I was lucky enough to meet Jane at a blogger meet up with UK Blog Awards last year and we have kept in touch ever since. Jane is the sweetest (no pun intended ;P …she actually prefers savoury!) person you can meet and is definitely a girl after my own heart…she has created an eBook full of Christmas treats! Jane spent many years working at Waitrose part time but recently took up full time blogging. If you take a quick glimpse at her incredible following on social media it wouldn’t surprise you…she is ever so popular and rightly so. Click on her links at the bottom of this site and see her amazing creations.
Click here for Jane’s recipe for the featured image of the amazing chocolate doughnuts.
GET TO KNOW JANE
•YOU HAVE JUST BECOME A FULL TIME BLOGGER. WHAT GAVE YOU THE CONFIDENCE TO TAKE THAT LEAP OUT OF EMPLOYMENT?
To be honest, it was partly to do with not wanting to work in customer service anymore, and because I finally thought if I don’t take the leap now… when will I? I knew my statistics had been confidently growing, so I just thought lets go for it!
•DO YOU MISS YOUR WAITROSE DISCOUNTS FOR INGREDIENTS?
Oh yes… I definitely miss it! I rarely used it for ingredients as I usually buy in bulk, but wow I just miss the discount in general haha!
•WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE COLLABORATION SO FAR?
My favourite collaboration so far has probably been with Nestle on a coupe of videos, and I should be doing some more with them as well! They loved the fact that my dog was called Rolo!
•WHAT IS YOUR DREAM BLOGGING COLLABORATION?
Brand wise, there are just too many to mention.. luckily with food, there are so many collaborations out there! It’s just being brave enough to make them happen! Other than that, I’d love to do a baking video or two with Zoella, or Cupcake Jemma, or Juliet Sear!
•ZOELLA MENTIONED YOU IN A VLOG AND FOLLOWS YOU ON TWITTER. HAS THIS HAD AN IMPACT ON YOUR FOLLOWING?
Oh yes definitely! When she baked my Biscoff Cake, it quickly went to the most popular cake on my website and stayed in the top 10 recipes since! My youtube subscribers and twitter followers have also grown since we’ve tweeted each other a couple of times!
BAKING
•WHERE DID YOU LEARN TO BAKE?
Through time really.. apparently my Granny was baking all the time when I was little, I just don’t remember this! I then went to Cookery School in 2014 which quickly improved my skills!
•WHO IS YOUR BAKING HERO/INE?
Mary Berry, the queeeeen.
•WHAT’S YOUR SIGNATURE BAKE?
Probably my Terry’s Chocolate Orange Cheesecake… its my favourite recipe as well!
•WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE CAKE FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY AND WHICH SHOP HAS THE BEST CAKES?
I actually love Carrot Cake the most, so I always bake myself one or ask for one! I quite often will end up with Chocolate Cake as well though..! I always crave a cake or five from Crumbs and Doilies! They always look amazing! But supermarket wise, i’m equal for Waitrose and Marks & Spencers.
•WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST CHALLENGING IN THE KITCHEN AND WHICH RECIPE WOULD YOU SUGGEST FOR A NOVICE?
Is it bad to say staying on top of the cleaning up? Sometimes I’m really good at cleaning as I go, but other times its like a whirlwind has hit and it gets a little stressy! A Victoria Sponge is the most simple recipe. It iss a simple ratio recipe, and its the cake they use to test ovens and such work. Always worth a go!
•DO YOU KNOW OF A GREAT ALTERNATIVE TO BUTTER ICING?
I often suggest a ganache type frosting, which you can make with Dark, Milk or White chocolate so theres no butter at all!
•HOW DO I STOP MY MACARONS FROM COLLAPSING?
You have to really practice with macarons – i’ve had great successes and failures with them. It’s about the ‘macaronage’ stage, where you’ve whipped it all up nicely, folded, and then you have to get it to the correct texture by basically wiping the mixture against the side of the bowl… hard to explain!
•HOW DO I MAKE MY CHOCOLATE SHINY?
The best way is to temper the chocolate, but thats quite a long process really… so its best to store it correctly once melted, and melt it slowly in the first place so the sugar doesn’t bloom and cause the white spots you sometimes get.
QUICK FIRE
CREAM / BUTTER
Cream
CAKE /BISCUIT
Biscuit
CHOCOLATE / SWEETS
Chocolate
HOT CHOCOLATE / COFFEE
Hot Chocolate
CHRISTMAS / EASTER
Easter
SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR
•YOU ARE THE QUEEN OF PINTEREST. HAVE YOU GOT ANY TIPS TO HELP PEOPLE ACE PINTEREST?
Pinterest is one of those ones that can be great one minute, and then a bit mediocre.. but its honestly trying to set some time aside every day (for myself personally) to pin some new pins, and re-pin old ones. You don’t want to just pin your own stuff, you need to branch out! However, even I struggle doing this every day, so I now use Tailwhind, where you can schedule pins. Much easier!
•WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE WANTING TO GROW TO YOUR LEVEL ON INSTAGRAM?
Just keep at it! Interact with other people that you follow, or on hashtags that are relevant to you (such as #Baking) and be regular with your uploading! Try and post a picture every now and again where your followers will tag others and increase your following as well (such as food pictures!).
•WHAT ADVIDE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE WANTING TO GO INTO FULL TIME BLOGGING?
You really can’t rush into it, because of the financial side of things. I ran my blog alongside a job for the first 3 and a bit years, so it wasn’t a quick thing! You have to have a plan laid out, and make sure you stick to a schedule of work before and after going full time. Make sure you work on all aspects of your social media, and just work work work! It will pay off eventually!
SOCIAL LINKS
WEBSITE • YOUTUBE • INSTAGRAM • TWITTER • PINTEREST • EBOOKS
She’s lovely 🙂 xxxx
Author
She really is xx