Jewish Apple Cake

Jewish apple cake is a moist, dense cake brimming with chunks of cinnamon sugar coated apple. It is the perfect fall dessert!

Ok, I feel like I have no business writing about a tradition that belongs to another, but every year my instagram starts filling with posts about an apple or honey cake for Shabbat or other Jewish gatherings and celebrations and my curiosity was piqued. What was this glorious dessert and do I dare make my own?

I have spent all year testing recipes and I have to say, a cake filled with layers of apples, HECK YES. You need it in your life!!! It’s such a sweet and simple cake and my goodness does it hit the spot! It’s moist and flavorful, but it’s especially unique in that there’s no frosting! I love a cake that can stand on its own!!

What is Jewish Apple Cake?

Jewish apple cake is a simple, dense cake believe to have originated in Poland.

Ingredients for Jewish Apple Cake

All you need is simple pantry ingredients for this cake which is why I love it! I can make it anytime because I always have these ingredients on hand. Here is what you will need:

Cake

• Apples
• Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Flour
• Baking Powder
• Salt
• Brown Sugar
• Canola Oil
• Vanilla
• Eggs
• Orange Juice

Topping

• Brown Sugar
• Flour
• Butter
• Powdered Sugar

The measurements for each ingredients can be found in the recipe card below.

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Looking for a quick motivation boost? We share five quick ways to improve your motivation and start seeing progress fast

Motivation can be a tricky thing. Whether you’re thinking about working towards a healthier lifestyle, want to change your career, or get started with a new creative hobby, once the initial excitement has worn off, the actual work needed to put in before you start seeing significant progress can be daunting.

Procrastination, burnout, low mood overwhelm – there are so many different reasons why our motivation can falter. But low motivation doesn’t mean our progress needs to stop. Here are five quick ways to kickstart your motivation and get back on track.

1. Make a fresh start

You don’t have to wait until the new year to make resolutions. Setting new goals, making commitments, and giving yourself the chance for a fresh start can happen at any time. This can help you to feel energised and reinvigorated, giving you a much-needed boost to get started.

If you’ve been feeling weighed down by big, daunting tasks or unclear pathways towards what you should do next, giving yourself a fresh start creates the opportunity to re-evaluate what you want to achieve, figure out how you want to do that, and let go of any negativity that may have been holding you back.

2. Simplify your goals (and your to-do list)

In order to achieve more, sometimes we need to aim for less. That doesn’t mean we want to achieve less – just that we want to focus on fewer big, complicated goals, allowing for a more simplified to-do list.

The more we try to put onto our to-do list, the more likely we are to feel overwhelmed. Cutting back on activities that don’t motivate or excite you can help you to avoid procrastinating. When our to-do list feels cluttered, it can be confusing. Where do you get started? What’s the real priority? Why are you doing this again?

Keep things simple. You can always expand on your goals later on, once you’ve started seeing progress.

3. Try the five-minute rule

Typically used for procrastinating, the five-minute rule can help you to feel more productive and, in turn, more motivated as you start to see real progress.

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Hi friends! How’s the morning going? I hope you’re having a great one so far! We’re having the best Fall Break with the kiddos, and am looking forward to a shorter week this week, and getting everything ready for the Pilot and P’s bday celebrations. I’m also starting the Dr. Cabral 7-day detox today with our community. You can still absolutely order a kit and join in on your own time when it arrives (use FITNESSISTA20 for a discount).

For today’s post, I wanted to share some of the changes I’ve made in my routine that have moved the dial towards productivity, improved mood, and sleep. It’s fun to adjust things over time and see what works, and this is what has been working for lately. I’d love to hear if you’re working towards any goals or have made any sleep/routine changes and how they’re going!

5 dial movers in my health routine

1) An updated morning routine

I used to get frustrated hearing about morning routines of successful entrepreneurs because I have small kids, a life, and ain’t got no time for a 2-hour complex morning routine. The kids used to be our alarm clock, but now that they’re older, I still sleep until the alarm goes off. I roll out of bed and am flung directly into the morning chaos until school drop-off, or on the weekends, it’s dance and soccer games. I would hear about elaborate morning meditation, journaling, and exercise routines and just feel annoyed.

Buuuuut, I realized I could shuffle around some of my favorite habits that put me in a positive and productive mindset and make them work for my life. My “morning routine” is a bit delayed now, or split into pieces throughout the day, and makes a huge difference in my stress level and my attitude.

Here are the components I include:

Morning sunlight and grounding

I know that early morning sunlight can help your circadian rhythm and enable your body to produce melatonin at the correct times, so you’re able to go to sleep more easily at night. I’d open the blinds and let sun into the house first thing, but over the past couple of months, I started stepping outside into the sun. It feels SO good and makes me feel instantly awake and like I’m ready to conquer the day.

I have to let Maisey out in the morning anyway, so instead of staying inside curled up with hoodie or blanket, I walk outside with her. I step into the grass, even if it’s wet, remove my glasses (since they are transition and blue light blockers), and look around the yard. It takes maybe three minutes, but sets the tone for the entire day. I get a little bit of sunlight on my body and in my eyes, and also get in a bit of grounding, which can be therapeutic. According to this study, “Grounding appears to improve sleep, normalize the day–night cortisol rhythm, reduce pain, reduce stress, shift the autonomic nervous system from sympathetic toward parasympathetic activation, increase heart rate variability, speed wound healing, and reduce blood viscosity.”

