Happy new year again!  Sharing the previous year’s top 20 posts with you is a tradition and great excuse to look at cakes and other treats then plan some of the coming year’s bakes.  Sadly last year I created a long to-bake list but posted less than half the recipes on the blog after going off-piste on a sourdough adventure and finding other new cakes and cookies to make.  Oops.  So this year I’m going to… well more about that later!

First let’s check out the most-visited recipes in 2018.  The top nine are in the main photo above with neutral mirror glaze as a clear winner in the top left corner – coil round to the right to finish with the flan parisien at number 9.  In the photo below the inverted puff pastry leads the runner-ups (numbers 10-18).

Numbers 19 and 20 are the French fruit jellies and macaron shells.  Yum.

Many of my little babies (sorry, posts) were also in the top 20 last year but the newbies are the caramel mousse, chocolate shapes, flan parisien, Feuille d’Automne, Kanelsnurrer, Earl Grey cookies, puff pastry shell and fruit jellies.  All the links are at the bottom of this post.  And here are the stats…

Statistics (yeeha?)

Viewers mostly find these recipes via google searches (including ‘images’) or to a lesser extent pinterest then facebook and instagram or twitter.  I spend more energy on baking than ‘growing’ the blog but am always so happy when people read the posts, like and comment or follow the recipes – yay!

Trends

Basics posts like ‘How to shape a puff pastry shell’ (most popular video) are often as popular or more than ‘cake posts’.  This suggests a trend where homebakers worldwide are searching online to learn or brush up on pâtisserie skills and create their own amazing bakes or reproduce those inspired by baking competitions like the GBBO.  Nice.

Sourdough’s really starting to trend worldwide as bakers go back to natural yeast and a slower healthier proofing process.  My sourdough lemon and orange cake has been getting more and more views.

If you’re interested there are a growing number of beginner sourdough courses around.  There’s a lot of sourdough stuff you can make.  That’s my plan…

… which includes other yummy stuff.

To-bake list

To avoid last year’s failure to make everything (see aborted missions here) the list is short and will not include the darned elusive scary croquembouche but you never know … !  Meanwhile here’s the ‘to-post in 2019’ draft list (ticks and links will appear as they’re done).  They’ll all be gluten-free or lower-gluten and lower-sugar whenever possible.

1. Gingerbread village cake √
2. Vegan macadamia cookies √
3. Cannelés
4. Bungeoppang (aka Taiyaki) fish-shaped snacks
5. Double tree Hilton cookies √
6. Vegan raspberry coconut layer cake
7. Black olive jellies
8. Gâteau Basque √
9. Brioches Polonaises √
10. Figgy pudding (nearer Christmas time)
11. Sourdough bread pudding √
12. More sourdough bakes plus some stuff from last year’s list!

Will do my best.  Numbers 1 to 4 and 10 have been successfully made and eaten (yum) and the photos are below.

New year’s resolution:  write up the recipes! 🙂

Challenges

It’s really nice belonging to the blogging and social media community generally with the mutual support, comments and inspiration.  And the Spanish cooking the chef group is very friendly and motivating.  We’re challenged to follow or adapt recipes from great chefs selected monthly.  In 2018 my favourite contributions were the Santa hats (here) and after years of failure the non-collapsing Gingerbread house (here). Yay!

Last year also saw experiments with Christina Tosi’s relatively no-fuss method to put together delish healthier Momofoku layer cakes (here and here) or truffles.

Looking forward to more challenges this year.  Who knows what’ll happen that’s not on the list!  Will maybe make more with the newly-discovered Ruby chocolate – naturally pink, tangy and fruity!  Want to try some?  Here are the mendiants…

Hope you’ve enjoyed the 2018 roundup and maybe found some inspiration.  I’ll leave you with a slice of last year’s Instagram favourite – the flan parisien.  Yummy!

Bye again dear readers – followers, wordpress people and other visitors!  Thanks for dropping by and reading this far.  Looking forward to seeing or visiting you more in 2019 so we can look at cakes or bake a few things together.  Wishing you a wonderful year of experiments and as always happy baking, cooking and eating! 🙂  Lili x

P.S.  The 2018 top 20 links:

1. Neutral mirror glaze (nappage neutre)
2. Easy fresh raspberry jelly layer/insert for tarts and mousse cakes
3. Dreams of Florence caramel and raspberry dome cakes
4. Savoury goats cheese macarons with fig, walnut and black sesame
5. Creamy caramel mousse for entremets
6. Caramel mirror glaze
7. Gâteau Moka
8. Making thin decorative shapes with tempered chocolate
9. Creamy flan parisien (French custard tart)
10. Inverted or inverse puff pastry
11. French meringue discs and nests
12. La Feuille d’Automne – Lenôtre’s classic dark chocolate mousse and meringue cake
13. Chinese baozi (steamed bun) dough recipe
14. Kanelsnurrer, Scandinavian cinnamon and cardamom twist buns
15. Lining a French tart ring with pastry and blind baking
16. Earl Grey melting moments biscuits (cookies)
17. Shaping and baking a puff pastry tart shell (with video)
18. Traditional Black Forest gâteau recipe with pastry layer
19. Pâtes de fruits, French fruit jellies
20. Italian meringue macaron shells