25 Top Food Blogs Of 2012 Slideshow

Characterized by stunning photographs and recipes contributed by community members, Tastespotting is a self-described "highly visual potluck" of all things food. Founder Sarah J. Gim (pictured) and Jennifer Bartoli, an online editor of the blog, make a point of paying extra attention to visual detail when choosing which submissions to publish.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 93,926

Facebook Fans: 22,295

Twitter Followers: 19,315

Pinterest Followers: 1,395

Bee Yinn Low, the author and professional recipe developer behind Rasa Malaysia, has published authentic and approachable pan-Asian recipes since July 2006. Low's cookbook of easy Chinese recipes hit bookshelves last year. The blog has one of the largest Asian recipe collections available online.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 93,682

Facebook Fans: 24,979

Twitter Followers: 14,429

Pinterest Followers: 3,850

Nicole Hamaker's mouthwatering photos and simple recipes make this blog homey and warm. The recipe page allows for simple navigation so it's easy to find your favorites again and again.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 72,866

Facebook Fans: 9,677

Twitter Followers: 98,994

Pinterest Followers: 1,539

Annie initially started Annie's Eats in the spring of 2007 as a way to informally document the recipes she developed and post her food photography. As a mom and resident physician, Annie posts about her ventures in entertaining (often with unique and thoughtful party ideas). 

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 122,917

Facebook Fans: 28,461

Twitter Followers: 949

Pinterest Followers: N/A

This blog is full to the brim with nostalgic recipes and warming comfort food dishes. The founder of Mommy's Kitchen is Tina, a Texas-based mother of two. Readers can expect to find Southern classics done the traditional way.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 105,865

Facebook Fans: 18,486

Twitter Followers: 3,120

Pinterest Followers: 8,649

Stephanie O'Dea made a new year's resolution in 2008 to use her slow cooker every day for a year. She started blogging about her venture and before long she had a dedicated following of readers. Her first book, Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking spent six weeks on The New York Times best-seller list and the idea expanded to include other blogs aimed housekeeping organization. O'Dea has appeared on The Rachael Ray Show, Good Morning America, and has been featured all over the Web. 

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 149,307

Facebook Fans: 23,082

Twitter Followers: 5,301

Pinterest Followers: 389

Joy the Baker, the founder of her namesake web site, has been delighting readers with beautiful photos and sweet dessert recipes since January 2008. The blog has spawned a series of podcasts and a cookbook.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 68,432

Facebook Fans: 32,232

Twitter Followers: 26,877

Pinterest Followers: 11,376

The author behind Gluten-Free Goddess, Karina Allrich, began writing this blog to document her original gluten-free recipes. Each week, Allrich posts new recipes that utilize fresh, seasonal produce and promote a gluten-free lifestyle.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 74,112

Facebook Fans: 57,080

Twitter Followers: 10,868

Pinterest Followers: 14,910

Sara Wells and Kate Jones are the friends and mothers who started writing Our Best Bites in 2008 to inspire working mothers everywhere with simple, hearty recipes fit for the family. Thanks to the success of their blog, the duo published their first cookbook last year, followed by a brand-new one this month. 

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 182,912

Facebook Fans: 53,495

Twitter Followers: 6,645

Pinterest Followers: N/A

Christy Jordan captures the hearts of readers with her down-home Southern recipes and personal accounts of her adventures in the kitchen. The majority of the recipes on the site were developed by her family or inspired by childhood favorites. In 2010 she published her first cookbook, Southern Plate: Classic Comfort Food That Makes Everyone Feel Like Family.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 171,174

Facebook Fans: 43,127

Twitter Followers: 10,001

Pinterest Followers: 5,999

This blog started out as a venue for family and friends to view the recipes developed by husband-and-wife duo Maria and Josh. Soon their page views began flourishing and they decided to turn Two Peas into a full-time blog. Maria has become so well-known for her outstanding cookie recipes that she recently published an e-book featuring her favorites called Cookie Cravings.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 119,276

Facebook Fans: 25,536

Twitter Followers: 14,870

Pinterest Followers: 21,992

Eater produces some of the best original and aggregated food news content and covers some of the nation's most important food cities. Edited by Raphael Brion, Eater is a favorite for food pros and amateurs alike.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 226,253

Facebook Fans: 15,436

Twitter Followers: 42,137

Pinterest Followers: 1,243

Jaden Hair, professional recipe developer, food columnist, and food photographer, runs the show at Steamy Kitchen. Dishing out "fast, fresh, and simple" recipes, the blog has become a favorite of busy home cooks.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 147,606

Facebook Fans: 26,957

Twitter Followers: 120,774

Pinterest Followers: 2,899

Started by Jenny Flake in 2007 after she retired from her job as a dental hygienist to spend more time at home with her sons, Picky Palate is full of recipes designed to appeal to picky eaters of all ages. The dishes that appear on the blog tend to be family-friendly and are interspersed with giveaways and the occasional product review. Stay tuned for the first Picky Palate Cookbook, set to debut later this fall.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 107,872

Facebook Fans: 34,191

Twitter Followers: 13,562

Pinterest Followers: 22,972

Acclaimed former professional pastry chef David Lebovitz has a food blog that's chock-full of recipes, reviews, and all things Paris. With seven cookbooksunder his belt, Lebovitz uses his blog as a place to share musings on his travels and newly created recipes.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 119,593

Facebook Fans: 33,295

Twitter Followers: 128,145

Pinterest Followers: 5,912

Lori Lange left her post as an elementary school teacher in 2005 to start Recipe Girl. The blog now includes more than 2,500 recipes (mostly developed by Lange, though she occasionally posts curated submissions from users). Lange served alongside Paula Deen as a judge of the Real Women of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cook-Off in 2010 and is working on publishing the first Recipe Girl Cookbook (slated to debut in spring 2013). 

