Every fall, I mark the start of the season by ordering pumpkin bread at Starbucks. It’s available year-round, but it feels most enjoyable when the weather starts to turn and I start to crave cozy, spiced treats. This year, I tried a few versions from bakeries in San Francisco to see how they differ. Here are tasting notes.

Cake meet pavlova. I first discovered this Nordic cake a couple of years ago and was immediately intrigued. Cake and meringue bake together resulting in a layered treat with lots of texture. You get the fluffiness of the cake, crisp airiness of the meringue and softly whipped cream with juicy macerated berries on top.

I love black sesame flavored treats. Lovely flecks in scoops of ice cream or jet black filling inside mochi or a steamed bun. I’ve been on a cereal kick lately so I thought I’d experiment with them in cereal treats! The classic version is pretty sweet but adding the black sesame changes the flavor to this wonderfully nutty and crave-able treat that is not too sweet and dangerously difficult to stop eating!

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I’m excited to share the banana bread recipe, from Chef Dominique Ansel’s new cookbook Everyone Can Bake. It’s the follow up to his debut book, The Secret Recipes, which featured many of his signature bakery items. I made the Cronut, Frozen S’more and Cookie Shots, but the recipes were definitely more technically involved. In his latest offering, the recipes are geared for the home cook, which is very appropriate during this pandemic. He shares takes on classics including pound cake, banana bread, brownies and more. I like how the book is structured. There are base, filling and topping recipes, and within each of those, he offers easy tweaks. Ultimately, I decided to top mine with streusel.