Last weekend Jen over at Cake Wrecks was kind enough to refer her readers here for a summary of the theories that people threw out about the origins and significance of the smoking-lamb cake that she featured on her blog before Easter. I knew Cake Wrecks had a lot of readers, and for sure, we got more (and more varied) comments on that post than we usually get, so I knew that more folks than usual were reading as a result of her shout-out.
Still, I have to say I was astounded when I got on Site Meter to check our numbers for the week. On the Friday I posted that particular blog, we had 87 hits, which are great numbers for us. On the next day--after the Cake Wrecks link went live--we had 1,672 hits. The next day, it was 1,754. The average number hits per day was over 900. Meanwhile, a sad little note at the bottom of the Site Meter summary page reminds me that when we joined Site Meter a year ago, four months after we'd started our blog, we'd had a whopping total of "405 visitors before joining." That means we had twice as many visitors per day this week than we had for the entire first four months of blogging.
Now I get why blogging is seen as a real threat to the print-journalism industry. I honestly don't think I would've had that reality driven home quite so clearly without having been the grateful and humbled recipient of the "Cake Wrecks bump."
Still, I like our loyal readers best.
And because you all are so patient, please indulge me once again by allowing me to post a Cake Wreck of my own. I sent photos of this to Jen last fall. My wreck never made the big time, perhaps because it's a little too "local" of a wreck.
The backstory: Morgantown residents are oddly proud of the fact that, after contentious football games (win or lose), students enjoy setting couches alight in the street. Now, I've lived in several college towns, and this behavior is not, unfortunately, unique to Morgantown. However, Morgantown is the only place I've lived that actually embraces couch-burning as a revered tradition.
So revered, in fact, that the creative folks at the Kroger bakery decided to immortalize it in pastry. And thus we have the Burning-Couch Cake:
And yes, I did buy it just to take photos of it and send it to Cake Wrecks. And yes, I know that's pathetic.
8 comments:
It's amazing the power of a little blog hey? Everyone has a voice.
I missed the Cake Wrecks referral! I read it too, and didn't notice Romantoes mentioned. (Of course, I wander by here anyway, so it wouldn't have a made a difference...) It's always amazing to see a huge blip in your readership stats (although my record increase was only around 500 visitors, up from around 90 [of which I think 50 are comment spam bots]).
I wonder if bakeries are starting to make cakes ugly in the hopes that Cake Wrecks readers will buy them. That couch is silly.
I always wondered how you were monitoring your readership. I figured my pathetic tech un-savviness meant that everybody else knew something I didn't (which is basically true), but it's good to have the mystery solved.
That cake looks pretty awful, but I'll tell you what: your ramp festival photos on FB have me longing to cook (and devour) today!
That Kroger cake is pretty Wrecktastic--but if you will, please explain: are those blue and yellow frosting blobs supposed to represent burning couches? Or are they "WVs"?
It's a mystery to me.
Historiann, the blue blobs are supposed to be throw pillows (with, I guess, yellow tassels) on the "couch." The orange frosting is the "flames." There *is* a WV logo on the top of the cake, though, as you can see in the first photo.
My favorite touch is the candles, included so that you could really set it alight.
And Christy, I really recommend Site Meter--it's free, very easy to use, and at times highly entertaining (e.g., seeing what crazy things people are searching for online).
I'm a reader who came here from Cake Wrecks, but have been back because I like your writing (and used to live in WV, but in that other city with a football team) so I'm glad I found you. keep up the great work!
And as I recall the cake was not only wrecktastic but yummy!
@Clair--welcome! There's another city in WV with a football team? You wouldn't know it here in Mo-town (until the "Friends of Coal Bowl" rolls around in the fall...)
And Pam, yes. For a couch, it was surprisingly tasty.
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