I’m on a cake kick, for sure. Something is just very comforting about cake this time of year, and I need all the comfort snack breaks that exist. Pass me a fork and a plate!

This recipe is a one-bowl, throw everything together and mix kind of recipe. Even the glaze takes about two seconds to throw together. When you’re done, there’s a fluffy apple cake with a lovely honey glaze that looks like it took hours to make, but in reality might have taken 10 minutes. Are you game?

I’m so excited for apple season. Once a year, my family goes to an orchard (it’s about 26 miles away, so it’s not super nearby) for their annual pumpkin festival. While I love the corn maze (not) and the hay rides (yay!), the best part is undoubtedly their caramel apples.

Yep, it turns out that not much in life is more delicious than a freshly picked orchard apple smothered in caramel, peanuts, sprinkles and sea salt. I get mine with the works every year, and then I hide from my kids while I eat it on top of a hay bale. That way, Mommy doesn’t have to share.

This time of year also beckons the upcoming Jewish new year, otherwise known as Rosh Hashanah. That’s Hebrew for “head of the year.” To celebrate, it’s traditional to dip apples into honey (so good!) to beckon a sweet new year.

A few days ago, my daughter (the baby, she’s 4 and change) saw me baking this cake. When she found out that it was an apple cake, she immediately figured out that it was for our upcoming new year festivities. She’s smart, that one! And then she said, “Mommy, put honey in it.” Because of course, she knows that’s a winning combo this time of year.

To make her (and myself, honestly) happy, I put a simple honey glaze over the cake. It was really the perfect finish, and I’m so glad my kid figured that out for me.

Like I said, if you’re short on time, this cake is the way to go. My family really enjoyed it, and I plan on baking several more this autumn. It’s that time, after all. Let’s get our apple on!

I do that a lot in the fall. My baking this time of year contains a lot of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. If I take something out of the oven right before I head up to bed, I can actually drift off for the night with all those autumn spices whirling around my senses. I highly recommend you try it.

Even though it’s soaring back up to the 90s this week here in the sunny DC area, I’ve been baking for crunchy leaves and cooler breezes since Labor Day ended. This cake is no exception, and it’s magnificent. The base is pumpkin goodness, filled with all those lovely spices and chocolate chips. Did I mention that the whole cake is smothered in a rich chocolate glaze?

Last week was full of mishaps. As in, just a terrible week. On Wednesday I was at work when I learned that one of my teachers had fallen, so I rushed down the hall to check on her. On my way, I slipped in a stealth water spill and fell down too. Irony? The teacher was fine, but I couldn’t walk so well. I had to get to the urgent care clinic because my doctor wouldn’t see me without some kind of crazy workman’s comp claim number that I could’ve easily given him later (can I rant about healthcare sometime soon?) for an x-ray. Luckily, nothing was broken, but I’m very swollen and bruised.

To compound that (yes, I’m complaining), I had a 22-mile commute the next day to a training class. I don’t like commuting. More complaining.

That evening was Back to School Night, which means I had to be on my A-game to meet with parents. I put a pair of sneakers on over my bandaged foot (not my typical Back to School Night uniform of cute dress and heels) and went to work from my training class. When I opened my mouth, I realized that the fun continued. My voice was going.

See, I’ve had a cold for about a week, but it’s just been hovering. Do you ever have a hovering cold? It’s kind of polite in nature. It doesn’t intrude too much into your life except in the early morning or late at night, but then it really intrudes. No warning, and BAM! Suddenly, you’re going mute in front of parents.

By the next day, I had to face down my students with no voice at all. I spent the day croaking and rasping at them and feeling completely done in. Thank heaven the next day was Saturday. It was time to sit down and shut up. I was never gladder to do both.

One day into the weekend, and things are looking up. My foot is very bruised and still somewhat swollen, but it’s getting better. My voice is a light rasp now as opposed to completely silent, so yay. And I can bake even without a foot or a voice, so that’s the best news of all.

This cake is lovely. I don’t usually pair butter with pumpkin, but special occasions call for a fancier cake. What occasion, you might ask? Feeling better, y’all!

Because pumpkin and chocolate chip is the best combo ever, I had to put them into a decadent bundt with the best chocolate glaze in existence. This is my favorite glaze recipe bar none. It’s super easy, and it’s thicker than most glazes. It’s impossible not to love!

