A tiramisu cake to celebrate
...and how to maintain a long-term relationship with your blog.
I’ve been posting on this blog for 12 years. When I started, I was 27, I had a full-time job in communication and events, I was single, and I lived with my parents and my sister. I was a dreamer, a fervent optimistic, a weekend baker, and an improvised home cook. On February 1st, 2009, I decided to start a food blog because I had the urge to be passionate about something, and I thought I could channel my curiosity for food through the pages of a blog.
Now I am almost 40. I have a husband, Tommaso, who’s also my best friend and business partner, a 5-month daughter, Livia, and two dogs, Noa and Teo. We live next door to my parents and grandma, in our small apartment with the best view over the hills. I’m still a dreamer, even though my intense optimism has been toned down by age and a no-nonsense approach to life. I’m still an occasional baker – hello high insulin -, but mostly a passionate home cook.
Over the years, we shared our content on Facebook (do you know we have a group, Cooking with Juls’ Kitchen?), on Instagram, through our podcast, Cooking with an Italian Accent, which is two years old today, and via email, with our Newsletter.
But the blog remains the place where we prefer to share recipes, stories, photos, and glimpses of our life.
Today, to celebrate this significant milestone in a time of fast-consuming content, I’ll be sharing what I think is important to maintain a long-term relationship with your blog. You won’t be surprised to discover that it is very similar to what keeps the sparkle alive in a relationship between two people, be it love or friendship.
Obviously, this is what worked for us.
What do you think about blogging? Do you still read them? Do you think blogs are still relevant? Do you have a secret to keep the blogging sparkle alive? As a reader, what is essential for you? What do you like to find in the blogs you read?
If you fancy a chat, I’ll see you today, 1 February, at 6.30 pm CET (12.30 pm EST - 9.30 am PST) on Instagram for a live chat about the world of blogging.
A cake to celebrate. Tiramisu cake
After such a long post, you know a recipe would come. And it is a celebratory cake, a tiramisu cake. Tiramisu is one of my favourite desserts ever: it is creamy, with the right flavour balance given by the dark coffee and the sweet mascarpone cream.
Now it becomes a tiramisu layered cake, where the bitter flavour of coffee meets a moist chocolate cake and a creamy mascarpone filling.
The chocolate cake recipe is a gift from my friend Emanuela, my favourite pastry chef in the world, and this is exactly the same cake she made for our wedding.
If you want to see more recipes with tiramisu, here on the blog there’s my classic tiramisu recipe, an Earl Grey tea tiramisu, and a beer tiramisu.
Join our virtual cooking classes
We are missing the people we used to meet during our market tours and cooking classes. We had to figure out a new way to share our passion for food, to virtually meet all the food enthusiasts who gave us so much through the years. This is why we launched a virtual Tuscan cooking class on Udemy, an online learning platform.
Tuscan Cooking Class
Traditional recipes, pantry staples and ideas to add to your cooking repertoire.
Learn to cook:
Chicken liver crostini, Fried sage leaves, Tagliatelle, Ricotta and spinach tortelli, Potato gnocchi, Tuna and tomato sauce, Roasted pork loin, Stuffed roasted turkey breast, Roasted lamb, Tuna stuffed round zucchini, Tuna loaf, Fresh peas with garlic and pancetta, Almond biscotti, Olive oil cake, Shortcrust pastry dough, Jam crostata, Shortcrust sandwich jam cookies, Shortcrust Tartlets, Robinia flower fritters.
Includes:
19 step-by-step cooking demonstrations
a PDF with ingredients, tools and instructions of each recipe
free access to upcoming new recipes
lifetime access
Cost: €34,99. Join us here.
[New!] Vegan Cooking Class
Join our course with traditional, authentic recipes, belonging to the Tuscan cooking tradition, that are, at the same time, naturally vegan. It also includes gluten-free options.
Learn to cook:
Chickpea flour cake, Hand-pulled fresh pasta pici with rye flour, Panzanella (tomato bread salad), Pappa al pomodoro (tomato bread soup), Ribollita (bean, Tuscan kale and bread soup), Grilled vegetables, Stewed green beans, Castagnaccio (chestnut flour cake).
Coming soon: Gluten-free potato gnocchi, Sugo finto (herb and tomato sauce), Aglione sauce (garlic tomato sauce)
Includes:
19 step-by-step cooking demonstrations
a PDF with ingredients, tools and instructions of each recipe
free access to upcoming new recipes
lifetime access
Cost: €29,99. Join us here.