It’s 10 years since hobbyist baker Jane Dunn started her career with a modest food blog. Since then, her status has risen, like her delicious cakes, to social media stardom and sent her books into the bestselling stratosphere.
Now described as the ‘Mary Berry of the Instagram age’, her debut book, Jane’s Patisserie, became the fastest-selling baking book of all time, selling 44,000 copies in its first three days after publication, followed by other bestsellers and a social media following of more than two million.
Dunn, now 31, whose idols growing up were Dame Mary Berry and the Hairy Bikers, finds the sweet treats baking success quite surreal. “It was something I just started as a hobby and I can’t quite comprehend the fact that I’m still doing this 10 years on, with four books and millions of people following my journey.”
Her success has brought with it a confidence which her younger self didn’t have, growing up a shy, reticent teenager near Portsmouth, who chose catering college over university and had a succession of jobs, while in her spare time pursuing her love of baking.
“Both my parents were teachers, so I felt a little bit scared to be the one who didn’t want to go to university, but they were the most supportive they could have been.”
She took over her parents’ kitchen, used their cupboard space for her ingredients and would try out her recipes on them and their friends. “They had a lot of cake to eat,” she recalls.
It took two years for the food blog to gain traction, and a further two years before she could give up her other jobs, while Dunn learned SEO and other techy tricks of the trade and utilised other social media platforms including TikTok and YouTube.
She is returning back to basics with her fourth book, Jane’s Patisserie: Easy Favourites featuring sweet and savoury bakes with hacks to make every thing faster, hassle-free and easier, latest recipes include apple crumble cake, tiramisu cup cakes and feta garlic muffins.
The success of the blog, the social media channels and the bestselling books have changed her life, she agrees.
“It’s shown me that, as somebody who was quite shy, quite nervous, not really confident in what they were doing, if you love something, it’s 100% worth following. It (baking) gave me so much more confidence.”
She’s was one of the judging panel of the Queen’s Jubilee Platinum Pudding competition, alongside Monica Galetti and Dame Mary Berry, and has made numerous TV appearances on James Martin’s Saturday Kitchen and ITV’s This Morning, recalling that she was so nervous the first time she was on TV that her family could see her shaking while pouring sugar into a bowl.
“It’s very weird for me, as when I was a child I was terrified of everything, I had absolute stage fright, but I can now go and do that confidently.”
She watches each new series of The Great British Bake Off. “I could never deal with the time constraint, the stress, how do they do it?
“I swear chocolate week is always the hottest week of the year, so it’s always going to melt, but it’s showing how you can still do something, and have fun with it, which is really important.”
She tries out her new recipes on her boyfriend, a graphic designer, and her family and friends.
Dunn still lives in the South of England with her dog and two cats but has a separate studio kitchen where she researches and tests her recipes, photographs the dishes and does her writing. Her team comprises a social media assistant and a videographer. Dunn does everything else.
“I like discovering new trends. For example, all things pistachio seem to be really popular right now so we’ll try that if it’s what people want.”
She puts the success of her blog and her books down to simplicity.
“I think my recipes are simple, they’re popular favourites, I’m trying to make it as accessible as possible. Everyone feels they are allowed to give it a go. It’s not intimidating. I only ever buy ingredients you can buy in supermarket. You can make it if you have a mixer, or if you just have a bowl and a spoon.”
Are there any golden rules of baking?
“The best rule is to make sure you read the recipe at least twice and always make sure to weigh out your ingredients first.”
Don’t worry about making mistakes
“I’m a regular person, I’ve dropped stuff as soon as it’s come out of the oven, I’ve forgotten to put sugar in before, because I didn’t read a recipe. But if anything fails, I try to make something else with it. So, if a cake is a bit dense I might dry it out a bit more and turn it into a biscuit, so I still get something out of it.”
Use the freezer
“You can freeze leftovers for another day. Cakes freeze really well. I always wrap my cake in a double layer of cling film and then a layer of foil when I’m freezing it, then thaw it in the fridge. There’s no waste.
“I did a hack recently where you can make raw cookie dough, freeze it as raw and then if you have a craving you can just pop it in the oven frozen, add one or two minutes to the baking time and you can have a freshly baked cookie whenever you want.”
Bake on the barbecue
“I recently made a pineapple upside-down cake in a cake tin on a barbecue with indirect heat – where your coals are one side and your food is the other side – and it was the perfect sponge.”
It requires a lid, and you’ll need heat deflectors if you have a gas barbecue, making sure the heat isn’t directly below the cake tin, she advises.
Learn from others
“I’ve met Mary Berry on the Platinum Pudding competition and she was just so inspiring. She said you’ve got to cook what you want to eat and have fun with it.
“I don’t think everybody knows everything about cooking or baking and I think hearing tips and tricks from other people always benefit you to be open-minded.”
Jane’s Patisserie: Easy Favourites by Jane Dunn is published by Ebury Press, priced £22. Available now