Last week was full of mishaps, but this week will be better and full of cake. It’s not how many times we fall, but how many times we determinedly get back up again. That’s what really matters!

I’ve been on a banana kick this summer, and it’s probably just me making up for lost time. I barely posted any banana recipes in the first two years of the blog, so this summer it’s just bananas all the time. Plus, I don’t like to keep them on the counter in the summer. The bugs, they will come.

Plus, this feels like the right time to write about this cake. There’s a slice of it on my desk in my new office, and I’m looking out at the tree by my window and contemplating happy thoughts. Why not add a moist banana cake filled with both peanut butter cups and peanut butter chips to the mix? A gluten-free one, might I add?

I’ve never had a tree by a window where I work, and I’m finding it to be a very cheerful thing. There’s something about connecting to nature when you spend the day encased in cinder block that is very soothing.

The cinder block leads me to my big question here. You ready? Adhesive.

Yes, I said adhesive. I’ve been doing a lot of wall mounting as I set up this office, and things keep falling down. Seriously, one crash after another. I’ve been using adhesive mountings because I can’t make holes in the wall, but it’s not going well. You see, cinder block is very resistant to adhesive.

Any tips? And no, super glue is not one of them. I can’t do that. Or crazy glue. Or any glue at all. Can you help me before I lose my mind? If I hear one more thing come crashing to the floor, I might run for the hills.

A few months ago, I made this banana toffee snack cake, and people loooooved it. Seriously, I can never predict what people will go for. I make the most amazing thing and the pictures turn out great, and barely a reaction. But sometimes, a recipe just goes sailing through the interweb in the most gloriously unpredictable way.

This, then, is an experiment. I used the same cake base, but I changed up the mix-ins. To be honest, I love both versions. If they were my children, I’d love both equally. But as a peanut butter lover, I’d have to direct you toward this one. I mean, come on. It’s so happy.

Like my other banana recipes, this one is effortlessly gluten-free, thanks to oat flour. And it’s also super easy with no mixer or crazy bowl action needed. That means if I see a banana on the counter, it’s getting baked. This recipe is too simple not to go for it.

If you have any help to give me with adhesive matters, let me know. I need it. Pleeeeeeease!

My family, of course. My kids are still at that age when they want me around all the time, so I’ve been peeling them off me as I head to the car to go to work. It’s a nice feeling, being wanted. I know they won’t always feel that way, so I’m enjoying that. And Kenny is my rock, the one who listens to me talk endlessly when I’m decompressing after a long day.

But let’s not forget you all! JAB is one of my constants as well, and I love the rhythm of baking for the blog. Nothing is quite so relaxing as mixing things together. This week, I decided that the tired bananas on my counter needed a little more than just the usual treatment, so I got sneaky and put a cheesecake filling into the center. Hello, beautiful!

I’m pretty proud of the fact that when bananas turn brown in my house, my son points them out and says, “Time to bake!” That’s right. He knows! I’m proud. Everyone also knows to ask if I’ve taken pictures of dessert yet before they dig in. Life in the home of a food blogger, people. It’s a party every day.

When you bake this much, you fall into the habit of having really good stuff around. Homemade stuff, the good stuff. So as a result, the packaged stuff becomes the treat. It’s a very bizarre reversal of the norm, where I’ll see a package of machine-made chocolate chip cookies and get really excited. I guess novelty has charm, huh? There’s something about that processed taste!

A lot of it is nostalgia, too. When I was growing up, my source of almost all dessert food was Entenmann’s or those really cheap grocery store brand cookies. To this day, no donut tastes better than an Entenmann’s rich chocolate frosted donut with a glass of milk. It’s like my childhood comes rushing back at me with each bite.

Food is a time machine, people. I think there’s no more reliable way to travel to childhood than to eat those foods you ate way back when. Nothing is quite as evocative or powerful. Maybe it’s because taste is such an integral part of our sensory spectrum, along with the sense of smell.

My love of banana in cake or quick bread also goes back to childhood. Now and then, my mom would take those brown bananas on the counter and make a banana bread. I never understood how a fruit that I felt pretty indifferent about (and now don’t eat as an adult unless it’s baked into something) could be the base of such a delicious dessert. That, in a nutshell, is the wonder of baking, and why I never cease to be fascinated at what a little bit of oven and lovin’ can do.

