Nobody is more surprised than me that my tiny spot on the internet has managed to garner any attention at all not to mention hitting one million hits!
When I started blogging in the summer of 2011, I wasn't really expecting it to become anything other than a personal online recipe box or a legacy for my children to look back on and make the recipes that I had cooked for them in their childhood.
As it turned out it had a practical aspect to it also, I wanted it to be a place where family and friends could find the recipe for those cookies or that cake that I made or brought over on a visit.
When I first started out, it was a very basic effort, I took all the photographs on my Nokia E63 -iPhone it ain't!!- I also typed out the recipes on my trusty Nokia and emailed them to the blog, some days later I would finally upload the photographs, position them in the right order, write a little note about how I came across the recipe and hit Publish!
There was no DSLR, Prime lenses, Flashguns, or 5in1 Reflectors and I certainly knew nothing about Foodgawker and Tastespotting! I just kept adding recipes and slowly but surely, the Hits kept adding up, more and more people took notice when I added a recipe.
The first post that really caught fire and became very popular was my daughter's birthday cake in 2013
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| My first "Viral" post, my daughter's Cinderella Doll Birthday Cake Tutorial |
My daughter and I spend many weeks looking for that perfect birthday cake, one that she liked and one that I think I could make, this was the first of many Disney Doll Cakes, when I came to finding a step by step tutorial, I couldn't find one, so I wrote my own with photographs - shot using a Canon Powershot SX150 IS, I was moving up in the world! - somehow or other it caught people's attention, it was repinned thousands of times and suddenly it was clocking up tens of thousands of hits.
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| My daughters birthday cake in 2014 Merida Doll Cake and my first full DSLR post. |
The next year it was followed by another Disney Princess, Merida Doll Cake, she was a huge hit with my daughter if not a commercial hit and for me it was my first full post shot on my new DSLR, that I was still getting the hang of.
I had in the meantime joined my local Camera Club, was learning all the time, how to light my subject, moving steadily from using AUTO and slowly venturing into the world of Aperture Priority (AV). I was able to create scenes by changing the background and manipulate the light to create an ambiance all of this was done mostly in my kitchen, while my family patiently waited for dinner to finally make it to the table! Cold dinners is something every food blogger knows.
So here I am five years later and extremely grateful to everyone who has ever visited this little spot of mine, if this is your first visit, then you're very welcome and I hope you like what you see.
I had in the meantime joined my local Camera Club, was learning all the time, how to light my subject, moving steadily from using AUTO and slowly venturing into the world of Aperture Priority (AV). I was able to create scenes by changing the background and manipulate the light to create an ambiance all of this was done mostly in my kitchen, while my family patiently waited for dinner to finally make it to the table! Cold dinners is something every food blogger knows.
So here I am five years later and extremely grateful to everyone who has ever visited this little spot of mine, if this is your first visit, then you're very welcome and I hope you like what you see.
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| The first post to really take off on Foodgawker my How to make Bagels at Home |
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| A huge favourite this time of the year is my Parents Homemade Blackcurrant Jam Recipe |
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| The most popular post of all time is Mary Berry's Biscuit Base Lemon Meringue Pie, no pastry , no problem! |