{"id":126299,"date":"2019-11-14T11:04:41","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T10:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=126299"},"modified":"2019-11-14T11:04:41","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T10:04:41","slug":"baking-blogger-spotlight-becky-excell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/baking-blogger-spotlight-becky-excell\/","title":{"rendered":"Baking Blogger Spotlight: Becky Excell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Becky Excell (Yes, like the spreadsheet but with an extra L<\/a>) is a London-based blogger focusing on gluten-free food and travel. After being diagnosed with gluten-related health issues in 2013, Becky thought she\u2019d never be able to enjoy good food again \u2013 fast-forward to now, and Becky\u2019s blog is filled with free-from recipes for the meals she loves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reuniting readers with food they\u2019ve missed is just part of what Becky enjoys about blogging \u2013 read on for some of her favourite bites and the benefits of baking with a blog instead of a cookery book.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How did you get started with baking and blogging about it?<\/span><\/strong>
\nI know this should probably be a little more positive-sounding, but it all started out of a place of pure frustration! When I was first told I had to go gluten-free, I basically had to kiss goodbye (not literally, I wasn\u2019t even allowed to do that!) to all the food I loved.<\/p>\n

It was a really tough time where I actually became completely fed up with food because I could never eat it 95% of the time. So instead of being constantly frustrated with food, I decided to get my apron on and recreate all the things I missed. And not surprisingly, most of those things were cakes!<\/p>\n

And though it came as a surprise to me at the time (when it probably shouldn\u2019t have) it turned out that tonnes of people missed eating all the same things I did too. So I started sharing the same recipes on my blog and social media and here we are six years later!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favourite type of post or regular content?<\/span><\/strong>
\nMy favourite types of posts are recipes which are incredibly easy, without a mountain of hard-to-obtain ingredients and simple instructions.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been aiming for these days in all my recipes, though it\u2019s not always possible! I really want all my posts to be accessible to complete beginners right up to expert bakers and cooks.<\/p>\n

My gluten free chocolate orange cake is a great example of that, I think \u2013 there\u2019s about ten ingredients and just ten steps to making it. I don\u2019t want to put people off trying one of my recipes before they\u2019ve even attempted it!<\/p>\n

Are there particular bakes you don\u2019t like attempting\/writing about, and why?<\/span><\/strong>
\nTo me, when I think of baking, I always think of cakes. But when I think about it, bread is a massive part of baking too.
\nBut if you search on my blog\u2026 you will find zero recipes for bread! And it\u2019s certainly not because I don\u2019t like bread \u2013 it\u2019s because gluten-free bread is such a tricky thing to master.<\/p>\n

Gluten is such an integral part of bread and I\u2019ve found it so hard to get the same results in gluten-free bread. Like I said, I love to recreate recipes for things I miss eating, but the bread I\u2019ve created in the past just doesn\u2019t taste like the fluffy, cotton-wool-like bread that I truly miss.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising that some of the best gluten-free bread brands out there are run by people with science-y backgrounds. It really is a science, but I hope to master it one day!<\/p>\n

Savoury or sweet?<\/span><\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s gotta be sweet! Even though I eat savoury food 90% of the time, there\u2019s something special about that little sweet treat that I always look forward to!<\/p>\n

Naturally, we have to ask about the Great British Bake Off \u2013 did you watch it? Who did you think was going to win this season?
\nYes! I\u2019ve been a religious viewer for years as most people have been, but they sometimes lose my attention to Instagram during some of the odd bakes I\u2019ve never heard of!<\/p>\n

I wanted Henry to win purely because he used to call everyone \u2018darling\u2019 and his ties, of course!<\/p>\n

Have you noticed baking becoming a more popular\/mainstream hobby as the popularity of the show has grown?<\/span><\/strong>
\nOh, definitely \u2013 I was at The Cake & Bake Show recently and it was absolutely heaving! I think that\u2019s when I realised just how much your average person truly adores baking.<\/p>\n

With television shows, YouTube tutorials and recipe books being a great source of learning for new bakers, what are the plus points for baking blogs as a medium?
\nI might be biased, but blogs are the best way to consume a recipe in my mind \u2013 preferably a combo of YouTube and blogs, ideally.<\/p>\n

I always used to get frustrated with old recipe books where a recipe would have zero photos \u2013 how on Earth am I supposed to know what I\u2019m making?! Best case scenario, you\u2019d get one photo and a single page of the book (or less) dedicated to each recipe.<\/p>\n

But on a blog, you can dedicate an incredibly comprehensive post to a single recipe, filled with ten photos and an instructional recipe video to boot. It goes without saying that all of that makes such a massive difference when you\u2019re making something you\u2019ve never attempted before!<\/p>\n

Are there any recipe books you frequently rely on, though?<\/span><\/strong>
\nSaying all that, I do rely on an extremely old recipe book with very few photos for some very simple recipes!!
\nIt\u2019s not gluten-free, but it\u2019s the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book from 1978 which my mum always had in the kitchen. It\u2019s basically a bible of great British cooking and baking which never ages!<\/p>\n

How do you work with PRs and brands \u2013 are review products and new launches useful?<\/span><\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve been lucky enough to work with some amazing brands in 2019, like AEG, Tefal, Old El Paso and Olivia Burton most recently. These have involved so many different things, from Instagram posts to recipe videos and recipe creation.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m happy to accept review products, though I can\u2019t guarantee that I\u2019ll post about everything I receive!<\/p>\n

For PRs looking to work with you, do you have any advice for how they should approach you?<\/span><\/strong>
\nJust drop me an email and say hello! I\u2019m always full of ideas, but I\u2019m also happy to be a part of any campaign that allows me to be creative and post something my audience would love.<\/p>\n

I always appreciate flexibility in terms of the recipe\/end product, which I\u2019ll create and post on my blog\/feed for a sponsored campaign. I like to think that I know what my audience likes and craves most and I always aim to keep that as a priority in every single post that I do.<\/p>\n

What other blogs do you read (whether in your sector or outside of it)?<\/span><\/strong>
\nI love reading Debs\u2019 blog Bang On Style<\/a> where she documents the trials and tribulations of online dating. She\u2019s really real, open and honest in everything that she writes and I\u2019d recommend it to anyone!<\/p>\n

I love reading blogs from people that are just being really honest about their lives. I\u2019m always looking for more to check out, so if you know of any\u2026 let me know!<\/p>\n

\"Reach-the-right-influencers-with-the-Vuelio-media-database\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Becky Excell (Yes, like the spreadsheet but with an extra L) is a London-based blogger focusing on gluten-free food and travel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":312,"featured_media":126320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,4038,6980],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/312"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126412,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126299\/revisions\/126412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}