Recipe Writing for Beginners

Welcome to Begin with Butter! This blog is your 360° blog for all things baking. We encourage you to come for the recipes, and stay a spell to take in all of the wonderfully fun content about baking techniques, ingredient science, and equipment recommendations! Today, I’m excited to share recipe writing for beginners with you. In this post, you’ll learn some of the most important tips that will help you write incredible recipes for future generations of bakers. You’ll be a part of an amazing club of food historians, and I can’t wait to welcome you.

Baking is an incredibly rewarding and fun activity that spans generations: so many of us have fond memories of watching our mothers and grandmothers be the queens of their kitchen domains. Some of us even remember our mothers and grandmothers, in loving script, carefully writing recipes on a 4”x6” index card so that they could give those recipes to their friends and family members. 

What a special gift it is to see, even today, those handwritten recipes still in the family’s rotation. Friends, when I see my mother’s recipes from the 80’s in my aunt and uncle’s kitchens, it just…transports me. 

We still need those recipes today. And today, I’m going to give you seven tips for how to get started writing recipes that your family will cherish for many years to come.

In this Post:

Recipe Writing: The Primary Goals

BB, when I sit down to write a recipe, I want to write for clarity. If my recipe reader cannot make heads or tails of a recipe because it’s convoluted, confusing, or incomplete, then I haven’t done my job as a recipe writer. So, writing a clear recipe that helps people feel confident about the recipe that they’re about to embark upon (and the ingredients they’re about to expend) is the most important part of my job.

Do mistakes happen? YES! All the time! But the good news is that we can always correct those mistakes to make our recipes even better. If we begin with clarity in mind, though, it will help us as we write those recipes, whether we’re using a keyboard or a pen.

There’s a second, sweeter goal that I keep in mind when I write recipes. You see, when you commit a recipe to paper (or a blog 😊), you are creating something that is part of recorded human history. And that is no small thing. ❤️

Think about it. One of the primary foundations of your family, your culture, and your history is the food that you grew up with. And many of the foods that help you identify with your family, culture, and history are foods that have done the same wonderful thing for generations of your family members before you. But how have those recipes survived hundreds (or thousands) of years?

They were passed from hand to loving hand until they reached yours. In more modern, recorded history, those recipes have often been written on index cards, in careful script, by the keepers of those recipes, the caretakers of those recipes, and they have been passed down to future generations. Those women (in my family, these are all women, but there are some men who have done this too) are mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and food historians. And, by joining the ranks of recipe sharers, you are joining a special group of people who are dedicated to maintaining food culture.

Write What You Know

This is age-old advice for writers, no matter the topic. Write what you know. It’s so apropos even in recipe writing, because the ultimate goal of recipe sharing is to share recipes that can be duplicated by hands other than yours. 

There are a few ways to develop the deep expertise that you need to become a recipe expert. First, you can develop that expertise from years and years of watching and studying the people who did the recipe before you. For example, my mother had an OUTSTANDING recipe for collard greens. They were an integral part of my childhood. I watched her process: from the cleaning (oh, the cleaning!), to the creation of the pot liquor, to her special seasonings, to the jalapeno (at the end, Shani!). She taught me, in deep detail, how to make them, what to put in them, and the amount of each ingredient. She taught me how to test the texture and the spice level. She showed me every step that she took with that recipe. And she did that over, and over, and over again. From that “training”, I could easily and confidently write a collard greens recipe on a 4”x6” index card and share it.

The next way to develop deep recipe knowledge is through real study of a topic. I’m not talking about bouncing around the internet, looking for resources; I mean dedicated, focused study of the thing that you’re trying to learn. My baking career falls solely into this second category. You see, I was unable to learn baking from my mother because her teaching style and my learning style just wouldn’t click. So, I dove into textbooks (The Professional Pastry Chef and Ratio are must-reads!) and made a focused, concerted effort to methodically learn the ins and outs of baking from a professional perspective. It took years of study and practice, but now I can confidently write a Lemon Pound Cake recipe that can successfully be duplicated in home kitchens across the world.

Finally, you can do a hybrid of the two! When I wanted to write my Baba au Rhum Pound Cake recipe, I consulted a legitimate Italian baker and learned about the intangibles that make that dessert so special. Then, I studied the components of that dessert extensively and tested it more times than I can remember. When it was finally ready for the blog (as part of the Twelve Days of Pound Cake 2023 event), I knew that I had a cake that paid careful homage to the original recipe, while also being a respectful BwB version of that recipe. 

I say all of this to say, if you don’t know something, it’s perfectly fine to learn it! Your lack of expertise and experience now doesn’t mean that you’ll be banned from writing a recipe once you learn what you need to know. So, go forth and learn! It’s truly one of the most fun parts of this job.

Test Your Recipes First

This one might not be intuitive! You see, sometimes, when we’ve made something a few dozen times in our lives, we could literally stand there and make it blindfolded. And while we might unconsciously reach for the right measuring spoons every single time to execute the recipe (this is literally me with my taco seasoning recipe), when asked to write down specific recipe amounts, we might go completely blank.

Seriously. Don’t ask for my taco seasoning recipe because I don’t know. 😂

If you’re going to start writing recipes for other people, I encourage you to put your recipes through an actual recipe testing process. Write down the recipe before you start. Make the recipe according to your own directions, following your own recipe amounts (don’t cheat!). Tweak the recipe as necessary (it’s common to find clunkily-written instructions that could be clarified!). When you tweak, though, you should only tweak one thing at a time. That way, if something goes wrong, you know exactly who to blame. (I’m looking at you, cumin!)

