After a stretch of what I would generally consider to be less than great years, 2015 was nothing short of amazing. It was positively full to the brim with beautiful moments, fun times with friends, and incredible travels. I also had an unplanned but very welcome weight loss of over 30 pounds and have finally found an exercise routine that is effective, enjoyable and actually fun. And of course, as you can see here, the year was also full of plenty of amazing food! As I usually do when one year draws to a close, here I recap the top reader favorite recipes for the year as well as my own favorites (below). This year I chose to round up the top nine favorites in each category because it makes the prettiest picture – ha!

Above are the top reader favorites. You all have great taste, and quite a sweet tooth! Without further ado, the most popular recipes from 2015:

Funnily enough, the majority of my personal favorite recipes from last year don’t have much overlap with the most popular recipes (except the vanilla caramel latte cake – that one is top top top!) It is always so hard to whittle down all of my posts for the year to just a few top choices since nothing gets published unless I really love it. But, it must be done! Here are my personal favorites – these are the recipes I feel you simply cannot miss from 2015.