ABOUT
Willow Bird Baking is the chronicle of the kitchen experiments, successes, failures, discoveries, messes, miracles, and musings of a determined upstart of a baker. It was founded on the belief that the best way to learn to make beautiful, delicious food is to try making beautiful, delicious food.
When I began cooking after college, I started small — with a pan of cupcakes for my boyfriend, Mike. As I continued to build my skills, I realized a truth I hope to pass along to others: perusing other people’s kitchen achievements is entertaining, but accomplishing things in your own kitchen is life changing. Every recipe on Willow Bird Baking (whether fancy, cute, sophisticated, pretty, tasty, decadent, or intense) is achievable for the home cook. I know, because this home cook tested it.
When you pull your first pan of homemade croissants out of the oven or set your gorgeous croquembouche on the dessert buffet, you feel an exhilarating burst of kitchen confidence. That’s my goal for myself and for you. I hope you’ll join in the adventure.
Can I share things from Willow Bird Baking?
Click here if you’re interested in working with Willow Bird Baking (PR inquiries).
Click here to see guidelines for commenting on Willow Bird Baking.
Click here for Willow Bird Baking’s privacy policy.
Contact Julie via email at julie @ willowbirdbaking.com, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
About Julie
When I was a little girl, I was in charge of the rice pilaf. I come from a family passionate about food: my grandma made the biscuits and gravy, my dad made the chicken and dumplings, and my mom made anything and everything, with a flourish of buttercream on top. My parents blazed a trail of fried chicken, homemade macaroni, and angel biscuits from their beginnings in the Midwest to my current home in the South (Charlotte, North Carolina).
That’s where I come from, and this is who I am: a believer, first and foremost, saved by grace. A writer in love with monumental, stirring images. And not least, a wrangler of ingredients and kitchen utensils. I love the challenge of a new recipe, and I love the community created by baking, sharing, eating, and communicating about food. I’ve got a warm space in my heart dedicated to impressing the people I love with something that tastes amazing.
About Byrd
Willow Bird Baking is named after someone very dear to my heart. On April 12, 2008, I drove to Dreamweaver Farms, the home of Carolina Poodle Rescue in Spartanburg, SC. Dozens of beautiful, healthy poodles were playing and milling about in the kennel — all except one, whose eyes were locked on mine from the moment I stepped in the door. I looked at her little face and knew that this was the puppy God had made for me.
Byrd dressed for Halloween as a popular euphemism.
Since then, little Byrd has been a devoted and loving companion, a sweet sister to my handsome turtle, a giver of sloppy kisses, a pillow warmer, a fervent fetcher, and the best cookin’ buddy anyone can ask for. See if you can catch her in the background of some of my photos sleeping on the back of the couch or pining for a bit of cupcake!
All photos and words on this site are the work of Julie Ruble unless otherwise noted, and they represent a lot of hard work. Please do not use any photos or text from Willow Bird Baking without first contacting juruble ‘at’ gmail ‘dot’ com and receiving written permission.
{ 73 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Julie! I think you and I should start the “I like to have at least 3 blogs at one time club” ;D
No, really, I was excited to see this new development, I love reading about your baking experiences, it’s actually kind of inspired me to photograph and chronicle a few of my own, although mine are a bit more haphazard…as am I
But there is something nice about making the whole thing a kind of event to be blogged about…
Anyways, YAY for the new blog!
Hey Becca! HA I like your club idea!
I completely agree about treating cooking (or any creative process) as an event to be blogged about. It really changes my attitude about it. I’m eager to execute things well and share them, and I think I enjoy the process more envisioning the blog post at the end! This kind of makes me feel like this, but oh well!
Thanks for reading!! Are your baking endeavors on your blog? I’m off to check!
Soo.. after reading this I wholeheartedly think you should have your own book/movie.. you know Julie & Julia.. except maybe Julie & .. okay haven’t gotten that far.. but that’s not the point..
how fun to chronicle your baking!
Thank you, Alisa!! I’m so excited to see the movie (Julie & Julia). Maybe I could work toward a Julie & Julia 2? I would love to try
I love the comic! It’s so true! When I was little, I used to narrate my day in my head, describing details and events like it were a book someone was going to read…blogging is much the same, except, there’s an actual audience (or opportunity for one!)
Hey Julie!
I love reading your blogs and checking out all your new recipes you have posted and I am always eager to see what is yet to come!
I have friends/family who enjoy cooking so I have sent them a link to your website to read/try things out that they might enjoy!
Keep the recipes (and pictures of delicious looking food) coming!
Thank you, Nicki!! And thanks for sending the link! I hope they’ll enjoy it.
Hi Julie,
your cooking looks delish! I’m inspired by good cooks like you to make my own blog. Thanks for the inspiration!
blessings, Rachel
Thank you, Rachel! I’m so glad you’re going the blogging route — it’s been so much fun for me!
