2012 has been a big year.

The most exciting event of the year has been getting married!

Funnily enough, my husband and I hadn’t actually planned on getting married until 2013. But one day, in July, Troy decided he didn’t want to wait any longer, and while most couples spend months or even a year planning the wedding of their dreams ours was planned, booked and performed in just 6 weeks! And I wouldn’t change a thing. It was the most relaxing and wonderful day, something I didn’t anticipate having known my fair share of stressed brides.

The highlight for me though, apart from marrying my darling husband, was the surprise string quartet he organised to play during our ceremony. I’d said when we first got engaged I wanted a string quartet to play at our wedding and completely forgot about it in the lead up to our wedding, I guess that’s what planning a wedding in 6 weeks does to you, but clearly my husband did not. It was a beautiful romantic surprise and something I will always remember. It’s also proof that sometimes men do listen to what we want!

2012 also saw the launch of Food Bloggers Australia, which I co-founded with friend Amanda of Lambs’ Ears and Honey. If you are a food blogger and are looking for hints, tips and resources to support your food blogging habit, check out the Food Bloggers Australia website.

While many food bloggers find their food photography groove early in the life of their blog it took me some time to get to a point where I am happy with my photos, but in 2012 that finally happened! It even resulted in a nomination for The Kitchn’s 2012 Homies Awards in the food photography category. While there is still so much to learn when it comes to food photography, I feel like I finally found my style, and as a result, and with lots of encouragement from my husband I started my own food photography business – Delicieux Photography.

Other 2012 highlights:

• In August Delicieux was shortlisted for the Cosmopilitan UK Best Blogs Awards.
• I wrote, photographed and developed a couple of recipes for Cravings Magazine
• Our honeymoon in New York!!! I love that city!
• A long, amazing and special lunch at Eleven Madison Park in New York – look out for a post coming next year!

Throughout 2012 Delicieux has continued to grow, with December being a record month with 120,00 pageviews in December! And I’d like to thank each and every one of you! Thank you for reading, for sharing, for your comments and for your wonderful emails. I love hearing from you when you’ve tried a recipe, and I absolutely love seeing photos! Each and every email and comment I receive from you makes me happier than you could imagine. And thank you to one special and thoughtful reader who even took the time to send me a card.

 

So, lets recap the 12 most popular posts of 2012.

 

1. Apple Cider Cake

I have to admit I’m surprised that this cake is my most popular post of the year. But it seems classic cakes are eternally popular, much to my husbands satisfaction as he’s an old fashioned man at heart and loves classic food and classic cakes, such as this Apple Cider Cake.

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2. Salted Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Another apple creation, this time with my favourite ingredient, salted caramel! It’s impossible to eat these cupcakes in a delicate ladylike manner, but they sure do taste good!

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3.  Quinoa with Zucchini and Onions and 10 interesting facts about quinoa

I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to facts and trivia, and it seems I’m not alone because a lot of you have been googling facts about quinoa making this my 3rd most popular post of the year.

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4. Gluten Free Lemon Cake with Blueberry Frosting

This delicious gluten free cake was the 4th most popular post of the year.

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5. Strawberry Vodka

A simple recipe, with delicious results. Don’t buy that horrible chemically flavoured vodka when it’s so easy to make your own delicious strawberry vodka.

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6. Black Dahlia Cake

It’s seems I’m not alone in my love of total chocolate decadence, with this, my Black Dahlia, or Death by Chocolate Cake, being my 6th most popular post of the year.

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7. Fig Paste

This fig paste is a beautiful addition to any cheese board.

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8. Confetti Cheesecake Cupcakes

These cupcakes were yet another recipe inspired by my husband. He loves sprinkles, I mean seriously LOVES sprinkles. He also loves cupcakes and cheesecake, so I brought them all together in one delicious treat.

 

 

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9. Whole Wheat Bread

Since the beginning of 2012 I’ve been baking my own bread. In fact, since then I’ve not purchased a single loaf of bread. And why would you when making your own bread is this delicious and easy!

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10. Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes

Everyone loves cookies and cream, and well, combine cookies and cream with cheesecake and add some delicious chocolate cupcakes underneath and it’s a definite winner. It’s also the recipe I’ve received the most emails from readers about saying how much they enjoyed them. I love those emails!

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11. Mushroom Spaghetti

I’m sure you all know how much I love mushrooms based on all the mushroom recipes you’ll find on Delicieux, and this mushroom recipe is a favourite in our house. It’s quick, it’s easy and most importantly it’s delicious!

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12. Strawberry and Chocolate Chip Wreath Bread

It’s appropriate that this post is at number 12 because it’s the post that kicked off my 12 treats of Christmas series. This beautiful wreath looks impressive, and complicated, but really it’s not!

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Did you have a favourite post of 2012 that wasn’t in the list? What was it?