I mean, it’s too sudden. We’re at 90 one day and then 60 the next. I cannot. Has Mother Nature ever heard of transitions? And by the way, could she just stop with the hurricanes already?

Since I don’t want to spend today talking about the weather, I’ll talk about something far more relevant instead. My blog’s been around for going on three years now, but I’ve never made black bottom cupcakes. Once this occurred to me (in the middle of the night, mind you, and it woke me up), I had to correct that immediately. I also had to make them gluten-free, just to make up for the oversight of never putting a chocolate cupcake stuffed with chocolate chip cheesecake filling onto this site.

A few weeks ago, you may remember that I fell over and injured my foot. Well, it’s all better now, but it’s been a pain-ridden time. Either I was walking funny or I hit something on the way down, because my back has been spasming nonstop. A few days ago, the relief began to seep in, but there’s still some pain.

The combination of all this plus the stress of the Jewish holiday season (it lasts a month) has made me very neglectful of anything but family or work. In other words, I’ve been ignoring the blog world and social media, and I’m sorry about that. But as my blog friends have taught me, there’s only so much anyone can handle before the nervous breakdown begins. Mine is scheduled for November, by the way. I have to hold it together until then. Winky face.

Seriously, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the concept of “good enough.” That’s a really tough standard for me to find acceptable in myself. In other people, it’s usually fine. But for me, I want to be the best. I’m not sure where this overdeveloped sense of competition came in, but I’m pretty sure it was born out of insecurity earlier in life. As an adult, I’ve been set on standing out and setting a standard of excellence.

I’m still driven that way, but I’ve pulled back from that on JAB. I will never be the best baking blogger, or even in the top several hundred. That’s okay. This site began as both an experiment and a hobby, and I’m okay keeping it there.

While I might not be on the Internet much, my desserts are as lovely as ever, I assure you. You’ll never know that these cupcakes are GF, and they’re also not that much of a nutritional wasteland.

The cake base of these cupcakes is positively virtuous: a chocolate cake that is vegan with no butter or eggs. The cheesecake filling is made with lowfat cream cheese and only about 1/3 cup of sugar, which means it’s not too sweet. You can eat a couple of these and not feel bad about it at all!

I’ve been in a tough place for the past couple of months, but I have hope that things will slow down and that I’ll stop waking up in the middle of the night thinking about black bottom cupcakes. Until that happens, I’ll just have to keep baking. Enjoy the fruits of my sleepless labor, friends!