English Mum has a gorgeous food-oriented blog where she writes everything from easy fresh baked bread and pies to farmhouse breakfasts that make your mouth water. She was also a Make a Difference Winner at the BMB’s Brilliance in Blogging Awards!
Here are her tips for writing about food, whether your favourite recipes or cooking with the kids, to get your readers – and other bloggers - eating up your content. Over to English Mum:
1. Start with a bit of background. Has the recipe been in your family for years? Did you try it in a restaurant and then recreate it at home? Why do you love it? When do you make it? Is it easy or does it require a bit of work? The more information you give, the better.
2. Before you begin the recipe, discuss any unusual ingredients or recommended substitutes for difficult-to-find items. It’s very offputting to see huge amounts of information in brackets in an ingredients list (I’m often guilty of this - I’m a terrible bracket monster).
3. Next, list your ingredients. Generally it’s best to put them in the order that they’re used. This minimises omissions and makes the list easy to refer back to while cooking.
4. Now write your method. Imagine you’re relaying the recipe to a friend. Include any tips, or anything you need to watch out for (for example ‘don’t let the mixture boil or it will curdle’).
5. Split the recipe up into manageable parts - it’s much easier to follow a recipe if it’s broken into steps. If you can’t get it to flow, reading it aloud often helps - try it, it really works!
6. Be creative: paint a picture! Describe gorgeous colours, wonderful smells, fizzes, crackles and bubbles. All these things will make your recipe more appealing.
7. Be careful of copyright. Food writers are a friendly bunch and encourage the sharing of recipes, but always make sure you give credit where it’s due. If you’re using an already published recipe, you mustn’t publish it in its entirety as this could infringe copyright. If you tweak a recipe slightly, that’s fine, just make it clear. As a general rule in cookery/publishing circles, the terms used are ‘adapted from’ or ‘inspired by’. If you’re using a recipe from a book, it’s best to link to the book on Amazon, or if it’s from a website, use a direct link.
8. Never slag the competition. Even if you feel your version of a recipe is an improvement on the original. This has happened to me and it’s very hurtful.
9. Check everything, then check it again. Make sure your recipe works. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve tested a recipe and it hasn’t worked because a vital ingredient has been missed, or a step has been omitted.
10. Finally, finish with a great picture. Food styling is an art form and I’m no expert, but experiment: close-ups work really well with food and I find I get better pictures without a flash, in good natural light. Pay attention to what’s in the background - your cake might be beautiful but nobody wants to see the washing up in the sink behind it!