For extra credit, make a successful attempt and then do it again to make sure it can be duplicated! This is the absolute best way to test your recipe to make sure it’s ready for prime time.

It’s also the best way to make sure that the recipe that you give your friends and family members has clear instructions that they can successfully execute, as if they were in your kitchen making that recipe with you. 

So, is it a teaspoon or three tablespoons of dry mustard? Is it ½ teaspoon or a teaspoon of kosher salt? Or is it even kosher salt at all? These are things that you’ll want to work out before you share a recipe with someone else. They need that instruction, and they’re looking to you for help.  

Use Full Recipe Descriptors Instead of Abbreviations

This is a mistake that I am currently correcting on my site, and it is a PAIN. Best practices for recipes dictate that we write full descriptions instead of abbreviations. Some examples:

• tablespoon instead of tbsp
• teaspoon instead of tsp
• cup instead of c
• gram instead of g

The reason is simple: legibility. It’s much easier for readers to decipher “tablespoon” from “teaspoon” than it is for them to decipher “tbsp” from “tsp”. And some readers have not been taught the difference between those two measurements, so having the full words written out will improve reader understanding.

Say it with me: reader understanding is the goal in recipe development.

Don’t be like me and wait until you have almost 200 recipes on your site to correct this error. If you start this way, it will be much easier down the road. 🤗

Pick Your Default Measurement System and Use it Consistently

There are two measurement systems that recipes commonly use: Imperial (think: cups) and metric (think: grams). And, listen BB, while I am an evangelist for metric measurement in baking, these are your recipes. That means, it’s up to you to decide whether you want to use Imperial or metric measurements in your recipes.

There are millions of recipes written either way. This is not my decision (or anyone else’s) to make for you! Remember what I said about writing what you know? Well, that extends here too. While you can always build your skillset with the other measurement system and change the game later, when you’re starting, use what you’re most comfortable with, and, most importantly, what will help your recipe reader replicate your recipes.

Pay Attention to the Order of Ingredients Listed

This is yet another thing that helps recipe readers gain clarity! When you’re writing a recipe, the order of ingredients is also very important! 

There are two places where the order of ingredients matters: if you have a number of ingredients that need to be combined (think: dry ingredients in baking), you should list them all together, differentiated by the weight or volume amount. So, for example, when I’m listing my ingredients for my Vanilla Pound Cake recipe, the dry ingredients look like this:

• 384 grams (3 cups) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt 
• ½ teaspoon baking soda

The dry ingredient with the largest quantity (all-purpose flour) is listed first, and the dry ingredient with the smallest quantity (baking soda) is listed last.

The other order of ingredients that matters is this: your recipe should be written in a way that uses ingredients in the order that they are used in the recipe. Going back to the Vanilla Pound Cake recipe, here are the ingredients:

• 384 grams (3 cups) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/2 teaspoon fine salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 227 grams (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 500 grams (2 1/2 cups) granulated sugar
• 6 eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 250 grams (1 cup) buttermilk, room temperature

As we said before, the dry ingredients appear at the top of the recipe, together (and in order of weight/volume). The other ingredients are listed in the order that they’re used in the recipe! Once again, that will help you create clarity for your readers. When they’re doing their mise en place, they’ll be able to line up their prepped ingredients in the order that they will go into the recipe.

It’s a win for everyone!

Just. Start.

Friends, I know it can feel daunting to put that first recipe on paper. You might worry about getting the measurements exactly right, or whether your instructions are clear enough, or if you’re “qualified” to join the ranks of recipe writers. But here’s the beautiful truth: every single recipe writer, from your grandmother jotting down her famous cookie recipe to Julia Child herself, started exactly where you are – with that first recipe.

Will your first attempt be perfect? Probably not! And that’s absolutely okay. My first written recipes needed plenty of tweaking (just ask my poor taste-testers!). But here’s what’s far more important than perfection: every recipe you write helps preserve a piece of culinary history that might otherwise be lost forever. Think about it – how many family recipes have already disappeared because someone thought “I’ll write it down later” or “I’m not ready yet”?

You are already part of the grand tapestry of food history. Every time you make your great-aunt’s signature dish or modify a classic recipe to make it your own, you’re contributing to that legacy. By writing down your recipes, you’re not just preserving them – you’re passing forward the love, memories, and flavors that make our culinary heritage so rich and beautiful.

So grab that index card, open that laptop, or pull out that notebook. Start with the recipe you know best, the one that makes you smile, the one your family always requests. Write it down, test it, refine it. And if you need help along the way, remember that you’re not alone on this journey. Reach out to me at bakingbestie@beginwithbutter.com – I’d be honored to help you preserve your piece of culinary history.

After all, the most precious family recipes aren’t the ones written perfectly – they’re the ones written at all.

I hope you find this encouraging and helpful on your recipe development journey! I’m here to help you in any way that I can.

Hi! I’m Shani!

My name is Shani Whisonant, and I’m the Chief Butter Ambassador and owner at Begin with Butter and the Begin with Butter Home Baking Academy. I’m serious about your baking achievement. 😊 Whether you’re here for a recipe or you’re wanting to solve a baking conundrum, I’m here to help you!

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