Sally’s Baking 101 is formally out on the earth! After 3 years of labor, lots of of recipe assessments, and numerous flour-covered counters, I can hardly consider I get to carry this ebook in my fingers… and that it’s lastly in your fingers, too.
To have fun the discharge, I believed it might be enjoyable to share the behind-the-scenes journey of how this ebook got here to life. From constructing the desk of contents, to reducing 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 venture of my profession. In actual fact, it took three years from the very first proposal draft to holding the completed ebook in my fingers. I need to take you behind the scenes not simply of the recipe growth, however the numerous hours, edits, photographs, and choices that went into making a baking ebook of this caliber.
Why 3 Years?
After I started the proposal in 2022, I deliberately requested for an extended deadline. I wished to provide this ebook the time and a spotlight it deserved whereas nonetheless operating 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 type of ebook I’d be pleased with a long time from now. A real reference and educating information, not only a assortment of recipes.
And let me let you know: it was extra kitchen work than I’ve ever carried out in my profession.
Constructing the Desk of Contents
You’d assume step one can be leaping into recipe testing. However truthfully? We spent nearly the whole three years tweaking the desk of contents.
My co-author Beth and I obsessed over the circulate of the ebook. What expertise did we need to educate? Which recipes made essentially the most sense subsequent to one another? How may we construct a construction that took a newbie baker by the hand, whereas nonetheless retaining skilled bakers impressed?
I began by pulling 31 recipes straight from my web site. Assume: the classics which have develop into neighborhood 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 shaped the muse. 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 circumstances lower or utterly rewritten. Some got here collectively rapidly; others took dozens of rounds. Beth and I’d tag-team: I’d run assessments in my kitchen, she’d do the identical, after which we’d evaluate 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 via kilos of butter, luggage of flour, mountains of chocolate, and so many cartons of eggs that I misplaced rely. 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 via the recipes with completely different elements and instruments. As a result of what works in my kitchen within the U.S. would possibly act in a different way overseas. On prime of that, we had over a dozen further recipe testers who supplied suggestions, requested questions, and helped be sure each element was clear and dependable.
Recipe testing is one thing I take very, very severely. For the ebook, I wished every recipe to not solely style unimaginable, however to additionally be just right for you the very first time you attempt it. That meant being obsessive about directions, troubleshooting, and ensuring nothing was left to likelihood.
Writing (and Reducing) the Manuscript
The manuscript ballooned to about 80,000 phrases. That’s a small novel! Each recipe got here with detailed notes, troubleshooting ideas, and step-by-step explanations. As you’ll be able to think about, it needed to be pared down to suit the web page rely. Reducing phrases is painful, particularly while you like to over-explain (hello, it’s me), however ultimately the ebook is tighter, extra centered, and simpler to make use of.
Photographs of take a look at recipes:
The Images Course of
I’m the photographer behind each recipe photograph on this cookbook, aside from those the place I’m truly within the shot! These have been taken by my longtime videographer, Stronz.
Images was a venture all its personal. It took us 10–12 months to finish as a result of I didn’t need to rush it. Sure elements wanted to be in season, and I wished the photographs to replicate the freshest, most vibrant model of every bake. We shot a bulk of the ebook in April 2024.
To convey the ebook to life visually, I employed two stylists: Giulietta, a prop stylist with a literal warehouse filled with dishes, linens, boards, and backdrops for each temper and venture you’ll be able to think about, and Diana, an excellent meals stylist. Collectively, they turned my cookbook dream group. Giulietta would arrive with crates of props that made every photograph really feel heat and alluring, whereas Diana had the magical capability 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 on to come back into season. Every photograph wanted to do greater than look fairly—it wanted to show. You’ll discover that there are a variety of step-by-step educational photographs. That was intentional.
We liked working collectively a lot that they now assist me with images for my web site, too. They’re proficient, artistic, and endlessly enjoyable to be round—and I actually couldn’t have requested for a greater group to assist convey Sally’s Baking 101 to life on the web page.
The Emotional Facet
I received’t sugarcoat it (pun supposed): it was exhausting. Writing Sally’s Baking 101 wasn’t only a venture, it was a marathon. There have been loads of joyful moments, but additionally loads of occasions it felt impossibly laborious. My kitchen was a revolving door of elements, take a look at batches, failures, and victories. There have been late nights once I was exhausted (after an extended day engaged on the ebook, operating 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 questioned if it might 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 photographs and phrases. These moments made each laborious day price it.
This ebook demanded all the pieces from me: my time, vitality, creativity, and resilience. And whereas it pushed me additional than any venture earlier than, it additionally gave me my proudest skilled accomplishment so far.
That is the ebook I’ve all the time wished to jot down.
And whereas three years felt like endlessly on the time, it was completely price it.
Now that Sally’s Baking 101 is on the earth, I take a look at it and consider all of the hours, choices, and teamwork that made it potential. It’s greater than a group of recipes—it’s a real guidebook for bakers at each stage. And it was a group venture.
And I couldn’t have carried out it with out you. My readers, my buddies, my household, my neighborhood. For over a decade, you’ve trusted me together with your kitchens, your celebrations, and your on a regular basis bakes. Your suggestions, photographs, 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 liked, and the brand new challenges I can’t wait so that you can attempt. My hope is that it evokes 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 on the market all over the place books are offered beginning at present. Completely satisfied launch day, buddies!
Photograph credit score: Stronz Vanderploeg