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 159,031

Facebook Fans: 18,745

Twitter Followers: 25,450

Pinterest Followers: 24,629

Founder Angie Dudley was inspired to start baking and blogging after taking a cake-decorating class. Bakerella focuses on "fun and easy baking," featuring recipes, decorating tips, the occasional giveaway, and lots and lots of dessert.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 137,066

Facebook Fans: 109,746

Twitter Followers: 52,168

Pinterest Followers: 6,482

Since 2003, Heidi Swanson has written about her meals, travels, and interests in her blog 101 Cookbooks. Swanson's recipes — taken from her personal cookbook collection, friends, and family or created by Swanson herself — focus on utilizing natural, whole foods and ingredients. While a large portion of the site's recipes are for savory vegetarian dishes, Swanson occasionally features desserts as well.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 262,770

Facebook Fans: 100,222

Twitter Followers: 145,661

Pinterest Followers: 22,149

The Kitchn is the food-focused arm of the home improvement site Apartment Therapy. The Kitchn believes that, "simplicity and luxury are not mutually exclusive," and provides its readers with simple tips, how-tos, and recipes. Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan is the founding editor of this blog, however, Faith Durand (pictured) manages The Kitchn on a daily basis.

<Compete.com average monthly uniques: 634,492

Facebook Fans: 34,995

Twitter Followers: 34,650

Pinterest Followers: 12,500

Serious Eats combines original and user-generated content to create a blog focused on food news, recipes, tips, and techniques. Founder Ed Levine expanded coverage of Serious Eats beyond New York City to Chicago this year and plans to move into more cities in the near future.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 580,510

Facebook Fans: 158.549

Twitter Followers: 157,682

Pinterest Followers: 46,394

Cake Wrecks documents the most outrageous, silliest, and creative cakes out there. Users submit snapshots of the cake wrecks they come across and the best are hand-picked by founder Jen Yates and published. Interestingly, this blog climbed up the list this year, from number nine last year to number four this year. Perhaps the release of Yates' second Cake Wrecks book made the difference.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 74,343

Facebook Fans: 158,459

Twitter Followers: 1,233,189

Pinterest Followers: N/A

Skinnytaste features recipes developed by author and founder Gina Homolka. Skinnytaste's recipes are "healthy dishes that don't sacrifice any of the flavor" of their full-fat counterparts.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 366,346

Facebook Fans: 126,414

Twitter Followers: 17,153

Pinterest Followers: 165,213

Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond documents her life as a "domestic country wife," with photos and recipes that she whips up for her husband and four young cowpokes. Last year, Drummond went from blogger to television host, bringing her "cowboy-friendly" dishes to Food Network.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 671.602

Facebook Fans: 34,918

Twitter Followers: 328,637

Pinterest Followers: 89,177

A virtual recipe box of founder Elise Bauer's favorite homespun dishes, Simply Recipes features her tried-and-true recipes, along with those crafted by family and friends. Bauer started the blog in 2003 as a way to document the recipes that she grew up with and those that she developed. Simply Recipes claims the top spot on our list for the third year running.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 2,559,222

Facebook Fans: 34,918

Twitter Followers: 79,894 

Pinterest Followers: 140

Angie Dudley's stellar baking blog Bakerella wins the award for outstanding photography because her images are always clean and sharp and the food is always expertly styled. She tends to publish step-by-step recipes with accompanying photos to make the process as easy as possible for readers, which makes the posts even more visually appealing. 

When it comes to local coverage of the nation's most prominent food cities, Eater has its finger on the pulse of the action at all times. The dedicated network of writers and contributors who are on the ground reporting on the latest happenings make it easy to rely on Eater for immediate coverage. 

Between this blog's engaging and down-to-earth recipes and Nicole Hamaker's drool-worthy photos, it's incredible that Pinch My Salt has not already earned a cookbook deal. We bet that by the time next year's list rolls around that will no longer be the case. 

After working behind the burner for 13 years, David Lebovitz left the kitchen in 1999 to focus on his writing. That same year he launched his website and released his first book, Room for Dessert. The rest is history.

Clocking an average of 2.5 million uniques per month this past year (by comparison, The Pioneer Woman in the number two spot garnered less than half of that per month), Simply Recipes has crushed the competition to top our list three years in a row. 

Moving down three spots on this years list is Deb PerelmansSmitten Kitchen. This blog has it all beautiful food photography, contemporary twists on classic comfort food, and cooking technique tutorials. Perelman's recipes are inspired by her quaint New York City kitchen.

Compete.com average monthly uniques: 296,486

Facebook Fans: 90,044

Twitter Followers: 32,601

Pinterest Followers: 4,051

With an archive full of thoughtful yet accessible recipes and a vast array of tutorials, Smitten Kitchen is the ultimate haven for home cooks. The vibrant photos engage readers and make it easy to envision what the final result of the dish should look like.