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Today I want to share a new way of formatting recipes that I’ve been working on. It’s designed to be:
Here’s an example recipe for Pineapple Upside-Down Cake using this new format:
1) Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Prepare a 9-inch round cake pan.
2) For the topping, melt and combine:
- 🧈 Unsalted butter, 1/4 cup (56g)
- 🍬 Brown sugar, 1/2 cup (100g)
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly.
3) Arrange on top of the sugar mixture:
- 🍍 Pineapple slices, 8–10 rings
- 🍒 Maraschino cherries, 15–20 (place one in the center of each pineapple ring)
4) In a medium bowl, whisk together:
- 🍚 Cake flour, 1 1/2 cups (177g)
- 🥄 Baking powder, 1 tsp
- 🥄 Baking soda, 1/4 tsp
- 🧂 Salt, 1/2 tsp
5) In a large bowl, cream together:
- 🧈 Unsalted butter, 6 tbsp (85g), softened
- 🍬 Granulated sugar, 3/4 cup (150g)
6) Add to the creamed mixture:
- 🥚 Egg whites, 2 large
- 🥄 Vanilla extract, 1 tsp
- 🥄 Sour cream, 1/3 cup (80g)
- 🍍 Pineapple juice, 1/4 cup (60ml)
- 🥛 Milk, 2 tbsp (30ml)
Mix until well combined.
7) Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.
8) Pour the batter over the arranged pineapple and cherries in the pan, spreading it evenly.
9) 🔥 Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 40–50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
10) ⏲ Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Then, invert it onto a serving plate.
11) Serve warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!
Essentially, recipe steps are broken down into verb phrases, which include a bullet pointed, emoji-prefixed list of the recipes which that step is operating on. One of the things that always gets me when working on a new recipe is trying to find the baking information (temp/time), and forgetting exactly how much of each ingredient is necessary for each step ( because the amounts are only written at the top of the recipe).
This format is particularly helpful when cooking because it organizes ingredients by when they’re used, rather than listing them all at the beginning. This means less scrolling back and forth when following a recipe!
With modern advances in AI, it’s really easy to request recipes in this format as well. All that you need to do is copy in a starter recipe as a template, and ask for the LLM to give you a new recipe in the same format.
One of the things that I really like about it, is that the ingredients are listed in the order that they are used, with their measurements - but they are still easy to read if you are creating a shopping list.
Here is the recipe again formatted a little more prettily, for comparison.
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Prepare a 9-inch round cake pan.
For the topping, melt and combine:
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly.
Arrange on top of the sugar mixture:
In a medium bowl, whisk together:
In a large bowl, cream together:
Add to the creamed mixture:
Mix until well combined.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.
Pour the batter over the arranged pineapple and cherries in the pan, spreading it evenly.
🔥 Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 40–50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
⏲ Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Then, invert it onto a serving plate.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!