Is it a bad sign that I combined two different cakes that were starting to get a bit stale just so I could make a third cake? Perhaps. But who wants to waste a perfectly good cake, right? So, today, I combined the remaining quarter of an apple cake Rachael made for my birthday celebration with the last few pieces of a maple cake I made last week.

I got the idea from making bread pudding for so many years as a cook at our church’s “Breakfast Club,” which offered our homeless brothers and sisters a warm breakfast once or twice a month. A chef came and taught us a few tricks of the trade. One was taking any kind of leftover bread slices, rolls, cinnamon rolls, biscuits, or cake, adding some sweetener, some butter, a few spices, any fruit (fresh, dried, canned, or frozen), a bit of liquid (juice, milk, or cream) and an egg or two. Mix that all together and bake it for 45 minutes to an hour and you’ll have a brand-new tasty treat to share while ridding yourself of any pesky leftovers.

Today, I added to my crumbled-up cake some pineapple juice, chopped pineapple, raisins, vanilla, agave syrup, butter, cinnamon, and a little nutmeg. It could be argued that the product was just as good as those original cakes. In fact, it was so good that I had to pace myself so I only had one piece (well, okay, maybe more like a piece and a half).

In case you want to “recycle” day-old bread, cakes, or sweets. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the outcome and you can feel proud that you are not throwing away perfectly good food.

Happy cooking.

Here’s a photo of my thrice-baked cake.