When my kids were small, I spent the month of October cranking out cakes, cupcakes and cookies for their birthdays—treats for school, family gatherings and parties with their friends. Meanwhile, I also conjured up Halloween costumes for trick-or-treating. It was a busy month.

One creation that was fun to make was my daughter’s castle cake when she was three years old. The recipe came from one of my very first cookbooks when I was a child — Betty Crocker’s New Boys’ and Girls’ Cookbook (Golden Press, 1965).

As the kids grew older, we moved on to a bakery-decorated spooky Halloween cake for my son’s birthday. My daughter’s friends decorated cookie dough-based chocolate chip “pizzas” for her birthday.

After my son and daughter became adults with children of their own, they both transitioned to another phase: October is now all about birthday pumpkin pies.

Birthday pies aren’t anything new in my family, but they were quite disappointing when I was a child. My mom always baked birthday cakes for us kids, but my dad preferred a homemade blueberry pie for his big day. I couldn’t understand why he would rather have a pie than cake for his birthday. It almost seemed un-American!

For my birthday more than a month later, my mom made a memorable fluffy white cake covered with pink-tinted whipped topping, which was filled with cherries. A more fitting birthday treat to my way of thinking!

But as I got older, I grew to appreciate the merits of pie—apple, peach, blueberry, chocolate pecan and lemon meringue—and I usually prefer it compared with cake. In fact, my husband prefers peach pie for his summer birthday.

Since my husband’s heart attack 20 years ago, however, we have cut back on our pie intake and slimmed down our treats a bit.

Fortunately, my children’s choice is fairly healthy. Pumpkin is loaded with vitamin A, carotene and fiber. The dessert is not exactly a “health food,” but I always make pies using an oil-based crust rather than butter- or shortening-based recipes, which helps reduce the saturated fat. In addition, I usually swap fat-free sweetened condensed milk for the whole condensed milk. It produces a light, custardy filling that always earns acclaim from our enthusiastic pie aficionados. What’s more, I can bake the filling in ramekins for the gluten-free members of our family.

Now that my kids are grown, the baking train has slowed down in October, but I look forward to baking those birthday pumpkin pies. It wouldn’t be fall without them.