The Story
I did a thing.
In one day—with a little help from Codex—I migrated Cooking With Dade from WordPress to a brand new setup. Hugo handles the site now, and it’s live on Cloudflare Pages. No more plugin roulette, no more slow load times, and honestly? I wish I’d done this years ago.
Why I Left WordPress
WordPress served me well. It’s how I got started, and a ton of food bloggers still use it. But somewhere along the way, I got tired of paying for features that should’ve been free—SEO tools, performance plugins, security add-ons. And every plugin update felt like Russian roulette. Would something break this time?
I didn’t want to fight my website anymore. I wanted to cook, write, and share—not debug why my site was running slow on a Tuesday night.
Enter Hugo and Cloudflare
Hugo builds your whole site into static pages. No database. No server-side processing. Just fast HTML files that load almost instantly. Cloudflare Pages hosts those files on their global network, so whether you’re in New York or Tokyo, the site loads in milliseconds.
The design came from Dark Haus Studio—they gave the site a fresh look that still feels like home cooking. Warm, approachable, and honestly just really nice to look at.
The result? Pages load so much faster now. Recipe cards, images, the whole experience.
What This Means for You
No more waiting around for pages to load when you’re trying to figure out what’s for dinner. The site is snappier, especially on mobile. And honestly, knowing I can add new features without worrying about plugin conflicts? That peace of mind alone was worth the move.
I’m also handling SEO myself now—no middleman, no subscription. If I want a page to rank for something, I figure it out and implement it directly. That means more time tweaking the site to make sure you find the recipes you’re looking for.
What’s Next
The recipes you love aren’t going anywhere. Same content, same love for home cooking, just a much faster home. I’m excited to keep building and cooking, and I hope you enjoy the new space as much as I do.
Thanks for being here. Now let’s cook something.
Key Takeaways
- Migrated from WordPress to Hugo + Cloudflare in one day with help from Codex (OpenAI)
- Global page load times are now measured in milliseconds—not seconds
- Dark Haus Studio designed the fresh new look
- No more plugin subscriptions or worrying about updates breaking things
Got thoughts on the new site? Something broken? Want to say hi? Drop a comment below—I read every single one.