Join an Online Baking Event & Blog
Tuesdays With Dorie, Cupcake Hero & The Daring Bakers Event & Clubs
The blogosphere is ripe for food blogs with delicious photos and awesome recipes. Joining an online baking event offers bakers new friends, challenge, exposure and fun!
Baking & Cooking Blogs have exploded lately You've probably stumbled across some of them already. If there's a StumbleUpon button on your toolbar, you can literally channel surf the web for hours in total amazement!
Food Blogs
Most food blogs are very professional with mouthwatering recipes and gorgeous photos. Some blogs are the small homespun variety, dabbling in cookies for kids and Rice Krispie squares. Falling somewhere in between are thousands of food blogs, flooding your computer screen with luscious and tempting treats. More blogs are being added daily as obsessed foodies try their hand at fusing gourmet food with stunning photography. The phrase "Food Porn" has been used loosely to describe this growing phenomenon.
Extreme Baking Events
Blogs that specialize in baked goods are on fire lately! It's a great way to network with other like-minded bakers, make new friends, discover unique recipes and get your own blog noticed. Baking blogs run by accomplished pastry chefs may flaunt savvy recipes, but are too far fetched for most home bakers. Likewise, M & M Cookies may be too childish and lack the challenge some bakers are craving. Here are a few Online Baking Events and clubs that have sparked some serious interest with bakers of all abilities. Each enterprising club caters to a specific baking niche and most are accepting new members. Give them a holler and join one today!
Tuesdays With Dorie started out as a Christmas gift in 2006. The founding member, Laurie of "quirky cupcake", received the cookbook "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan one holiday. She made a resolution to bake something delicious from her new book every week. It's no fun baking alone, so she asked a couple of friends to follow along with their own cookbooks. In just under three months, it has blossomed into a group of 115 bakers from all around the globe. Read the book review "Baking: From My Home To Yours".
Members take turns choosing a weekly recipe. The rotation is determined by membership date. Every Tuesday, members post the recipe with their pictures and comments to their personal blogs. So no one ever feels alone, there's plenty of support and encouragement from fellow bakers. Recent recipes have included Brioche Raisin Snails, Caramel-Topped Flan and Gooey Chocolate Cakes. Dorie Greenspan recently gave Tuesdays With Dorie a BIG thumbs up on her own blog, In The Kitchen and On The Road With Dorie.
Cupcakes, Cupcakes and More Cupcakes!
Once sterotyped as typical birthday party treats for children, these luscious little cakes have earned the respect of amatuers and pastry chefs alike. Scores of new cookbooks dedicated to cupcakes have emerged on the scene as cupcake lovers demand more decorating ideas and recipes. Blogs specializing in cupcakes have been popping up all over the web.
Cupcake Hero is rapidly gaining momentum as Cupcake Aficionados from all over have put cupcakes back on the gourmet menu. "The Cupcake Crew" consists of 103 members, with approximately 40-50 participating entries each month. Their first Cupcake challenge debuted in September, 2007 with Lime as the Theme Ingredient.
Each month a new theme ingredient is chosen, such as Marshmallow, Liquor, Coffee or Mint. All members must use this ingredient in the cake, frosting or filling. Once a month, cupcake artists post their entries to their own blogs. A winner is chosen from a panel of judges and the highly-coveted "Super cool Cupcake Hero T-Shirt" is awarded. Lots of support and some good-natured ribbing between members gets posted back and forth making for a fun experience!
The Daring Bakers has members from all over the world. This amazing group started out as a challenge in November of 2006 when Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, decided to bake homemade pretzels. Neither had made them before, but they wanted encouragement from each other. The following month they chose another recipe and more baking bloggers joined them. At that point, both Lis and Ivonne knew their group had grown beyond their own little world and desparately needed a name. The Daring Bakers was chosen and the rest is history! At present, their numbers are around 850 and growing exponentially as word gets out!
Related Articles:
- An Interview with Lucinda & Heather Wallace "101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes"
- A Cookbook Review of "101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes"
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