7 minutes of meditation, 10 minute of journaling

Every day, I spend 7 minutes meditation on my Read more

It’s the essential fuel that sees them through the day, so help youngsters get the sleep they need with these insightful ideas

Many children will go through periods when they struggle to sleep, wake up regularly, or feel tired throughout the day. Like adults, this may be the result of a number of triggers, from stress and anxiety, to lifestyle habits.

“Sleep is such a fundamental human requirement that, when it eludes us, it can have a negative impact on our day-to-day lives,” says hypnotherapist Angela Brown. “The impact of poor sleep can range from poor concentration to challenging behaviour, inability to learn new tasks, stress, anxiety, and depression.”

Angela also points to the benefits of a good night’s sleep, including feeling better prepared to take on new challenges, as well as more energy to fuel the day. So, how can you support a child who’s having problems with sleeping?

Establish a routine

“Keep to a routine with a set amount of sleep,” Angela suggests. “This helps to get our circadian rhythm back on track, so we feel more alert and able to function effectively.”

The NHS recommends children start to wind down 20 minutes before they usually fall asleep. If they’re in the habit of going to sleep later (e.g. during school holidays), you can try bringing this time forward by five to 10 minutes each week. Plus, for younger kids, you may want to incorporate a bath, or reading, into this routine.

Set the scene

As Angela points out, our bedrooms are often our sanctuaries, and somewhere we look forward to being following a busy day. “If we can control the stimuli in the bedroom, it can have a positive effect on our sleep,” she says. “Things to think about are the weight of the duvet – lighter for summer, heavier for winter. Thick curtains or black-out blinds, so our brains know it is time to sleep. No blue light, so no phones, TVs, or electrical devices in the bedroom.”

Creating a tech-free space can be a challenge in modern times, but taking steps to cut out blue light before bed can have a big impact on the quality of our sleep.

Encourage exercise

There’s truth in the technique of wearing out children during the day to help them sleep better.

“With as little as 30 minutes of activity, such as walking, running, and playing, we increase our ability to concentrate, giving us a chemical reward by generating positive endorphins, which help us to cope with life’s ups and downs,” Angela says.

That said, try to leave two hours between exercise and bedtime.

Control the light

“Our sleep is affected by the amount of sunlight we get. If we’re sitting inside on a computer by a window for 30 minutes, we might get 300 lumens of light on a sunny day. Whereas if we went outside and had a drink in the sunshine we might get as many as 25,000 lumens of light. That means more vitamin D and melatonin, which are both important for sleep.”

Sunlight is turned into melatonin by our bodies. This hormone regulates our circadian rhythm, helping us to fall asleep, and feel balanced throughout the day.

“If we have excess melatonin, it will be converted to serotonin – the

Writer, creator, campaigner, and mum-of-two Louise Pentland shares the rollercoaster ride that comes with completing a novel, and the healing, happiness, and opportunities for growth, her daughters bring to her life

“Whip it off!” bestselling author and ‘OG’ content creator Louise Pentland exclaims. It’s the hottest day of the year, and although we’re chatting over Zoom, we’re both struggling with the heat. Louise has spotted that I’m self-consciously wearing a cardigan over my sleeveless dress, and she wants me to be more comfortable. It’s the first time I’ve ever been encouraged to shed clothing during an interview, and I have to tell you, I love her for it.

A lot of people know Louise to be exactly as she is in this moment: friendly, funny, and here for the real talk about life’s ups and downs. If you’ve followed her on social media, you’ll also know that Louise is open about her mental health, and has bravely shared the childhood experiences of abuse that led her to become an active ambassador for the NSPCC.

It’s this combination of cheerleading, courage, and charisma that makes Louise such a pleasure to talk to. There’s something incredibly down-to-earth about her, and while she may have four novels under her belt, a highly successful media career, and more than 2.2 million subscribers to her YouTube channel, she’s emphatic that she still has a lot still to learn about life.

As Louise says, 2022 has been a good year for evolving, and she’s relieved that things are looking up after a tough 2021.

“I don’t know if it’s because during the pandemic everything was put on pause, including my own mental growth, but I feel as though I am having a period of coming out of myself a bit,” she says. “Last year was a bit of a bleak, low year, a bit more of a survival year, and now I feel like I’m thriving again. I’m like a sponge and I’m soaking everything up!”

Embracing her post-book publication period is just one way Louise is taking the opportunity to reflect before moving forwards. Her latest novel, the charming Time After Time, hit shelves in August, and Louise is now happily contemplating the central role that writing plays in her life.

“I think it’s being able to pour everything out on the page,” she says. “When I was little I had diaries, then I’d write in notebooks, then my blog was a continuation of that. Now I have my books.”

Keen to show that there are two sides to life as a published author, Louise tempers her enthusiasm by explaining the real process of writing novels, and where her passion truly lies.

“I love coming up with the idea, the characters, and I really like creating child characters because they are so playful,” she says. “I enjoy mapping the story out, but the hardest part is the first draft, when you have to get everything in your head out onto the paper.

“That’s when I come crashing down. I think it’s rubbish, the worst book I’ve ever written, it’s embarrassing, and I’ll have to pull the contract because I can’t send this book out into the world! Then my editor goes through it, gives me a pep talk and