According to blogger Joy Wilson, people are always looking for an excuse to eat dessert for breakfast.

And by that logic, her new Joy the Baker Cookbook: 100 Simple and Comforting Recipes ($20) is a self-help book of sorts: Follow its instructions, and you're sure to make the people around you happy.

Wilson, a self-described "taste-bud-taught" baker, owned a wedding cake and wholesale baking business before borrowing a camera and a computer to start her Joy the Baker blog in 2008. With approachable recipes, beautiful photos and the author's trademark cheeky commentary, the new cookbook captures the blog's successful ethos.

Joy the Baker Cookbook is both approachable and innovative, organized into chapters of breakfast sweets, comfort food and desserts for celebrations and parties. Wilson has a knack for combining classics; for example, oatmeal cookies fuse with pancakes in a smart breakfast dish (click here to see the recipe).

The book also handily caters to all levels of expertise: There's banana-bourbon bread pudding for experienced bakers and kitchen tips (how to get a Bundt cake out of the pan) for novices.

In her introduction, Wilson writes that life is better with sugar, butter and cream. This is therapy we can get behind.