Welcome to Brown Eyed Baker v2.0!

You may have noticed that things look a little different around here this morning. Welcome to the new digs!

After two years of not changing anything from a design or technical perspective, I felt that it was time for a complete overhaul here at Brown Eyed Baker. My goal for the redesign was to provide valuable content to you in a way that is easy to navigate. I hope that you like it and that you will feel at home here. Let me give you a quick tour…

Up Top ↑

• There is a new About page, so head on over and check it out, I’ve included some fun personal tidbits about myself!
• Revised recipe archives. There is a new Recipe Archives page (accessible from the sidebar as well) where you can browse recipes by category, by date, or click over to the Recipe Index for a full listing of every recipe that has appeared on Brown Eyed Baker.
• The My 100 list (aka the kitchen bucket list) is alive and well and in its same spot.
• You can now access the Tutorials section from the navigation bar. That section in particular will be expanded in the months to come!
• Remember that post on Baking FAQ I did a couple of weeks ago? Well, it has been expanded and has a permanent home up in the navigation bar. Refer to it when you’re having baking problems, and email me if you feel something should be added to it!
• The Blogroll is new to the site, as I didn’t have one before. I have created a list of the 20 most recent food blogs that I have made or saved a recipe from. It’s a current view of what I’m digging at the moment, and hopefully you’ll discover some new blogs to read!
• The Shop page links out to my Amazon store, which is a collection of all of the kitchen equipment, tools and cookbooks that I use. I’m often asked for recommendations and which particular tools I use; now you can essentially browse through my kitchen and bookshelves to see what I’m using! I will be adding my own wish lists as well so you can see what I’m eying up for future purchases.
• I think Press and Contact are pretty self-explanatory

To the Side →

• On the far right, you will see some different groups of popular recipes. The Most Popular Recipes are the five most popular recipes on the site, all-time. Below it are Recent Favorites, which are the popular recipes from the last few months. And finally, an “Oldie but Goodie” which will change each week, and feature the recipe that was most popular during the same week a year prior. So a nice sampling of some all-time, recent, and older favorites to get an idea of what other readers have enjoyed.
• I have done a good bit of cake and cookie decorating in the last couple of years, so I created galleries for each. If you’d like to get some ideas for cakes or cookies, or just browse through what I have done, check out the Cake Gallery and the Cookie Gallery.
• A new baking tip will be featured each week, so keep an eye out!
• There will be a new poll each week as well. Mostly for fun, but I may ask for input on upcoming topics, recipes, etc.
• A peek at the cookbook that is currently open on my kitchen counter.

Other Changes:

• Print and Email! One of the most resounding responses I received in the reader survey was that you wanted to be able to print just the recipe. Well, now you can! In addition, if you come across something you think a friend or family member would enjoy, you can email it to them right from the website.
• You’ll notice that all of the archive pages now have thumbnail photos and short excerpts, which I hope will help you navigate through them with more ease.
• To that note, there is now also pagination for every section of the blog, so instead of having to keep clicking “Next” you can browse through the pages by page number.
• Threaded comments is now enabled, which means that if someone has a question or leaves a comment that you want to respond directly to, you can simply hit “reply” on their comment and your response will show up right underneath theirs. This will be especially helpful when I am answering comments and questions about recipes!
• Posts now have tags as well as categories, which are all listed at the end of the post. Now when you need to use up that buttermilk, you can check for recipes that use it!

I think that about sums up the major changes. I hope you like the new space and that you’re as excited about it as I am!

Please note that the post thumbnails are still going in, so some of the excerpts may still be without one, but they will all be loaded within the next day or so. With an overhaul such as this, even though pages and links have been checked and double checked, there may still be a few oversights. If you encounter any errors or broken links please email me to let me know and I will get them fixed as soon as possible.

Again, welcome and enjoy the new site!

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