You go girl! It’s always so exciting to visit blogs and see that other people are as excited about food and creating delicious meals and nibbles for their loved ones. I am enjoying your blog, thanks for sharing with us all.
just found your blog, can’t wait to keep reading
Hi Julie,
I have watched your baking adventures through the BakeBakeBake community and always found them inspiring. I was curious about the face behind all this deliciousness, and stumbled upon your ‘about’ page. I must say I can connect to your fealings of making people happy with baked goods. I myself have a nerdy boyfriend like Mike who is always willing to try anything I make. Your Valentine post is very sweet! I am planning on making a heart-shaped red velvet cake for my Love. Well, keep up the good work and I look forward to your next creations
Greetings, Anouschka
Hi,
Great blog…not usually a fan of sweet, but that carrot cake looks awesome!
Hey Julie–
Happy belated birthday and anniversary! I have a question. Have you every looked into desserts sweetened without refined sugars? Also, where can we send handwritten (or drawn by Lilla) fan mail? We love your website and drool every time you post something new.
Love ya!
Aw, thank you so much, Ayisha! I would love mail from Lilla (and the littlest bean when he, you know, develops fine motor skills
I’m going to email you because we need to catch up. Congrats on selling your house!
My mom is a big fan of using various sweeteners — she’s done things with honey, agave, stevia, etc. I haven’t even looked into it, but will have to do so!
Julie! I just stumbledupon your blog! That’s so exciting, I feel like you’re famous
Yay! That’s so funny! It’s been a StumbleUpon heavy day — the carrot cake waffles are drumming up a ton of traffic. Love it.
Hi Julie–would you know that I stumbled upon your blog via Smitten Kitchen in the comment section. I feel like I rarely hit the other commentors (my word) and if I do, I only visit once or twice. At least from a bigger blog like Deb’s with 100s of comments a post.
Anyway, I sense a kindred baker spirit when I see & read one. I am taken by the treats you make for your loved ones and what it means to you to creatively love them in this tangible way. From the Pacific Northwest
Kamille
Welcome, Kamille! So glad you stumbled in from Deb’s
Thanks so much for your kind words!
What a lovely name and site. “Willow bird” – just makes me think of a bird sitting outside a window chirping while there’s something sweet in the oven.
Thank you, Lorraine!
Julie,
Glad you stumbled upon my blog so that I could find yours. All your recipes make me very hungry…
Nikki
Thanks, Nikki
hey Julie! I’m a believer in charlotte too and just randomly happened across your site — lovely! would love to bake together and experiment with you anytime!
Hey Shelly! That would be so fun! Love meeting other Charlotteans
awesome website. I absolutely love the cheesecake!
Thank you, Charlotte
your french toast was one of my faves at the tasting pavillion! happy to have found your blog.
Aw, thanks so much, Lynn!! I’m so glad you liked it!
I don’t have my own blog but I vote on the Project Food Blog every week and I just wanted to say I was never a fan of cheesecake but after watching your video, I think I may have been converted. You made it look so easy and yummy!
Hurray, a cheesecake convert!! Thanks, Nikki
I’m happy to have you reading!
Just spotted my brownie cheesecake on here lol loving it! i have another project in the pipeline, red velvet white brownie cheesecake!?!
i would love to see anything similar on here- you are the cheesecake Queen!
xx
I have followed you at the food_porn LJ community for a while now, and love your blog! I’ve just begun a cooking blog myself (at the request of family and friends) and have you linked on my page. You have inspired me to make a culinary goals list of sorts of things I would like to learn to fix during the next year. Your croquembouche cake was the spark!
What a wonderful comment to receive! Thank you SO much. I love your blog and will enjoy keeping up with it!
I happened upon your blog from your Lemon Triumph Cake recipe on the Tipnut site and I have to say that I am very excited about looking through your blog and working my way through all the yummy things! I have recently had to go gluten free, so I will hopefully be experimenting with some of your recipes to see if they will still work with gluten free flours. My mom left our family when I was very young, so my twin brother and I grew up experimenting in the kitchen. There was no one around to tell us we were doing something wrong, so we became very creative with our cooking (sometimes much to the chagrin of my father and brothers). Now I have 5 little boys of my own and I hope to pass on the same love for food and creativity that was unwittingly given to me as I grew up. My brother’s love grew into making delectable entrees, where mine has focused more on the baking side of things. Thanks so much for sharing your ideas and inspiring the rest of us to be a little bit bolder than we might have been before we visited.
hi julie – i loved your stories and recipes!! .. can’t wait to try out your red velvet cheesecake!! I love baking myself, please feel free to check out my cheesecake website and facebook page at http://www.deesdelite.com (where I posted a vid of you this morning!). Hope you like it!! Sending you sweet wishes, xo! – dee
Julie! I absolutely adore your blog. I also teach Language Arts and do the bakery thing, but I am not yet at your level. Maybe some day. I taught in South Korea with your sister for a while, and adored her as well. Anyway, I just wanted to reach out and offer my congratulations and words of admiration on everything you’re doing here. I know you’re likely a very busy lady, but if you get a moment, perhaps you could hit me back. Any bakery-starting advice is more than welcome! You’re a rock star!
