One year ago today easybaked was born. I don’t have a recipe to share with you today, but I wanted to sum up the year and thank those of you who have encouraged me and taught me SO much about blogging.
One year ago, I decided to try this and I was LOST- what is a widget? What is HTML? Why would I want to link something? How do I add a picture? I had a few recipes and pictures ready, so I chose a header from these and this is how it looked:
My 1st post was for my chocolate chip cookies- a recipe I was anxious to get online so I could stop fielding requests for it! I honestly thought that the only people that would read this blog would be friends and family. I figured it would be a perfect place to keep a recipe book of sorts that I could send friends to when they asked for a recipe.
My mentor at the beginning was a friend from the Real Women of Philadelphia site (kind of like a facebook for people who love food and cream cheese). Her name is Rebecka Evans (and if you click on her name it will take you to her blog). She taught me the basics (like what is the difference between blogger and wordpress?) She, along with a whole group of bloggers from RWOP introduced me to “link parties”. I linked up many of my 1st recipes and met some of my 1st friends in the blogging world.
One day, I came across a link in the sidebar of a friends blog that said “Foodgawker” and when I clicked on it I was taken to the most amazing site filled with beautiful food photography. I decided to submit my best photos and was soundly rejected for a variety of reasons (lighting, composition, exposure etc….) I was really ticked off that my photography was not good enough for this site, so I set out to get at least one photo accepted on Foodgawker. I’m a very competitive person and I had over 60 rejections before I finally had one picture accepted:
Nutter Butter Flip Flop cookies. I was visiting friends and used their camera to take this picture. I realized a couple of things….I needed a better camera and I needed to read up on light and exposure.
I borrowed a great camera from my sister-in-law and started reading books and asking questions. My friend Brie is a photographer so she answered lots of things for me. I took almost every picture that followed this one outside. It was summer and I would obsess about getting that perfect light– the sunny yet hazy feel that would provide enough light without giving a glare. My neighbors were entertained by my running around the backyard with cupcakes and a camera trying to find that perfect light. (They already thought I was crazy…this just confirmed it). My photos were about 30% right—and about 70% waaaay wrong with this method.
I realized that I needed to figure out a way to standardize my lighting. My dad (bless him!) got me some halogen lamps from Big Lots (you know – the kind you use in the garage) and I made a DIY light box with a huge cardboard box and vellum paper. My 1st photos in the light box were of my grandmas gingerbread cookies. She had just passed away and making the cookies was my way of remembering her. The box and lights worked beautifully, and the rest is history.
I’ve still so much to learn about photography. I’ve had 100 photos rejected and 29 accepted on Foodgawker….not a very good percentage, but it makes me smile because I’ve come so far.
Along the way I began training in graphic design and my friend and mentor Sarah helped me design a new header and logo and the old (embarrassingly fuzzy and underexposed cookies) header was history!
Another friend and mentor came along in October. Her name is Kit Bennett and she has a site called Kids Parties 123. She is also the editor in charge of the parents site on the Webkinz website, and she asked if I would contribute recipes periodically for that site. In return she has answered SO many questions for me about the blogging world and given me so many pointers about getting my recipes out there on the search engines for people to find.
Many thanks to each of you who have encouraged and taught me along the way this year. I am just astonished by how many of you are following this little blog and how many of you visit each day. When I get messages from you about how much you loved a recipe or how it made your birthday/ anniversary/ party so much happier- well, it just makes my whole day. That’s why I continue to share recipes here.
So a few stats.
My 1st month had 126 visits. This month I’ve had 117, 500 so far.
We have 691 of you following (what?!?- I don’t even know 691 people!)
My busiest day was Feb. 23 when I had 23, 879 views. That was CRAZY. I had friends over and we just sat around my stats page hitting refresh to see how many hundreds I’d get in a minute. I know that sounds really lame to those of you with huge blogs– but for us it was AMAZING. I felt like I’d better go back and proofread all of my recipes so I wouldn’t have 23,000 people mad at me for a typo. lol!
My most viewed recipe: Strawberry Lemonade layer cake— 103,754 views (insane!)
My favorite recipe posted this year (people always ask me what my favorite is—hard question!) I have to go with Raspberry Truffle Tart. Its so rich and creamy…and I love raspberry with chocolate.
