What Being a Full-Time Recipe Developer Looks Like
to me, and currently, in this ever changing landscape!
hi hi hello!
A while ago someone asked, how I can afford to bake all the time and if I had a “real job” supplementing all the baking I do. I’m not sure why, but this question has really stuck with me. Because baking is my job, my real job. But, then again, this person most definitely meant no harm with the question and they just don’t know my background.
I’ve been baking professionally since 2016, when I got my first bakery job. I worked in bakeries in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco until 2020. While working in San Francisco, I got my first recipe-developer opportunity working at Mr.Holmes Bakehouse, which relocated me down in LA in late 2019 (where I was laid off from in 2020). From there I went on to operate a micro cake bakery, with occasional pastry box drops, from my apartment in LA. During that time I juggled, not only baking everything for the cakes + boxes, but, also dabbling in sharing videos + recipes. Eventually, I took a step away from cake to pursue recipe development full-time. Here we are now, with the sparks notes version refresher. So, yeah, I can bake all the time, because it’s my job. Even when I don’t wanna bake, I’ve gotta bake. Blessing & a curse if ya ask me!
Aside, from that inquiry, there’s always a ton of interest in what being a recipe developer looks like. So, it’s time for a little peek behind the curtain!! Back in August, I did a little Q&A answering the questions like “How to develop a recipe from scratch?” and “how to get started creating recipes?” Which you can read here:
Today’s recipe developer deep dive is gonna cover more of the “ways you can make money doing this shit” stuff. I do wanna say that, every single recipe developer has a different journey, there is no hard and fast path to breaking into this space, so I can only speak on my journey and experience!
I shared on Tik Tok, the different ways I make money as a recipe developer because *hint hint* it’s not solely video views. I do not post consistently or care enough to jump through all of the crazy hoops the algorithm has set up for us, or finger blasting SEO to try and make it on the explore/For you pages. I make a video that I’m happy with and post it. If it hits, it hits- that’s my strategy. An ineffective one if you’re looking to game the algorithm to become a full-time content creator. Which, I’m not. Well, not actively at least.
While, I do overshare on the internet often with a “little” bit of a following. Little in the social media scheme of things (micro-influencer blah blah) but yeah, if seventy-seven THOUSAND people showed up to my kitchen while I made a cake.. I’d have a nervous break down… it’s a lot of people! But, I’m losing the plot here.
What I’m saying is, full-time content creator? No. Full-time recipe developer? Yes. While, there are FT developers who are also FT content creators, that isn’t me. I do most of my work…. look out a window for me really quick, out there- in the real world, for now that is. This job has changed a lot for me over the past few years, because I have talked about this journey before and since last we spoke about it, much has shifted.
As a recipe developer I (mainly) make money, 6 different ways:
Consulting
Branded work (content collaborations + ghost developing)
Paid subscribers here on Substack
Social Media video views (abysmal pay, I’m not sure we should even count it, but I get taxed on it so, we are)
Large scale event orders
Cookbook Recipe Testing
Consulting:
So, this is when I work with a business on their menu in some capacity. It can be smaller projects, like revamping menu items. To something much larger, like developing an entire program from the ground up. Or taking a look at maximizing efficiency of current systems to help a business scale- like I did with Out of Thin Air last month, which you can read about here. For jobs like these, it’s more than just developing the recipes. I’m putting together order lists, calculating food-costs, helping to set-up the logistics of the kitchen etc. (If you’re a business looking for a consulting, reach out here).
Branded work:
Branded work manifests itself two different ways for me: content collabs and ghost developing.
So, for content collabs, a brand will reach out for some good ole social promotion. It’ll include the recipe as well as photos and/or videos on the final product or recipe being made to be posted to my channels. You’ve seen it a hundred times before from other creators, nothing new.
Then, there’s what I like to call ghost developing. Which is the same thing, where I develop a recipe for a brand, except my name isn’t on it and I’m not obligated to promote a product, hence ghost developing. These recipes show up on branded blogs, on the little inserts the come in the box when you order a product, wherever the brand wants really. This is a good option for me (and the brands) because when doing a paid sponsorship, I try to work with brands I already love + use and have some sort of a previous relationship with, that I feel good about sharing with y’all. I don’t want to promote a brand just because they’re paying me to. This way, I’m able to offer brands the development they need, usually more aligned with their budget too, and get work at the same time.
Paid Subscribers:
I also have a paid tier to this newsletter, which if you are one of those who pay for this newsletter- thank you, thank you, thank you so much for the support.
Now, the money that is generated from paid subscriptions goes right back into the newsletter. To making sure I’m able to provide y’all with throughly tested recipes. Right now, I’m on version 16 of my ideal base ice cream recipe. At this point it maybe feels like I’m splitting hairs. But, I want to provide you guys with the best recipes possible always. Something I’m actually proud of- and recipes that I’d actually call back to time and time again. Not, just something that was “okay enough” to share. With the support of paying subscribers, I am able to do that. Because yeah… 16 rounds of ice cream testing, and girl— that’s a lot of heavy cream, eggs and lactaid at this point.
Perks to the paid tier include: Full access to recipes— free and exclusive ones as well as access to the bake chats group chat. In the group chat you can share pics of what your baking, ask around for recipe/flavor guidance from the group, whatever you wanna chat about really.
Social Media Views:
While, I’m not ultra consistent on posting to Tik Tok right now because I’m finding more joy in writing for this newsletter. I am apart of the Creator Rewards Program- meaning that for every 1000 unique videos views I get (on videos over a minute long), from videos seen on the explore page- I get x amount of money(RPM). So not all views convert into cold hard cash.
I know I said I don’t post enough for this to be viable income but, it’s still a substantial amount (sometimes). The money I make from Tik Tok goes back into upgrading things for Tik Tok- better mics, kitchen equipment upgrades etc.
Large scale event orders:
Some of you know that I used to run a cake micro bakery, which I’ve since closed down to small one off celebration cakes. But, I still take on the occasional large event order. Things like weddings- ofc but also, just orders at a large scale with more of a creative edge. Like, if the projects scrathes an artistic desire I’ll prob fold and book it. But, things like baking for brand events/ lauches, Emmy’s after parties etc fall under this umbrella. Really anything that meets my order minimum and is artistically driven.
If you’re looking to order, you can reach out here ♡
Cookbook Recipe Testing:
While I have no plans to write my own cookbook. I do recipe testing for (and sometimes developing) other developers cookbooks. I’ll cross test their developed recipes to make sure the work as written. I give notes based on my experience baking through their recipes. Things like, yeah this recipe was great but, the verbiage for step 7 was a little confusing. The recipe says bake for 35-40 minutes but it actually took an hour in my oven.
Then from a developing aspect for cookbooks- it can either be fully developing something for a book, more like a ghost writer. Or, more often, helping to refine and get a recipe to it’s final and full potential. Like, oh we have this great concept and we’ve worked it for a while but we need a little help getting it where we want it to be.
In my case it’s more of a collaborative effort when I work with cookbook authors. But, a lot of authors just need someone to test the recipes. Especially from a home baker perspective. If this is something you’re interested in, keep an eye out for when your fave food writer post’s their publishing house book announcement and assume that at some point in the process they might need a small team of testers.
So, that’s every way I make money as a freelance recipe developer and an idea of some of the paths you can choose to follow if you’re looking to pursue this career. Up next is a Q&A with all your burning RD questions: