Sally’s Baking 101 is formally out on this planet! After 3 years of labor, lots of of recipe exams, and numerous flour-covered counters, I can hardly consider I get to carry this ebook in my palms… and that it’s lastly in your palms, too.
To rejoice the discharge, I believed it could be enjoyable to share the behind-the-scenes journey of how this ebook got here to life. From constructing the desk of contents, to chopping down an 80,000-word manuscript, to photographing recipes throughout all 4 seasons… right here’s how we made Sally’s Baking 101.
Please meet the group behind Sally’s Baking 101:
(Not pictured: James, Lexi, Allie, and Trina, or my wardrobe stylist, Danielle Wooden, and all of my recipe testers!)
Writing Sally’s Baking 101 has been the most important undertaking of my profession. In actual fact, it took three years from the very first proposal draft to holding the completed ebook in my palms. I wish to take you behind the scenes not simply of the recipe growth, however the numerous hours, edits, pictures, and choices that went into making a baking ebook of this caliber.
Why 3 Years?
Once I started the proposal in 2022, I deliberately requested for a protracted deadline. I wished to provide this ebook the time and a focus it deserved whereas nonetheless working my web site, creating new content material for you, and maintaining with the day-to-day. This wasn’t going to be a rush job. It was going to be the sort of ebook I’d be pleased with a long time from now. A real reference and instructing information, not only a assortment of recipes.
And let me inform you: it was extra kitchen work than I’ve ever carried out in my profession.
Constructing the Desk of Contents
You’d suppose step one could be leaping into recipe testing. However actually? We spent nearly your entire three years tweaking the desk of contents.
My co-author Beth and I obsessed over the movement of the ebook. What expertise did we wish to train? Which recipes made probably the most sense subsequent to one another? How may we construct a construction that took a newbie baker by the hand, whereas nonetheless conserving skilled bakers impressed?
I began by pulling 31 recipes straight from my web site. Suppose: the classics which have grow to be group favorites and that I knew needed to be on this ebook, together with pizza dough, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, banana bread, and extra. These fashioned the inspiration. From there, we constructed out the chapters with new and thrilling recipes, flavors, and methods. We pushed ourselves to transcend our consolation zones—not simply to be taught new expertise, however to translate them into teachable ideas for you.
Recipe Testing & Retesting
Every recipe was examined, retested, and in some instances minimize or fully rewritten. Some got here collectively shortly; others took dozens of rounds. Beth and I might tag-team: I’d run exams in my kitchen, she’d do the identical, after which we’d examine notes and make changes.
Beginning in 2023, I shared a number of posts in regards to the cookbook recipe testing course of:
- Cookbook Recipe Testing 1 (2023)
- Cookbook Recipe Testing 2 (2023)
- Cookbook Recipe Testing 3 (2024)
- Cookbook Recipe Testing 4 (2024)
And, clearly, these posts don’t even cowl 1 / 4 of the recipes within the ebook! There have been days when my kitchen seemed like a flour explosion. We went by kilos of butter, baggage of flour, mountains of chocolate, and so many cartons of eggs that I misplaced depend. Grocery retailer runs 3, 4x per day as a result of we ran out of one thing. And nonetheless, we by no means rushed the method. If one thing wasn’t working, we went again to the drafting board.
It wasn’t simply me and Beth within the kitchen, although. My group member Lexi examined a lot of the recipes within the ebook. I additionally employed Amanda Yee, who lives abroad, to bake by the recipes with completely different elements and instruments. As a result of what works in my kitchen within the U.S. may act in another way overseas. On prime of that, we had over a dozen extra recipe testers who supplied suggestions, requested questions, and helped be certain each element was clear and dependable.
Recipe testing is one thing I take very, very significantly. For the ebook, I wished every recipe to not solely style unbelievable, however to additionally give you the results you want the very first time you strive it. That meant being obsessive about directions, troubleshooting, and ensuring nothing was left to likelihood.
Writing (and Chopping) the Manuscript
The manuscript ballooned to about 80,000 phrases. That’s a small novel! Each recipe got here with detailed notes, troubleshooting suggestions, and step-by-step explanations. As you possibly can think about, it needed to be pared down to suit the web page depend. Chopping phrases is painful, particularly while you like to over-explain (hello, it’s me), however ultimately the ebook is tighter, extra targeted, and simpler to make use of.
Photographs of check recipes:
The Images Course of
I’m the photographer behind each recipe picture on this cookbook, aside from those the place I’m really within the shot! These have been taken by my longtime videographer, Stronz.
Images was a undertaking all its personal. It took us 10–12 months to finish as a result of I didn’t wish to rush it. Sure elements wanted to be in season, and I wished the pictures to replicate the freshest, most vibrant model of every bake. We shot a bulk of the ebook in April 2024.
To deliver the ebook to life visually, I employed two stylists: Giulietta, a prop stylist with a literal warehouse stuffed with dishes, linens, boards, and backdrops for each temper and undertaking you possibly can think about, and Diana, a superb meals stylist. Collectively, they turned my cookbook dream group. Giulietta would arrive with crates of props that made every picture really feel heat and welcoming, whereas Diana had the magical skill to make each swirl of frosting and each flaky pie crust look its very best.
Each single recipe has a photograph. The three of us photographed in batches, ready for berries, peaches, apples, or cranberries and so forth to come back into season. Every picture wanted to do greater than look fairly—it wanted to show. You’ll discover that there are loads of step-by-step educational pictures. That was intentional.
We beloved working collectively a lot that they now assist me with images for my web site, too. They’re gifted, artistic, and endlessly enjoyable to be round—and I actually couldn’t have requested for a greater group to assist deliver Sally’s Baking 101 to life on the web page.
The Emotional Aspect
I received’t sugarcoat it (pun supposed): it was exhausting. Writing Sally’s Baking 101 wasn’t only a undertaking, it was a marathon. There have been loads of joyful moments, but additionally loads of occasions it felt impossibly laborious. My kitchen become a revolving door of elements, check batches, failures, and victories. There have been late nights after I was exhausted (after a protracted day engaged on the ebook, working my web site, and parenting) however needed to pull one other tray of cookies from the oven. Days when a recipe failed for the tenth time in a row and I puzzled if it could ever work.
It took literal blood, sweat, and tears. There have been occasions I cried from frustration, occasions I used to be so drained I couldn’t take a look at one other bowl of batter, and occasions I mentioned, “what did I get myself into? I can’t do that.”
However then there have been the breakthroughs. The second a recipe lastly clicked, the day the desk of contents got here collectively, the primary time I noticed a completed chapter laid out with pictures and phrases. These moments made each laborious day price it.
This ebook demanded all the things from me: my time, power, creativity, and resilience. And whereas it pushed me additional than any undertaking earlier than, it additionally gave me my proudest skilled accomplishment so far.
That is the ebook I’ve all the time wished to write down.
And whereas three years felt like perpetually on the time, it was completely price it.
Now that Sally’s Baking 101 is on this planet, I take a look at it and consider all of the hours, choices, and teamwork that made it attainable. It’s greater than a group of recipes—it’s a real guidebook for bakers at each stage. And it was a group undertaking.
And I couldn’t have carried out it with out you. My readers, my associates, my household, my group. For over a decade, you’ve trusted me along with your kitchens, your celebrations, and your on a regular basis bakes. Your suggestions, pictures, questions, and encouragement are what fueled this ebook from begin to end.
This cookbook is my thanks. It’s a useful resource constructed from all the teachings we’ve shared, the classics you’ve beloved, and the brand new challenges I can’t wait so that you can strive. My hope is that it conjures up you, teaches you, and provides you confidence each time you activate the oven.
From the underside of my coronary heart: thanks for baking alongside me all these years. I can’t wait to see what you make first.
Sally’s Baking 101 is out there in all places books are bought beginning as we speak. Pleased launch day, associates!
Photograph credit score: Stronz Vanderploeg