Jessica Homes has been creating baked delights for her platform Sweetest Menu for more than a decade, so we’re not exaggerating when we say she knows her stuff! Luckily for us, she has compiled this knowledge into her recently released debut cookbook Something Sweet. Baking Business caught up with Jess recently to hear all about the creation process.

Can you tell us about yourself?

Hello! My name is Jess and I’m a food blogger and recipe writer. I’ve been sharing easy baking recipes on my website, Sweetest Menu, for over 12 years – which makes me somewhat of an internet grandma. I recently published my first cookbook, Something Sweet, which is filled to the brim with simple cakes, cookies and slice recipes. I absolutely love what I do!

What’s your earliest baking memory?

I actually didn’t spend much time in the kitchen growing up. My family didn’t often bake from scratch, but occasionally we would splurge on a packet mix and enjoy classic bakes like butter cakes, pancakes, scones and the like.

I do remember being in awe of the wonder of baking at a very young age though. One minute, you had nothing much to eat, the next, there was a homemade cake or a plate of pikelets ready to be devoured. Watching how a few simple ingredients could transform into a lovely sweet treat felt somewhat magical – and it still does to this day.

When did you know baking for a living was the career path you wanted?

Baking is actually my second career. For over a decade, I worked as a copywriter and enjoyed the life that comes with a steady office job. But for six of those years, I was hustling behind the scenes and running my food blog. I blogged before work, after work and on the weekends.

I really enjoyed my day job and I often felt torn between the two pursuits. But baking was what I truly loved. So once my food blog started to out earn my actual job, I chose to take the risk and make Sweetest Menu my full time thing. I was also five months pregnant with my daughter, so it sort of made sense to take the plunge. That was six years ago now and I’ve never looked back.

You created the baking hub Sweetest Menu, which is great. How has that changed and evolved over the years?

Sweetest Menu had such humble beginnings. I started it back in 2014 with an old camera and a piece of plywood from Bunnings that my husband painted for me as a backdrop. I wasn’t all that good at baking and I was terrible at taking photos. But I adored food blogs and had a hunger for doing something outside out of my 9 to 5. It wasn’t long before the entire creative process captivated me – I was hooked.

Slowly, I started to grow an online audience. The joy of seeing people around the world make my recipes was truly inspiring. And that’s something that has never changed. Still to this day, I love getting messages from people who have baked one of my recipes. Sometimes people near and far will send me a photo of their family celebrations showcasing one of my recipes and it truly melts my heart.

In many ways, Sweetest Menu has stayed the same. I still create all the recipes and test them in my own kitchen. I write the blog posts and take all the photos and do all my social media. Creating reliable recipes is still my focus.

Of course, the internet has changed so much over the years. Social media has exploded, food videos are now essential to a food blogger’s success and everyone is trying to master every platform and create a loyal online audience. But I’m thankful that despite all the changes to the online world and how recipes are presented, the heart of Sweetest Menu has never wavered.

You’re also about to release your debut cookbook Something Sweet. What was the creation process like for that book?

Writing a cookbook is a long and fascinating process. I felt somewhat equipped since I had been creating my own recipes for many years, but I was definitely stretched more than ever trying to run my business and meet all the creative deadlines of a cookbook.

I found the months of recipe testing quite challenging. Thankfully, I was able to hire a wonderful baker, Genene, who helped test my recipes with me. But some weeks, I was making recipes over and over again. Tweaking this and that was a tiresome process. Knowing the recipes were going to be in print, and couldn’t be changed, kept me up at night. It still does!

In saying that, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Writing my very own cookbook has been a dream come true and it is definitely one of the best things I’ve ever accomplished.

What can people expect to find (any hotly anticipated recipes or personal favourites of yours?)

Oh there are so many! We made sure to include some of my most popular recipes from the blog, including my famous Apple Cake and my mother-in-law’s Pavlova,  but I’m most excited to see people trying all the new recipes inside.

My Chocolate Mint Creams were Genene’s favourite, while I can’t stop making my Rhubarb Sour Cream Cake. My Lemon-Misu is a must for summer and my Fairy Bread Marshmallow Cupcakes (move over dot cakes) are deliciously nostalgic.

What’s your favourite thing to bake?

I absolutely love to make (and eat) cookies. They require such little effort in comparison to something like a layer cake, but they never disappoint. And the variety in cookie baking is huge! Most people stop at a chocolate chip cookie, but you can branch out into sandwich cookies (there’s a lovely Passionfruit Orange Sandwich Cookie in my book) or cut-out cookies.

There are crunchy ones like biscotti or crumbly ones like shortbread, ones that are deeply flavourful and use browned butter, or ones that are simple and don’t even require an electric mixer. There’s rarely a sweet craving that can’t be solved with a cookie.

What three ingredients are always in your kitchen?

 That’s a funny question because I typically bake so often that I’m constantly running out of butter, flour, sugar and eggs. But I’m never without good quality vanilla – I put that in everything. I try to have buttermilk in my fridge at all times because I use it constantly in my pancakes, scones and cakes. And I like to have some chocolate in my pantry, whether it’s a block of chocolate or chocolate chips, so I can always bake something chocolatey on a whim.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

When I first started baking, I felt quite lost. As an amateur baker, I found that many recipes assumed so much baking knowledge – and it was knowledge that I didn’t have. So when I wrote my cookbook, I designed and wrote the recipes with that person in mind.

I made sure to include clear and concise instructions and purposefully guide the reader through each step. So if you’ve ever been intimidated to step into the kitchen, my hope is that my book is the one you’ve been waiting for. And that soon you’ll be impressing your family and friends (and most importantly, yourself) with beautiful homemade cookies, cakes and slices.

Jessica’s debut cookbook Something Sweet is now available from Pan Macmillan Australia.