What I Learned About Creating a Cookbook by Jenn McKinlay

WHAT WAS I THINKING???

If I had a nickel for every time I asked myself this over the past few months, I'd be able to solve the national coin shortage.

Check it out! The print ARC just arrived!!! 

No doubt you've seen me post about this endeavor somewhere (probably here) and heard the high pitched freak out in my voice at least a little. 

Now, I'm not new to self-publishing. I got the rights back to some books and actually put one up a million years ago. I also decided to try self-publishing some romcom novellas this year (which has been easy peasy lemon squeezy) but I had never published a non-fiction work in my life, traditionally or otherwise. Despite the title, putting this book together was no fairy tale...except for the people who worked with me to make it one. 

So, here's what I learned, specific to this cookbook.

1. Hire a professional baker/food photographer. I was fortunate that the assistant Christie Conlee who I hired long before the cookbook was okayed by the powers that be (meaning I was allowed to do this on my own) is actually a home baker and has mad photography skills. Thus, she is also the co-author of the book as she baked, tweaked, and then photographed every recipe in the books. Seriously, I call her my magical unicorn and I'm not even kidding. (BTW, this was her response when I asked her to get on Tik Tok - LOL!).

2. Hire a cover artist who "gets" you. I was fortunate enough to have a cover artist for the romcom novellas, Lyndsey, from Llewellen Designs who is a dream to work with and whose cover (as you can see above) matches the vibe of the cupcake bakery mysteries to perfection. She also nailed my brand on the novellas. She's currently working on It Happened One Christmas Eve and I can't wait to see it!

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3. Expect it to take a million times longer than you think it will. To get this sucker loaded on IngramSpark (the publisher I chose) I had to learn how to craft a word document that included pictures - LOTS of pictures - and then convert it to a pdf, embed the font (what?), make the trim sizes work for a 6 X 9 pbk book with all of those pictures, do some rewriting, tweaking, cutting, inserting, yada yada yada. Expect delays and rough language, I'm just sayin'!

4. Know when to walk away. Ebook platforms are not friendly for cookbooks (pesky photos) and every one of them is different. I really hope readers choose to go hardcover on this because after almost throwing my computer into our swimming pool over formatting issues, let's just say the hardcover is better :) Doubling back, let me repeat, know when to walk away. LOL.

5. Let go of perfectionism. IT WILL NEVER BE PERFECT. Much like those delightful readers let you know when there's a single typo in a 75,000 word book that has been through seven edits by five pairs of eyes, anticipate that there will always be an error in your manuscript somewhere. Accept it. Embrace it. Consider it the WTF wrinkle on the face of your work.

So, how about you, Reds and Readers? What task did you take on that was more daunting than you anticipated? How did it turn out? (Looking for some positivity here - LOL)!

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What We're Writing: Jenn is Cooking Up her Next Endeavor

 Jenn McKinlay: I'm working on a cookbook. Yes, me the one who doesn't cook (although I do bake). Crazy, I know!

My favorite bakery cookbook - inspired!

Now I know it sounds ambitious, but hear me out. The cupcake bakery mysteries have 3-5 recipes in each book and I'm writing the fifteenth book right now with a contract to go to sixteen. Yes, writing that mystery is my other project of the moment but it's in no shape to be shared as yet, so back to the cookbook.

After being asked for a cookbook - many many many times - by readers over the years, I decided okay fine. Because it is a rather big undertaking for a fiction writer, I divided the recipes from the (almost) sixteen books into two volumes so the first cookbook will have thirty-two recipes from the first eight books and the second volume coming out after the sixteenth book in 2024 will have the other thirty-two. This all came about rather organically when Christie Conlee, the personal assistant I hired to run the Facebook page, Tik Tok videos, host random giveaways, dream up promotions, and so on, turned out to be a home baker! How's that for kismet? 

We talked about it on and off for a year, and I had to clear the decks of my schedule so I could wrap my head around this endeavor, but it's finally happening!!!

Last fall, Christie went into a baking/photographing frenzy while I cleaned up the recipes. Now we have ISBNs, and we're on deck with Ingram Spark, while my cover artist, Lyndsey of Llewellen Designs, is working her magic on a cover for us. Yay!!! 

I'm pretty excited and we're hoping to launch the first volume on Sept 6th, 2022!!! 

To celebrate, here's one of the recipes from the cookbook. My very favorite cupcake - the Blonde Bombshell. 

Cupcake and photo by Christie

An almond-flavored cake topped with vanilla buttercream and sprinkled with toasted almonds. 

 3⁄4 cup unsalted butter, softened 

 1 1⁄2 cups sugar
 

2 eggs, at room temperature 

 1 1⁄2 teaspoons almond extract 

 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

 2 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder 

 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
 

2 1⁄2 cups flour
 

1 1⁄4 cups milk 

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar at medium speed, add eggs and milk, and beat until smooth. Beat in extracts. Add dry ingredients, beat until smooth. Fill cupcake liners 2⁄3 full. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Makes 24. 

 Frost with vanilla buttercream and sprinkle with toasted almond slivers. Toasted almonds: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread nuts in one layer on an ungreased, shallow baking pan. Bake for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden. 