This snack cake is gluten-free, moist, and filled with a very simple cheesecake filling. It’s just cream cheese, sugar and egg. That’s it! The cake is also simplicity itself, all coming together in one bowl. Like childhood, it’s not that complicated. Oh, wait. Childhood is very complicated. I remember!

No matter how old we are, we can always go through adjustments. It’s important to have those constants in our lives that ground us and make us feel connected to something that represents a greater scheme. Along the path, it doesn’t hurt to have a lovely cake with a hidden layer of cheesecake to make life even more fun!

I know we’re not supposed to rush time, but when there are 11-hour workdays involved, time can speed the heck on up. Otherwise, I’m resorting to chocolate.

Oh, who am I kidding? I’m doing that anyway. With this healthy vegan cake that is just as moist and delicious as any butter-laden version, I can get through a tough day without having to worry about my health or any other impending doom.

Yesterday I tried to be the nice teacher. My creative writing class is smaller this time of year now that the seniors have graduated, so I asked everyone else if they wanted to have class outside. It was such a gorgeous day, too. 85 degrees and sunny with a nice, light breeze. I’d even put on sunscreen and brought my sunglasses with me in preparation.

Those kids turned down my offer. Apparently, it was too hot, and they were tired, and they just wanted to sit in my cinder-blocked classroom with fluorescent lighting and be sad. What a bummer. So much for using nature to inspire our writing!

Man, do I love the kids I teach. But sometimes they can be a real buzzkill. How am I twice their age and five times as energetic?

Luckily, my last class of the day agreed  to go outside. A half hour in, they started to get sleepy and we trouped back inside. Hey, we made the effort.

A lot of people opt to repeat the same actions day to day, even if they don’t like them. Why? Because it’s less risky than going out on a limb.  But that’s also not really living, so take a risk today. Go outside! Eat something besides Lean Cuisine for lunch! Shop at a different grocery store, just because. Be crazy!

Take this cake, for instance. I’m not one to follow a vegan diet, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t get down with it from time to time. Especially not with a cake this good.

The base cake recipe is Bethenny Frankel’s. I’m not a Bethenny fan, to be honest. I read her book Naturally Thin several years ago and learned that if you eat (or don’t eat) her way, you’ll be well short of your daily caloric intake and lose tons of weight. Not in a good way. So that book really didn’t appeal to me that much. But this cake recipe was in it, and I’ve gotta give her props. It’s good!

It’s also one-bowl with an easy glaze. I’m into one-bowl. Truly, madly, deeply.

So try something new today, whether it’s this lovely cake or a new route home from work. It’s good to retrain our brains. And I’ll try and get that class of mine into the great outdoors!

Across the pond, “banoffee” refers to the combination of bananas and toffee, typically in the form of a creamy pie. I must be honest: it’s not my favorite way to do pie. I’d rather hang out with key lime any day.

But then I got to thinking: what if the flavors got put into a different textural context? It turns out that I love banoffee when it’s in a cake. Or to be more specific, a cake I can’t stop eating. Which is fine, because it’s pretty healthy!

It’s taken eight years of mothering to figure out how I want to spend Mother’s Day. Sure enough, Kenny hit the jackpot this year. It wasn’t just that everyone let me have a whole morning to myself, though that was nice. I used it to take pictures for the blog and then I watched episodes of Entourage in bed. That was quite lovely.

And it wasn’t just that Kenny bought me the best box of chocolates ever, either, though that was quite lovely too.

He actually (wait for it) tore one of my meal planning sheets off the notepad I keep on the fridge and worked out the weekly meal plan with the kids. Then they went to the store and bought all the groceries for the plan. I didn’t have to think about what to have for dinner, which is one of my least favorite things to do. I hate that Sundays are synonymous with meal planning.

And he made dinner, too! I found steaks marinating in the fridge and the boy actually grilled vegetables. Like, zucchini and whatnot. If you know Kenny, you realize that’s a step in a new direction, because he’s picky with veggies. And then…he ate the zucchini.