Hello…again (slightly embarassed look on face). I found this part of your page and decided to write on it as well. I previously left a comment on your Charlotte Observer piece. Again, congrats. I’m sure you can’t get enough of the compliments, right? Well, I just wanted to share my blog, I am not exactly sure how you want us to upload a picture, but I figured the best way to do this is just to let you know about our blog. I’m from Charlotte and my husband is from Bogotá, Colombia. We’re living in Colombia and we created this food blog as a way to share our cooking experience with family, friends and the world. I hope you have some time in your busy schedule to take a look or at least reply to this comment. Oh, and I love the fact that you respond to almost every comment. I do the same, because I feel like it’s only fitting to “give back” to those who take out time in their day to say something nice about your work. Ok, Oprah moment over. I’ll let you go.
I love it! French toast and enchiladas — you make the kind of recipes I love
Thanks for sharing and visiting!
Hi Julie! I stumbled across your blog this morning while searching for some homemade cereal recipes (yours look great, by the way!). I absolutely love your blog. You seem so sweet and your zest and passion for cooking/baking, and life in general, is so inspiring. Just wanted to let you know. So excited to try some of your recipes! ~Sara
Hi Julie! I discovered the most wonderful place over the weekend and I had to tell you about it! It is THE CRUSHED OLIVE in Hickory. They sell THE most amazing olive oils and balsamic vinegars and best of all you can taste any or all of them!!! I bought a raspberry balsamic ( which we had over fruit salad. Delicious.) and…wait for the angels to sing…an espresso balsamic.I can hardly wait to try it over vanilla ice cream or in a bbq sauce. I think you will really love this store.
Ms. Ruble,
I just made a banana pudding all by myself I’m so proud! It was the recipe from Our State: North Carolina magazine. They have so many good southern comfort foods. you should make a new twist on banana pudding or banana cream pie, that would be awesome!
-Andrew Nielsen
Hooray, Andrew!! You should be proud! That sounds amazing — banana pudding is one of my favorites. I love your idea about making a fun twist on it — I’ll have to start brainstorming! Congrats on your success in the kitchen!
Okay, Julie, I’m a wreck here. My children will be up in 7 hours, there’s laundry everywhere, and I should probably shower today (yes, it’s 11 p.m.). I’m barely managing my time between raising the kiddos and writing my blog and finishing a book (because what else will I do during their naptimes? Clean?) and having actual conversations with my husband…and then I see your blog. And I realize that I am sca-rewed for time management now because I will be on here all the time, making whatever it is you throw my way. Especially if it looks as easy and awesome as those sopapilla/cheesecakes bars.
So thank you. And I’m off to bed, because apparently I have some ingredients to purchase first thing…
LOL I’ve created a monster
Don’t worry, your family will get over the clothes and lack of conversations when they try a bite! 
Thanks for visiting, Leah!
Hi Julie!
I found your blog from following a link on pinterest, and after wasting a few good hours that I should’ve been spending in the studio on it, I realized that you’re from Charlotte! Crazy small world. Let’s hope you open up a cafe of epicurean delights some day so that I can pop by and visit. In the meantime – I’ll be trying out some of your recipes once break rolls around and I have time to eat things other than microwave-in-the-bag edamame.
Thanks for sharing all of the eye candy, look forward to future posts.
- Sarah
Aww, thanks for stopping by, Sarah! I love finding fellow Charlotte foodies — we should get together sometime!
In the meantime, hope you love the recipes!
I love your website–you really do make it seem like it’s doable for anyone to bake. I love to bake…just don’t know what to do with it all once it’s done! My husband doesn’t like to take it to work–he’s too shy even though I bet his coworkers would like it. But still, thanks for sharing all your talent. It’s helping me regain my confidence in the kitchen and hopefully will pass that love on to my toddler! If you are ever in the University area, give me a buzz
Aw, thanks Kristina! I bet his coworkers would like it too! He can always leave it in a common area with a sign so he doesn’t have to announce that he brought a cake. LOL. I love that you’re a Charlottean, too! I’m up by Northlake Mall. We should hang out!
I really love your blog!!
It was truly an inspiration when I decided to start my own food blog a few days ago!
Nicole, your food blog is looking so fantastic!! I love that WBB could be an inspiration for you
Thanks so much for reading!
my bichon shitzu Rufus has the same Halloween costume. but… it didn’t last long on him.