So, with all of that said, many thanks to each of you who are following this blog and adding these recipes to your lives. Thank you for your comments and kind words of encouragement. Here’s to another year of creating recipes together (and then taking a picture of what we’ve created)!!!!
Enjoy! -r
EASYBAKED 
Congrats on your one year anniversary! I live in Trinidad which is in the Caribbean but my sister who lives in Portland, recommended that I check out easybaked. I think one of her friends told her about the site. I run a home based catering biz and love to get the latest recipes from you. I am now hooked. My 11 year old daughter is looking forward to Easter break to try some of your recipes with me. Keep those recipes coming…you are definitely onto a good thing!
Thanks so much Giselle! Trinidad sounds perfectly wonderful- I’m so glad you commented– what an honor to have a caterer as a fan of my site! Enjoy your baking time with your daughter!!! Nice to meet you!
Wow, those are some impressive stats. But I’m not surprised. You have a great blog. Congrats on a year.
Thanks Greg/Katherine!!! 🙂 You guys have been commenting and encouraging from the very beginning- thank you! And I’m not sure what constitutes “a lot” in blog stats…I have a feeling that I am still a tiny little fish in a big big pond–but its fun isn’t it?
Congratulations!!!!
Good on you for the willingness to learn and work hard!
Thanks for the kudos 🙂
You deserve the kudos Kit– thanks for all your advice! 🙂
I’m so happy to have found a link to your recipes and your blog! You have some truly amazing looking/sounding creations and I can’t wait to try them all.
Congratulations on your first year! It’s fun to be able to look back and actually see tangible evidence of growth and you’ve certainly got that from this past year.
Your photography is beautiful! Your recipes always look scrumptious and even the banner with the measuring cups is so visually pleasing. Your colors are bright and cheery and the picture makes me want to head for the kitchen!
Great job! I look forward to following your blog. Keep up the great work!!
I’m so happy you found us too!! Your comments really made my day– thank you so much—and nice to meet you!!
Congrats! I love your blog. 🙂
Thanks Carrie!!!!
Congrats Ruthanne! You’re blog is awesome & has given me so much inspiration with baking 🙂 Love it! ♥
Amber- you’re sweet- and your desserts are more amazing than mine will ever be (those red velvet cupcakes…..YUM!)
Congrats! Your blog is beautiful. It has inspired me as I have worked on my own baking blog these last few months. I only hope to achieve some of what you have in the blogosphere my first year 🙂
You have done so much more with your blog than I did in my 1st few months (I see you figured out the fun drop-down recipe box!) It is beautiful and I love your recipes– excited to see what this year brings for you 🙂
Congratulations. I just recently found your blog and have so enjoyed it thus far. Looking forward to many more years and great recipes from your page.
Thanks Deb! I’m so glad to meet you!
Congrats. Love your recipes. Keep it up, can’t wait for more!!
Thank you!!!!
Congratulations on your one year anniversary and all your success!
Thanks so much!!!!
Congrats! You are doing great and your photography is awesome.
Every time I visit your page I don’t know what I like best…your recepies or the mouth watering pictures 😉
My scale tells me to cut down on the calories but your recepies make it very very very hard lol.
From The Netherlands: “Keep on baking!”
wow—- the Netherlands! Always wanted to visit. Thank you!!!! I just went off my diet tonight for a piece of cheesecake, so I understand the scale dilemma!
Congratulations! I smiled when I read this.. I always wondered what people must think when I ran around the yard photographing my food!!
lol—they think you are crazy! When I tried to explain that I have a food blog they smiled all confused-like and said “oh thats nice”. I kind of like having at least a few people thinking I’m nuts!
This post is so inspiring! I just started blogging a few months ago and feel like it’s never going to go anywhere. But your post gives me hope! And your recipes are adorable! I’m planning on baking and reblogging your spring lemon cookies later this week 🙂
Thanks Whitney–it seems like a long process- I never even expected it to go anywhere, thats the strange part for me. I couldn’t get to your blog- I’d love to check it out, what is your address?
Thanks! My blog is http://www.thenaptimenook.com
Oh I LOVE it! Fun colors– I love the pink and blue together–and you certainly do a lot of posts. Everything I’ve read about successful blogs say you should post often. Lots of fun topics too! I think you are on your way up– I’m going to share about your site with some of my mom friends- they will love all of your ideas!