What a year!
I technically started these bake offs in 2017 (with the epic chocolate chip cookie bake off, inspired by Skyler–the author of many of my beautiful Tableau visualizations–getting trapped in Houston by Hurricane Harvey), but I had no idea that I would have the energy (and you would have the enthusiasm) to keep these up to almost a once-a-month cadence in 2018.
In full transparency, I don’t make significant money from my blog. I make enough in ads to cover my hosting/web expenses, and partnerships with companies like Envy and Sunspire Chocolate help me cover the occasional grocery bill/ingredient run. But I’m still paying for most of my ingredients out of pocket and spending hours scraping the web, creating spreadsheets, spending entire days glued to the kitchen and hours crouching over crumpled pieces of paper and editing photos. Why? I don’t expect to make a career out of this. But the community of bringing together a lot of friends around a table, joy of a well-analyzed data set, satisfaction of seeing 9 (almost) perfectly baked cinnamon rolls lined up at once, and the thousands of supportive and enthusiastic comments and messages from all of you makes it worth it.
And since many of you have noted that it’s hard to find all of the bake offs in one place (for future reference, check the recipe index), here’s a blog post that will do just that.
Top 3, from left to right:
Second row:
Third row:
Fourth row:
And a bonus mini apple crisp bake off!
As always, suggestions for future bake offs are welcome! You can send them via email or via Instagram.
This next year, I’m thinking about introducing some vegan bake offs, as I was inspired to reduce my dairy consumption by this podcast episode (and reduce my seafood consumption, but that’s another topic). Maybe even some gluten-free bake offs for fun! We’ll see what 2019 holds, but in the meantime, thank you SO MUCH for following along and happy baking!
cynthia
Seriously, your bake-offs are the BEST thing about the internet. I get so freaking excited for every single one. And I echo everything everybody else has said!!!! THANK YOU YOU ARE INCREDIBLE.
erika
Ugh Cynthia you are too good to me <3333333
Shiksha
Thank you so much for all your efforts and amazing work in 2018. Can’t wait to read your vegan bake offs posts, would be so helpful, especially with the dearth and confusion around vegan recipes. Hope you can do some bake offs around egg free recipes as well.
erika
Hi Shiksha–so glad to hear that you’re excited for some vegan bake offs! I’m definitely excited about doing some egg free recipes, so keep an eye out! đ
JILL Q.
Thank you so much for doing this! I was determined to find a “best sugar cookie” since I have a little boy who loves to bake and I was determined to find a sugar cookie that wasn’t just a vehicle for his desire for frostings and sprinkles (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I have fallen in love with the combo of King Arthur’s Flour cookie + America’s Test Kitchen glaze. It has been a life saver!
erika
So happy to hear this!!!!! I’m so glad you found an ideal combo for your sugar cookie needs. Thanks for the sweet comment Jill!!
Kristina D
Thanks for all that you do. I really appreciate the comparison and break down. Keep up the great work. Happy Holidays to you!
erika
Thank you so much for reading Kristina!! I appreciate the kind words and happy holidays to you!!
Courtney
What you’ve done this year has been some of the BEST stuff I’ve seen you do yet! I’ve linked your Bake Offs to so many friends confused about what recipe to pick <3 Keep it up, bud!!! Can't wait to see all you do in 2019 đ
erika
Ahhh Courtney thank you SO much!!!! Ughhhhh you are too kind, crying!! But thanks for the encouragement–how could I stop now with feedback like yours?? <33333