Sunday, January 1, 2017

2016: Year in Review and Top 10 Posts

Well, it's been quite a year for me - how about you?

2016 had some major highlights - I got married in June, went on honeymoon to the Galapagos Islands and I gained a niece - my sister had a baby in November. On a sadder note we lost my grandfather this year.

From a blogging perspective, I really enjoyed sharing the details of my wedding with my readers - you can see photos from the day here.

Larmer Tree wedding
 
My sister and I made my wedding cake between us (we didn't know she was pregnant when she offered to do it originally!) and I loved the way it turned out.
 
cow print wedding cake
Mrs Cowe and her cow cake
This mascarpone orange streusel slice from the movie Burnt was probably the most complicated thing I made all year; I won't be doing that again in a hurry!
 
 
I was very proud of these Halloween pumpkins I carved in October:
 
 
I was even more proud that I managed to do sugar-free September!
 
So are you curious to see what my top ten most popular posts were in 2016? I certainly was, so looked back through the stats and these are the ones that had the most hits. Check them out if you didn't see them - and let me know if you had any particular favourites on my blog in 2016!
 
In reverse order:
 
10: Slimming World Cauliflower Rosti Pie. View the post.
I've found that recipes labelled with Slimming World do quite well, even though I am not actually counting Syns or following Slimming World any more.
 

 
9: Eton Mess Cupcakes. View the post.
I made these for a summer barbecue and they were very popular.
 
 
8: Mary Berry's Lemon Drizzle Traybake. View the post.
Mary Berry is always popular these days thanks to the Great British Bake Off, and if memory serves I made these right before the episode of GBBO where the contestants were asked to make a drizzle cake, which I think led to people searching for this recipe.
 
 
7: Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes. View the post.
These mimic the flavour of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and contain a whole Ferrero Rocher baked inside the cupcake!
 
 
6: A review of Provena Gluten-Free products and a giveaway. View the post.
The popularity of this post surprises me a bit but it was retweeted by Provena and everyone likes a giveaway!
 
 
5: Chocolate Easter Cupcakes. View the post.
These were very simple but tasted great and decorated with Mini Eggs which are always popular.
 
 
4: Floating Anti-Gravity Mini Egg White Chocolate and Lemon Cake. View the post.
I used Lakeland's anti-gravity cake kit to make this cake, which was amazing. The cake itself was delicious too.
 
3: Slimming World Creamy Coriander and Minted Chicken. View the post.
As I said before, Slimming World posts are popular. This is a great dinner recipe that's really easy to make.
 
2: The Alphabakes Challenge, April 2016. View the post.
Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker and I ran the Alphabakes challenge for over 4 years, and are currently taking a break. This was one of the final times we ran the challenge and the letter this time was T. It didn't attract that many entries but a lot of people have obviously visited the post and looked at the recipes!
 
And at number one, the most popular post on Caroline Makes in 2016 was....
 
1: my amazing Jaffa cake cupcakes. View the post.
These cupcakes taste just like eating a Jaffa cake - they have a real Jaffa cake at the bottom, then a sponge cake the texture of a Jaffa cake base, an orange marmalade filling, chocolate frosting and a mini Jaffa cake on top. They were so good!
 
 
 
So that in a nutshell was the year for Caroline Makes - I hope 2017 is another good one!

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