first three minutes // raspberry ricotta cake

her sleeping form lies beneath a quickly retreating fog, which rolls and roils backwards and towards the bedroom door, sucking itself down into a vent, exhaling and dissipating onto the street near the sidewalk with a thin and elegant hiss. dampness and the smell of mulch remain. each morning the air is new in perpetuum, and hangs above her head like time suspended night upended, space prepared to wait without hurry for eyes to open up into it. a sheen of sweat on a forehead, an exhale of decay, the room gives a final unobserved heave, the molecules rearrange and then settle. 

she wakes to rain. trees just outside are laced with new green. she is blank and full and she watches the rivulets on the window by her bed, shifts in the sheets to touch a giant leaf from the potted plant on the windowsill, it is smooth and rubbery and thin. under the canopy of her own ceiling there is the smell of coffee from the kitchen, there are dust motes light and drifting, she holds loosely to the plant, she is heavy inside of herself, alert and childlike and newly landed.




for a balanced breakfast:

raspberry ricotta cake           from bon appétit 

vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
 1 1/2 cups ricotta
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup frozen raspberries

:: preheat oven to 350°. Lightly coat a 9" round cake pan with the cooking spray.

:: whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

:: whisk eggs, ricotta and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth; fold into the dry ingredients until
    just blended.

:: fold in butter, followed by 3/4 cups of raspberries.

:: scrape batter into the pan, and scatter the remaining 1/4 cup raspberries over the top.

: bake until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean, approx. 50-60 minutes. Let cool for at
  least 20 minutes before removing from the pan.