Blog Review 2021

Like every year I like to do a review of my blog. The below eight questions are perfect to answer every year anew.

#1 Which one was your most successful blog post in 2021?

The best brownie cookies

The most popular recipe on my blog has been these chocolatey brownie cookies for three years in a row now, especially during the season. However, I would like to highlight this banana chocolate cake, I made for myself, not thinking about my readers or whether it was in any way publishable. Interestingly enough, it has become very popular and is currently third in place. It makes me very happy. I do believe that you sometimes need to simply bake something YOU would enjoy and not care about target groups or any demands or trends. As a chocoholic I am so happy that you have baked this cake countless times.

I made this banana chocolate cake as an egoistic birthday gift for myself. I didn’t expect it to become so popular

#2 Which three blog posts from this year meant the most to you?

Number 1 is without the shadow of a doubt coffee date number 9. In this blog post I reveal to you the diagnosis of a chronic sickness I was faced with in 2021. I don’t think I have ever received as many messages from you guys. It clearly shows that people are interested in more than only recipes and that’s why I don’t mind sharing some more private information about me. We are all curious and would like to know who this person is blogging.

Number 2 are these four posts (no. 1, no. 2, no. 3, and no. 4) about the first wedding cake I had the privilege of baking. I made it in another country (Spain) with Spanish ingredients and a slightly weird oven. I am so happy it turned out great and the wedding couple was super excited, yay.

My first wedding cake I made in Spain. Picture taken by Hueto Fotógrafos

Number 3 are these Colombian tamales. These are meat, veggies and corn mash steamed in banana leaves. They do require a lot of work (a lot!), so usually Colombians will do it as an entire family. If you wonder what will make a Colombian happy, it is tamales.

#3 Which three bloggers inspired you the most?

Julia from the German blog Julia bakes and her cake store Konditorei Anton & Ella has become a professional chef in Munich and creates stunning wedding cakes. She had a bike accident about five years ago and needed to be in ER for a while. She wrote a whole article about her experience. You can find it here (in German). Julia inspires me because I also had a bike accident a few months after her. I am still so grateful that I didn’t have any permanent damage from it. If you are interested in learning more about my bike accident, check this blog post. Julia changed her life radically after the accident, she started a baking career. It helps me putting things into perspective when I read her story.

Tessa Huff is another person I find inspiring, she is the blogger of the American blog Style sweet. Every word she writes, every picture she takes shows how much she enjoys baking. For Christmas I followed her recipe for a yule log, see the picture below. You can find the recipe and tons of videos with detailed instructions here. Of course I already have a tiramisu roll on my blog, so I had to change the recipe a bit, but I guess that is normal, right?

The third person I would like to mention is the Brit Kat, she is the owner of the blog The Loopy Whisk. Since she is a chemnist and only has gluten-free (and often vegan) recipes on her blog, she is good at explaining how to substitute and also to describe the chemical reactions. Because of her I made this chocolate chip cookie cake.

#4 Which recipe you published in 2021 have you baked the most and why?

I don’t think I have ever baked as many pies as I did this year. I made many apple pies. Reason for this being that pies are something I find super easy to make. I always make the pie crust in the morning, it comes together in a few minutes and chill it throughout the day. In the evening, after work, I will then make the filling and bake the pie. You may not believe it, but it is close to impossible to find a proper pie dish in Germany. We do have tart forms, but they are not as deep and ofter larger in diameter. I finally got round to getting one in 2021 and needed to try it. I had to order it online, of course.

#5 Which baking or blogging problem did you encounter in 2021 and did you manage to solve it?

Since I didn’t go to the office much in 2021 either, I had to find people to eat all these decadent desserts and cakes I make. It is just my husband and me. So I started passing out cake to the people at checkout at the local grocery store, to neighbors, and the mailman. They all seemed super happy.

#6 What was your biggest discovery this year, which recipe, technique, food stuff, flavor, etc. opened a completely new world to you?

I am still trying to tackle vegan baking. In my opinion vegan cakes should look stunning and taste even better. I am not entirely sure yet if I really want to deep-dive into it in 2022, maybe there will be more vegan cakes on the blig in the future. I also reshoot the photos of this vegan mango chocolate cake. In my opinion it is a super delicious and fresh cake.

Vegan mango chocolate cake

#7 What was the best or funniest search term that somebody used to find your blog?

Sorry to disappoint, this year there were no surprises. I was surprised that “arepa recipe” was a search term used many times throughout. This lead then to my basic recipe for making arepas, these are corn flatbread from Colombia or Venezuela.

#8 What do you wish for your blog in 2022?

I hope that readers are willing to share their problems so that we can tackle them together.  Especially if you leave a low star review without any further comment, it is difficult to know what went wrong or why you didn’t like it that much. Please believe me when I say that I am really happy to help and will do my best to support you. Sometimes I have the feeling that readers are surprised. For me having a baking blog means being closer to you than say a famous baking magazine. I can answer your questions and exchange ideas. Please feel free to either email me at info at jennyisbaking dot com, contact me Instagram or Facebook, or leave a comment below the recipe you made.