Erin Mann is baking a new cake every week for a year from the "All Cakes Considered" cookbook and shares her adventures here on AnnArbor.com. Read past columns here.

I often refer to my weekly cake experiences as my "baking adventures." This week's adventure has less to do with what transpired in the kitchen and more to do with what happened outside the kitchen when I sat down to write this article.

I usually leave the house and plop myself down some place around town to write my weekly cake article. I tell my housemate that I have better focus when I leave the house to write. Truth is, we don't have air conditioning and on these hot, humid summer days I'm looking to borrow some AC for a couple of hours.

I left my house Sunday afternoon on foot in search of an air-conditioned work space. The public library fit the bill; they have AC, plenty of tables and they don't expect me to buy food or a beverage to use their Wi-Fi for an hour or two.

I found a cozy spot at a corner table on the third floor. I pulled my computer out of my bag and plugged into the wall outlet.

I'm checking my email when a library employee walks up to my table and tells me and others sitting nearby to go downstairs to the multipurpose room because a tornado warning has been issued and the library is closed until the warning is lifted.

I made my way to the basement of the public library. At the bottom of the stairs I could hear sounds. Music, maybe? Video games? Then a man on a microphone utters something about "joining the bowling tournament."

Turns out there is a Wii bowling tournament going on and the multipurpose room is swarming with children. Many of the library patrons who'd just come from upstairs were standing in the hallway leading to the packed multipurpose room. The library employees recovered a few chairs for the older folks but most of us just sat on the floor, our backs against the wood-paneled walls.

My computer rests atop a stack of three rather thick baking books I'd checked out minutes before the weather forced me to the ground floor of a public building. I'm thinking I'm a little hungry and that a cup of coffee sounds divine right about now. But I'm stuck in a basement. How come we always want what we can't have?

A warning message pops up on my computer screen: "low battery power." There's not an outlet in sight.

I know I'll be in this basement for at least an hour until the warning is lifted. Might as well make the most of my time and write about baking this week's Araby Spice Cake while I still have some battery power left.

This is what "All Cakes Considered" has to say about this cake's background:

"I don't know why it's called 'Araby' Spice Cake. I don't really know if 'Araby' is a derogatory word in these times ...The recipe is from Jane Marshall's home economics-teacher mother, Shirley Moser Marshall. Jane says they grew up on this cake, and that her mom probably got it by way of Betty Crocker."

The two elements in the cake that excited me most were chocolate and frosting. It's been a while since "All Cakes Considered" has blessed us with a frosted cake.

I mixed and baked the cake in the usual manner and poured the batter into my new purchase - a gently used Nordicware Bavaria Bundt. I won this pan in an eBay auction for a third of the price of my Nordicware Heritage Bundt.

I tasted the frosting as I mixed it and thought it was too sweet. I added a couple extra tablespoons of coffee; I like the taste of coffee and thought it enhanced the flavor of the cinnamon and the chocolate in the frosting.

I did not want to cover the cake's lovely design in frosting so I sliced the cake horizontally in two even layers. I frosted the bottom layer and topped it with the remaining cake layer.

It was scrumptious. The cake tasted of nutmeg and chocolate and was nicely complemented by the frosting. The recipe for Araby Spice Cake has been reproduced on the "cookie capers" blog. (This blogger lists "2 cups plain white flour" in the ingredients but the "All Cakes Considered" version of the recipe calls for "2 cups cake flour.")

I finished this post with minutes of battery power loss to spare. After the storm cleared, the library re-opened and I walked back to my house in the light rain. I'm thinking I'll write from home next week ...

Erin Mann is ruining diets one cake at a time and welcomes your baking wisdom. Email this baking bachelorette at SheGotTheBeat@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter.