One Year

Today marks one full year since the Heartland Lady blog went live on the interwebs. :)

Let's take a look at how it's doing...

The year in numbers

• 572 total visitors to the website

• 23 countries represented by site visitors

• 1771 Instagram followers

• 125 blog posts

• 71 different baked goods produced in the HL kitchen, including cakes, pastries, breads, cookies, and more. I guess this means that, on average, I'm baking something every 5 days. Sounds about right. ;)

Top blog posts

• Porch Ponderings

• An Easter Feast

• Making Waves without a Curling Iron

• Style Study

New website features

• Music page

Listen to my piano music on the embedded SoundCloud player, and see YouTube videos of my performances.

• The Sunday Best series

A weekly post of church outfit inspiration. Because it's always fun to dress up a bit. :) See the very first "Sunday Best" here.

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And since it's the blog's birthday, I thought it would be fitting to share a roundup of birthday cakes. Here are a few favorites out of those 71 bakes!

Burgundy Velvet Chocolate Beet Cake

To make this cake, I used only beet juice to color the batter, so it didn't achieve the bold hue of a traditional Red Velvet. But it also didn't require a full bottle of artificial food color (an ingredient I find disturbing in large quantities) Though a bit more reserved in color, this cake turned out wonderfully moist and flavorful, frosted with my best from-scratch buttercreams. Recipe is actually a cupcake recipe from Betty Crocker. Simply swap out the water for beet juice to make a "burgundy" cake!

Blueberry Zucchini Cake

The summer cake, no contest. A moist, berry-filled cake, frosted with a zippy lemon buttercream. A few sprigs of mint really set it apart.

Poppy Seed Bundt Cake

An old-fashioned coffee cake with a hint of almond flavor, dressed up with an artful peach rose.

Over-the-Top Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Because I don't know when to stop sometimes, this is a rich, two-layer pineapple cake, with a brandied coconut filling. I think Mary Berry would approve. ;)

Thank you for reading and supporting the HL blog for its first year! It means so much! Hugs to you all. <3

'Til next time,

Eva