Most popular recipes of 2016

Happy new Year!


The blog has been going for 15 months now and I'm pleased with how far it has come. I can't devote my full-time attention to it and I haven't monetized it, so I am pretty happy with what I have managed to do in the last 12 months.

If I am not monetizing it, why am I doing it you might be wondering? Well, it was originally born from wanting to get back into cooking and expanding my recipe repetoire and it still serves that purpose for me. There also does seem to be a market for easy-to-follow recipes and my page visitors are increasing, so, if people are interested in reading, then it's worth carrying on. That's not to say that I have ruled out monetizing it at some point...

As 2016 is over, I thought I would do a round up of how things have gone for The Improving Cook Blog- social media followers, popular recipes etc.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to make Viennese Whirls

Image
If you watched the Great British Bake Off last week, you'll have seen the group of bakers tackling Viennese Whirls with mixed results. I watched them myself, thinking that it looked pretty difficult. Actually, they are fairly easy if you tackle them with confidence! In today's post, I am going to show you how I got on with making Viennese Whirls using a slightly adapted recipe from The Hairy Bikers and give you some top tips for trying it yourself. So, if you are wondering how to make Viennese Whirls and want to have a go, keep reading! Viennese Whirls are an entirely British creation that get their name from being inspired by Austrian pastries. They are biscuits, very similar to shortbread but with a much lighter texture. What makes them distinctive is the fact that they are piped biscuits in a swirl pattern, which are then filled with buttercream and jam. Usually the jam is strawberry, but you can use whatever your favourite is. I made half with strawberry and half with blac
Read more

Ultimate Mince Pies

Image
The Ultimate Mince Pies- mince pies in shortcrust pastry, topped with frangipane and lemon icing. The ultimate Christmas treat. Most people fall into one of two categories when it comes to mince pies. You're either beside yourself with excitement when you see the first packet in the shops and you have to buy some straight away, or you can easily wait until Christmas day and you wouldn't be that bothered if you didn't end up having one that year. If you're in the first camp, then it's that special time of year- Mince pies are everywhere you look! There seem to be a dizzying array of options on the mince pie front these days: standard mince pies, puff pastry mince pies, luxury mince pies, iced mince pies, mini mince pies and so on.You could probably buy a different type every week from now until Christmas! Shop-bought mince pies are really good, but home-made ones always taste that little bit better. If you want the easy version, try making my Cheat's Mince Pies T
Read more

Traditional Jam and Coconut Sponge

Image
Traditional Jam and Coconut Sponge- the classic jam sponge topped off with desiccated coconut. Jump to Recipe If you ask people what they remember about school dinners from their childhood, the traditional jam and coconut sponge is usually one of the first things that they say. Great big pieces, usually served with custard and often one of the few things that people liked too! I love a traditional jam and coconut sponge. It's a really simple sponge cake, but with really soft buttery sponge, fruity strawberry jam and desiccated coconut. It's so perfect for afternoon tea, the kind of cake that you can have ready in a tin to whip out for guests. It will last 3-4 days (if you can hold out that long!) I tend to make it as a loafcake, so that it's easy to cut slices, but if you are thinking of having it as dessert with hot custard, then it's better to make it as a traybake. That way you will get more surface area for jam and you can cut the cake in the more traditional cube
Read more