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!

Listen, I love being a mom. But part-time mommyhood is kind of my thing. I need to be elsewhere during the day to fully appreciate all of the stuff my kids pull, like covering the walls in sidewalk chalk or leaving raisins all over the house like animal droppings. I wish I were strong enough to handle them 24/7, but I’m just not.

Summer is a great wake-up call for me about my job and why I love it. I get to be an at-home mom for two months while not teaching, and then I can fully appreciate being with my kids all day. But man, is it ever the most exhausting job in the world. That’s why we need cupcakes!

This morning, my son’s buddy came over to visit. My girls were being bratty little sisters, destroying their brother’s Lego police station and screaming over the Frozen CD so that nobody could hear the millionth rendition of “Let it Go.” More on that another time, or I may never stop ranting.

Anyway. I needed to think of an easy baking project, and fast. These s’more brownie cupcakes were it!

You see, a week ago I saw these refrigerated Pillsbury s’more cookies in the grocery store. I was all over them faster than a baby boy can pee on a parent changing his diaper.

In the refrigerator the cookies went, a happy idea for another day. Until today. There are nine cookies in the package and I wanted to get maximum mileage out of them, so what better than to make them into cupcakes?

My favorite brownie base went underneath, which I baked for ten minutes to give the bottom a head start. Then my daughters carefully put the cookies on top and we baked them until they were golden and perfect. Talk about easy! Bear in mind that there are only nine cookies in a package, so unless you want to buy more cookies, you’ll have leftover brownie batter. I used mine in an upcoming recipe. Stay tuned!

And while the cookies do come with a drizzle packet, it wasn’t quite enough for our project. So we took some hot fudge, used a small star tip, and drizzled on some designs. Because we’re fancy like that.

The best part was biting into the cupcake and having that gooey marshmallow just spill out over the brownie and straight into my mouth. I thought I was going to moan out loud. Maybe I did? The girls were certainly making happy noises.

And with our chocolate high, yet another day of no camp passed without too much incident. Believe me, after mini golfing in the afternoon heat I was pretty bushed, but you know, this mom thing is fun!

When can I go back to work?

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1 package Pillsbury s’mores refrigerated cookie dough (limited edition)
• hot fudge (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a muffin tin with nine cupcake liners and coat lightly with cooking spray.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the cocoa into the melted butter until it dissolves. Add the sugar and stir again. When the sugar is incorporated, mix in the vanilla and eggs. Add the salt and flour, mixing until just combined.

Fill each cupcake liner halfway with brownie batter. Reserve the rest. I’ll be sharing what to do with it in the coming week!

Bake the brownie batter for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and top lightly with a s’mores cookie for each cupcake. Return to the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until the cookies are golden on top.

Cool the cupcakes completely. If desired, pipe hot fudge onto the top of the cupcakes in any pattern you choose.

Store at room temperature for up to one week!