You can be married to a guy for a long time and know him even longer, and he can still surprise you. And give you the best Mother’s Day of your life. Did I mention that swirly frozen margaritas also made their way into the day?

This banoffee cake was my morning snack. It made Mother’s Day even more amazing, and healthy, too. The cake is packed with Greek yogurt, bananas, heart-healthy canola oil and gluten-free oat flour. If you don’t have oat flour you can just use the regular stuff, and that’s fine too!

There are days that are just perfect, and I had it happen this past Sunday. I can’t replicate that for you, but I can give you this cake recipe. It will make any day just a little bit better, and for little to no effort. So act like our friends across the pond and go for banoffee!

See, everyone’s about that lemon loaf cake you get at Starbucks, and I guess that it’s good. I’ve never actually eaten more than a bite of it, and it’s tasty, but I wish they’d make a lime version. I wouldn’t be able to stop at just a bite.

This cake is sweet and tangy at the same time, filled through and through with fresh lime juice and zest. It’s even in the glaze. Somebody (cough, cough) couldn’t stop licking the glaze bowl.

Years ago, I learned about Seasonal Affective Disorder (also known very appropriately as SAD) and it was very much a “duh” moment. I mean, no kidding. We’re sadder when it’s cold and gray outside? Isn’t that kind of a no-brainer?

I don’t think I realized how insidious SAD could be until Kenny told me last week that every winter, he can see the change in my personality. I must not be that self-aware, because I had no idea. I guess I do get gloomy, but I didn’t realize other people could tell.

It’s like when I was pregnant. When I was in that condition, I was incredibly blunt. I’d blurt out the first thing that came into my head, and I think the only thing that saved me was that I happened to be pregnant. Otherwise, people would have  gotten justifiably more irritated by it. But then one time, a student jokingly referred to me as an “angry pregnant woman,” and I was totally shocked. That wasn’t how I saw myself at all. But maybe I was being more angsty at the time.

It’s hard to see yourself accurately, and when other people offer you a glimpse, it’s not easy to decide whether to believe them or not. My students (teenagers might be too candid at times) have also told me that I am very intimidating. It’s weird for me to hear that, because in my head, I’m a harmless, literature-loving dessert addict. Intimidating? Really?

I guess we never truly know ourselves, but maybe other people don’t, either. We all project versions of ourselves outward consciously, but it’s impossible to control how others will interpret us. The sooner we realize that perceptions don’t equal truth, and that we need to consider multiple points of view, the better off we’ll probably be.

And hey, Starbucks needs to consider offering a lime loaf. Nothing will cure SAD faster than a solid zip of lime to the senses. I’ve mentioned it before, but lime is summer in a little zesty citrus fruit.

This cake is pretty delightful. It’s got butter, yes, which helps. And it’s also got the perfect balance of lime to even out the sweetness. All you need is one lime and a microplane zester. Those are the best kitchen gadgets ever.

If you’re having a rough winter, or if someone isn’t seeing you the way you perceive yourself, there’s always loaf cake. It’s a lot easier to get perspective after a sunny snack.

The problem with layer cakes is that beauty often takes the place of function. They have to be gorgeous, so we pile on way too much frosting or fondant and then decorate the whole shebang. A sheet cake, however, is the perfect ratio of cake to frosting (or in this case, icing). The cake is the star, not its good looks.

And it definitely doesn’t hurt that  this one is topped with chopped Thin Mints. America’s favorite Girl Scout cookie is ready for her moment in the sun!

When I was a kid, sheet cakes meant birthdays. My mom is not the most enthusiastic baker, so she would take a Duncan Hines cake mix (the brand is known as “Uncle Duncan” in my family), put it into a sheet cake pan, and cover it with ready-made frosting. She also bought those sugar letters you get in the cake aisle and put them on our cakes.

I loved it. While the grown-up me tends to make fancy layer cakes for birthdays, I’ve never lost that soft spot for a sheet cake in a pan. They’re simplicity itself.

The problem with a chocolate cake is that it’s simply too addictive. I like to put the cake in the fridge once it cools and then once it’s chilled, everyone attacks it. Open season on cake! Did you ever see that Sex and the City episode where Miranda bakes a chocolate cake? She spends the entire episode eating way more of it than she wants to, and the whole thing ends with her dumping the cake in the trash and covering it with dish soap.

