Treat is a food and baking blog template built on Jekyll by CloudCannon, designed to produce a static recipe blog with a contact form, paginated posts, and a configurable sidebar.
What is the Treat Jekyll Template?
Treat is a Jekyll-based blog template specifically for food and baking recipe sites, created by CloudCannon, the cloud CMS for Jekyll. It takes a Jekyll project structure with posts, configuration files, and data files, and outputs a static HTML site ready for hosting anywhere. The template includes pre-built pages and pre-styled components, so a user adds their own recipes and site details to generate a complete blog. It is distributed as a GitHub repository and can be deployed directly to CloudCannon or run locally with Bundler.
Key Features
- Blog with pagination — Posts are organized as a blog with numbered pages, so readers can browse older recipes without a single long scroll.
- Disqus comments for posts — Each recipe post can display Disqus-powered comment threads; you add your Disqus key in
_config.yml. - Configurable sidebar — Sidebar content is set in
_data/sidebar.yml, letting you change about text, links, or calls to action without touching layout files. - Contact form — A pre-built contact page includes a form preconfigured for CloudCannon, and it can be switched to another provider such as FormSpree; submissions email the address in the company details.
- RSS/Atom feed — A feed is generated automatically so readers can subscribe to new recipes.
- SEO tags — Built-in SEO meta tags help search engines index pages.
- Google Analytics — Add your analytics key in
_config.ymlto track visitors. - CloudCannon-optimized editing — Navigation and footer content are exposed as data files, and recipes live in a Posts collection, making client edits straightforward in CloudCannon.
Who should use Treat?
Treat is aimed at food bloggers and bakers who want a static-site recipe blog without building from scratch. A food blogger can clone the repository, replace sample posts with their recipes, and publish through CloudCannon or Jekyll locally. Small food businesses or cooking schools can use Treat to publish recipes, an about page, and contact details with minimal maintenance, since Jekyll outputs plain HTML with no database. Developers or agencies using CloudCannon can hand the template to clients because the editing surfaces are data files and defaults that are already optimized for non-technical content updates.
What can you do with Treat?
- Food bloggers: Write and publish recipes in Markdown under the Posts collection, with categories automatically organizing the recipes page.
- Baking business owners: Use the contact form and sidebar to share store info and accept inquiries, while the RSS feed keeps regular readers updated.
- Agencies and freelancers: Deploy Treat as a starter for food-industry clients and customize the contact form or Disqus integration without altering core layout files.
How does Treat work?
After cloning the repository, you set your site and author details in _config.yml, add your Google Analytics, Disqus, and MailChimp keys, then fill in _data/sidebar.yml. Running bundle install and bundle exec jekyll serve starts a local preview, while CloudCannon users can connect the GitHub repo to deploy automatically. New posts are created in the Posts collection, and default post settings are edited in _posts/_defaults.md.
FAQ
Is Treat free?
Yes, the template is open source and available on GitHub. It has 142 stars and is published by CloudCannon, so there are no licensing fees for using the template itself.
What Jekyll version does Treat require?
Treat was built with Jekyll 3.4.3 but is stated to support newer versions as well. The repository includes a Gemfile for dependency management with Bundler.
Can I use a different contact form provider?
Yes. The contact form comes preconfigured for CloudCannon, and the documentation says it can easily be changed to another provider such as FormSpree. Email is sent to the address specified in the company details.
Does Treat support comments on posts?
Yes, Disqus comments are included for posts. You add your Disqus key in _config.yml to enable threads on recipe pages.
What editing experience does Treat offer in CloudCannon?
Treat is optimized for CloudCannon editing: recipes are a Posts collection, and navigation and footer content are exposed as data files. That means clients can add or remove recipes, navigation items, and footer information through CloudCannon's interface without editing Jekyll code directly.