LOL, Byrd definitely only tolerated it long enough for that photo (and just look at that face).
How do you weigh anything less than 900 pounds when you can bake like you do? Congratulations!
LOL, I have to mind my food very carefully and eat my dessert only on the weekend
Thanks, Lora.
I know you get this a lot. As in a lot and I don’t mind adding up… I think you’re great and of course, inspiring for an aspiring chef like me. Your name should be awesome. Really, you have my support.
Aw, thank you so much, Chee! What a sweet thing to say.
So glad I found your blog via @FoodBloggersNetwork ! It’s a gorgeous site & I can’t seem to leave it. All your recipes and photographs are have me glued. Thanks and I’ll be back for more!
Thank you, Elizabeth!!
Love this site!!!! I was looking for the A&P Spanish Bar Cake and came upon your site. I remember this cake from when I was a child. My brother also loved this cake and when he found out I had found the recipe, he asked for it right away. I am going to give the cake a whirl and hope it turns out as good as yours looks. Thanks for sharing!
Aw, thank you, Wanda! Let me know what you all think! Hope it’s just what you remember!
I got directed to this blog by clicking on the tumblr post someone made about your mouthwatering Gooey Chocolate Skillet Cake Ice Cream Sundae recipe. Landing on that very page i was scrolling for the ingredients and instructions thinking where the heck is it? You have to know im like the most impatient person I know so I’m deeply ashamed I have to admit I was too quick in thinking “okay there is no recipe” and closed the website. Seconds later I thought – no! It’s a food blog, there’s gotta to be a recipe and this cake looked to good to let it go unnoticed. So i went back to your website, scrolled again, found the recipe and even found myself reading the story you posted along with it.
What can I say… I loved it! I am a very visual person therefore I develop a little movie in my head for whatever I’m reading and with your detailled description of your experiences from back then you had me giggling, amazed and even sheding a little tear. I can’t even say what it was but this story especially the part with the stars had me all emotional.
I love reading about events, experiences, any occurrences that change people in a certain way. I’m sure I’ve had certain things happening to me although I can’t recall one right away.
Anyway your blog went right into my bookmarks. I love the drive and ambition behind that blog.
Keep on spreading the good reads as well as the recipes for, well, the delis i find on here.
Aw, Marlene, that is just too sweet! Thank you so much for your kind words and for reading!!
Julie, it was such a delightful accident that I came across this blog. most blogs that I finally find, are done. the author has moved on. the website is no longer updated. it just stands there in the rain..
what a relief to find a sheltered blog! the author ( and buddy, Lil Byrd) still out and about .. cooking up great adventures to take us all on!
I know that all things have there time in the sun, I am just grateful, for once, to come across a blog still basking !
All the best!
ps: love the recipes. I so miss cooking! you bring the anticipation of outcome back to home!
Blue
Hi Julie!
Just found your blog through your post in a A Cup of Jo!
I tried the cobbler recipe this weekend, and it was amazing!! Really, it has already become one of my favorite desserts!!
Your blog is beautiful and the recipes look delicious!!
I look forward to trying other ones!
Mariel
Aw, that makes me so happy to hear, Mariel! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!! Thank you!
Julie,
You are the mutual hero of my wife and I. ALL of your recipes that my wife has tried have been amazing! Awesome to see another believer who is not afraid of letting anyone know.
I can already picture you someday in Glory, with a kitchen of never -ending ingredients, and pots, pans and utensils that never need washed. OH! what a day that will be!
Keep baking!
Aww, Matt, that is too sweet! Thank you! And YES, what a wonderful day that will be!!
Julie, I love your blog and your recipes are a great inspiration to me. I love your blog so much that I have nominated you for The Very Inspiring Blogger Award. Check it out: http://thecookingchook.wordpress.com/acknowledgements/
Found you through an article on Ina Garten. Can’t wait to start trying some of your recipes.
Aw, thanks Cathie! Welcome!
I stumbled upon your blog through a mutual facebook friend and read your golden raisin piece. Simply charming writing style. We should be besties, and thank you for making my nearly identical personality seem delightful and not just neurotic. I look forward to following Willowbird!
I read about your bakery in southern Living. I love to cook and baking is my favorite. Our thoughts on food are the same – I feel it is something everyone has to experience to appreciate. Where is your bakery located in Charlotte. I love to take my grandchildren out for a cookie or muffin at a bakery. The bakeries we have found in Charlotte are not inspiring. As I live in England part of the year, baking has made us many friends and “opened doors ” . The Brits are great cooks, but do not make biscuits (cookies ) as we do ,…..even with my receipes. They use self-rising flour with everything and I think that makes the difference. Hope to hear from you as to directions to your bakery.
Cheers,
Brenda
{ 5 trackbacks }