I always feel sad when Miranda destroys the cake, but I understand it. A layer cake is too decadent to munch on for any length of time. But you can cut sliver after sliver off a sheet cake and never get tired of it.

If you’re a regular reader here on JAB, you know that mint is not my favorite. But I can’t resist baking with Thin Mints for everyone else. They get so excited when they realize that not only is there a baked good in sight, but that it also contains one of their favorite limited-edition GS cookies.

This cake is very simple. It’s my favorite chocolate cake base (thanks, back of the Hershey cocoa container!) covered with an equally easy icing and chopped Thin Mints. I think the most labor-intensive part of this baking experience was chopping the Thin Mints. Be sure you dump even the crumbled insides of the Thin Mints on the cake, by the way. It really adds to you topping.

When all is said and done, we always come back to the desserts we loved as children. I am a sheet cake devotee and don’t plan on changing that love anytime soon. Thanks for the birthday cakes, Mommy!

And these are quite lovely, even though the word “healthy” appears in the title. Chocolate, banana, and no butter or oil. Plus, there’s a Greek yogurt protein kick in there. Can we all cheer?

I almost called these brownies. That’s how fudgy they are. Have I ever mentioned how difficult it can be to name some recipes? Or children?

With every single one of our children, we didn’t name them until they were born and we could look into their faces. I had a hard time committing anyway. Being a teacher made it a lot harder.

You see, I associate names with people. And while I really enjoy most of my students, I didn’t want to name my kids anything that I’d associate with my workplace. It’s just nice to keep home and work as separate as possible.

As a result, my kids have fairly obscure names (with even more obscure spellings) and while their names fit them quite nicely, it wasn’t an easy process. Names are so dang important. What if a kid gets the wrong one?

Forget about real people. Character names bug me, too. When Big from Sex and the City finally got a name in the last episode, it was “John.” Really?! John? That’s the best they could do for him? It was so unbelievably frustrating.

If you could name yourself, what would it be? Feel free to let that marinate, or share below! No, this is not that game where you come up with your accidental stripper name. This is you deciding what you would have been called, had it been your choice.

If this cake had a choice, it might ask to be buttery and full of fat. Actually, no, it wouldn’t. When I brought this to work, not only could people not believe that it was healthy, but almost everyone also asked for the recipe. Here’s a video tutorial, but see the full recipe below as well:

Aside from its health benefits, this cake (almost brownie) is super simple to make. Without butter to cream (and no oil either), it’s just mixing ingredients together. Have I mentioned that this cake is also gluten-free?

The only danger here is that you’ll convert to healthy cake and miss out on the Valentine’s Day splurging. Nah, I’m not really worried about that. But this is really good, whether it’s named right or not. In the end, it’s the taste that matters!

This gingerbread bundt cake is a winter spice wonder. It’s moist, soft, and oh so perfect for Christmas. And since I don’t do Christmas, I’ll just eat it all anyway.

As a perk, this cake is finished off with brown butter icing. It’s pretty much the best cake ever. No bias here, of course!

I’m working on cozy holiday plans, and I’m very excited to curl up with my kids by the fire later this week while we watch movies. It’ll be great.

Just as exciting, the D.C. area is poised for 75-degree temps this Christmas Eve. Heck yeah! If we don’t get a white Christmas, can we get a tropical one instead? I’m down with that. It might be global warming, but let’s not talk about that right now.

This week, I’m still chugging away at work. Most school districts all over the country are on winter break, but my school system is insisting on three days of instruction this week, which means I will work through Wednesday and then run for the hills. It’s not that bad, except that people keep asking me how much I’m enjoying vacation, and I have to tell them that nope, not there yet. Gone are the days when winter break was two weeks long!

Okay, enough kvetching. I’ll talk about cake instead. Glorious, glorious cake.

This cake has all the elements of gingerbread: molasses, cinnamon, ginger, and lots of love. But it’s a cake, and it’s way too easy to eat about three slices at once. I don’t have gingerbread often, but when I do, I take it very seriously.

The brown butter icing takes just a few minutes to make, and it’s the perfect rich accompaniment to a dark, spicy cake. I can’t recommend it enough!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my next foray into food film. Until then, enjoy all the holiday sugar you can!