help lift the spirits of the villagers who’ve found themselves homeless.

“Finally today we had a coffee,” said a smiling Serena Tenina, one of the quake survivors. “It might seem like nothing, but to me it’s at least a sign that things are moving forward.”

It certainly does seem like an inconsequential thing, but on this holiday weekend, it’s good to remember those who have less than we do and be thankful for all of our blessings, which sometimes are nothing more than a hot cup of coffee. My thoughts and prayers will certainly be with my fellow espresso lovers this weekend and I hope you’ll think of them too.

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