 Buttercream Frosting 

 1⁄2 cup solid vegetable shortening
 

1⁄2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened 

 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
 

4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
 

2 tablespoons milk 

 In large bowl, cream shortening and butter. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides of bowl often. Add milk, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. Makes 3 cups of icing.

So, Reds and Readers, have you ever considered publishing your own cookbook? 

**The winner of Lucy's A SCONE OF CONTENTION is Terrie Black! Please email Lucy raisleib @ gmail dot com to make mailing arrangements.

When Word Smithing Turns into Coppersmithing: A visit with Sara Dahmen

JENN McKINLAY: What do you do when your Today Show appearance is canceled because of a pandemic, well, you do the next best thing. You come and visit Jungle Red Writers and share your amazing, glorious, and beautiful book with us! 

Seriously, I was thrilled when Jungle Red friend and author Ellen Byron reached out to me to host Sara Dahmen. I absolutely fell in love with her story and her book -- Copper, Iron, and Clay: A Smith's Journey -- and I know you will, too!

Sara Dahmen: My kids watch Mysteries of the Abandoned with abandon when I let them. One time they even highlighted a lighthouse near Wisconsin, in the middle of Lake Michigan, which brought the whole show closer to home. Mysteries are everywhere when we start to look, even in the mundane every day. Some of those mysteries get started only because we ask the question “why?” and there’s no real answer.

I asked “why?” one too many times five years ago, and it started me down a rabbit hole of metal which was full of mysterious chemistry, vocabulary words like “nanostructures” or “tool & die” (which is an actual aluminum plate, not a new murder term), and the desire to answer questions that didn’t seem to have answers anymore. It was like being a detective, looking at the past and realizing the past bled into the present, but in real life, not a book. What had started as passionate research on pioneer kitchens for my historical novels (TINSMITH 1865 and WIDOW 1881) became a new kind of passion about cookware.

Questions quickly developed, and they weren’t very grammatically correct. Questions such as: “What are you cooking on? What’s it made out of? Who made it? Where is it made? How exactly does it work and why was it used for hundreds of years and yet not anymore?”

These mysteries weren’t easily answered in a Google search, or even looking to libraries. The last book on coppersmithing was published in 1894! Most of the information was locked in the mind of hobbyists, elderly gents who aren’t easy to find. 

Answering these questions meant going so deep into a subject that I turned into a coppersmith – as far as I can tell, the only woman coppersmith building copper cookware in America! Creating a cookware line based on early American cookware, finding an apprenticeship with a retired tinsmith, and taking over my garage with vintage and modern tools to restore and make cookware finally offered information. Turns out, half of the answers were in getting my hands (literally) dirty.

Did you know the term “breaking the mold” comes from blacksmithing? Or that we have changed our cookware and in turn our very stoves in the past 50-ish years based on what metal was left over from WW2? Did you know that until very recently, copper cookware was always lined with tin? How many people do you know who know how to season a cast iron skillet? All this lost information had left our kitchens for myriad reasons, and suddenly I was in possession of it all.

These discoveries to the lost trades and missing links in our kitchens developed into COPPER IRON AND CLAY: A SMITH’S JOURNEY – a full-color, hardcover published by William Morrow/Harper Collins and just hot off the press during the pandemic – that yes, outlines this crazy journey to answer the mysteries of our cookware but also talks about the history of our three basic cooking utinsels, why it works, how it’s built, and what the proper care is for each. Filled with interviews with the major cookware makers – Lodge, Mauviel, Ruffoni – and recipes from me and chefs of all walks, it’s a culmination of cooking, history, and all things copper, iron and clay. Who knew asking “why” about abandoned cookware would result in a book and a career as a coppersmith? Good thing mysteries are everywhere, eh? 

Jenn: Please note, Sara's book received a fabulous review from Publisher's Weekly!

So, Reds and Readers, what's your preferred cookware? And did you ever fall so deeply into research that it fundamentally changed your life?

To celebrate the release of her book, Sara is offering two giveaways! One commenter will win a signed copy of this fabulous book! And another will win copper straws! So cool!




Sara Dahmen is an award-winning writer and entrepreneur, as well as the only female coppersmith in America, manufacturing, restoring, and building copper cookware in her Wisconsin copper shop. 

Sara’s non-fiction book on the history, science, use, and care of cookware, Copper, Iron, and Clay: A Smith’s Journey, (William Morrow/Harper Collins) features her story, recipes, and interviews from the biggest cookware makers in the world, from Lodge to Ruffoni to Mauviel and more. She single-handedly runs her company, House Copper & Cookware, using tools from the 1800s as well as current power tools, and bases all her new designs on lost American cookware shapes, sourcing all materials from the USA. 

Sara has published over 100 articles as a contributing editor for various trade magazines, has written for Edible and Root + Bone, among others, and spoke at TEDx Rapid City on how women should enter the trades in order to save the trades themselves from disappearing. Her historical fiction Flats Junction series (Promontory Press, Inc.), including Tinsmith 1865and Widow 1881, has been critically recognized as well.

In her spare time, Sara sews her family authentic clothing for their 1830’s reenactment camping. Sara lives in the country outside Port Washington, Wisconsin with her three young children (ages 9, 7. And 5) and John, her husband of 14 years.