Bake it happen: the iconic women who turned baking into a business

Let’s face it - cakes, bakes, and all manner of sweet indulgence have the power to comfort, to celebrate, and even to change lives. So it’s only right we honour the women who’ve given us decades of inspiration, not to mention temptation.

From trailblazing pioneers who taught wartime Britain to make do with rations, to glamorous TV chefs, innovative restaurateurs, and social media stars, these women have taken baking from a simple pleasure and whisked it into an art form, and, for many, a thriving business, thus setting their place as true icons of the industry.

Whether they’ve wowed us with showstoppers, stirred up the best cake recipes, reinvented beloved classics, or simply just inspired us to pick up a whisk ourselves, their influence endures. So grab a slice, settle in, and meet the women who changed the way we bake.

The iconic women who turned baking into a business

Jane Asher

Long before celebrity baking was a TV staple, Jane Asher was whipping up a home-baking empire. In the 1980s and 1990s, her Jane Asher Party Cakes & Sugarcraft shop in Chelsea and bestselling decorating books inspired a generation to roll, pipe, and sprinkle with style. But she didn’t stop there, as her range of bakeware, icing tools, and ready-to-use mixes went from mail-order must-haves to high street staples, landing everywhere from Poundland and Home Bargains to Amazon and eBay.

Fiona Cairns

Created right from her kitchen, Fiona has grown her luxury cake brand into something truly special, supplying Waitrose, Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges, Liberty, and even the Ritz with her elegant baking creations. Her seasonal cookbook Seasonal Baking remains a firm favourite among aspiring bakers, with its host of stylish yet straightforward recipes that can be made throughout the year. But her defining moment to date came in 2011, when Fiona was commissioned to bake the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding cake; an eight‑tier fruit cake intricately adorned with 900 handcrafted sugar decorations and floral motifs that paid homage to the four UK nations, all shaped by Kate and William’s romantic vision.

Fannie Farmer

Known as the “mother of level measurements”, Fannie Farmer revolutionised American baking with her trail-blazing 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, introducing precise teaspoon, tablespoon, and cup measurements that made recipes reliable and replicable for the home cook. What’s more, her recipe book featured early versions of iconic American cakes like angel food and devil’s food, helping to popularise them across the nation, and later, the world.

Mary Berry

Undeniably the queen of British baking, Dame Mary Berry’s career spans nearly six decades. A Le Cordon Bleu alumna, she’s authored over 70 cookbooks, including the best-selling Baking Bible. A familiar face on TV, she's hosted numerous BBC shows like Mary Berry Cooks and Mary Berry's Foolproof Cooking, and starred as a judge on The Great British Bake Off from 2009 until 2016. In 2021, she was appointed Dame Commander for her services to cooking and writing, and in 2025, she celebrated her 90th birthday, releasing a commemorative cookbook, Mary 90: My Very Best Recipes.

Julia Childs

Although proudly American, Julia Child became the nation’s beloved emissary of French patisserie and home baking. Her 1961 landmark cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking brought precision, structure, and approachable elegance to American home cooks, making complex pastries and classics achievable. On television, most remarkably in The French Chef, her unquenchable enthusiasm, infectious warmth and fearless embrace of mishaps that she cheekily termed "teachable moments" transformed cooking into an uplifting, imperfect experience that inspired many generations of wannabe bakers and chefs.

Two Fat Ladies (Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright)

Lovingly known and self-titled as The Two Fat Ladies, Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright practically became a British institution, ruling culinary TV from 1996 to 1999 as they toured the UK in their Triumph Thunderbird and sidecar while whipping up indulgently rich, unapologetic comfort food in grand, often unexpected kitchens. Their signature blend of aristocratic charm, body-positive spirit, and generous passion for buttered, cream-laden cooking made them cult icons, with their cookbooks remaining stalwarts for home bakers who want their baking unashamed and full of calories and character.

Mrs Beeton

Think baking and you have to think Mrs Beeton! Her famous Book of Household Management (first published in 1861) wasn’t just any cookbook; it was the encyclopedic guide to Victorian domestic life. Structured recipes with ingredients, methods, timings, and even cost estimates revolutionised how people cooked and also managed their households, remaining a staple reference well into the next century. The book also contains what is said to be the earliest known recipe for the Victoria sponge, helping to cement the light, elegant cake as the quintessential British teatime classic.

Nigella Lawson

Without question, Nigella single-handedly made baking sexy! Though she isn’t exclusively a baker, she transformed home baking into an act of pleasurable indulgence, with her signature sultry blend of wit, warmth, and a wickedly relatable charm. Her book How to Be a Domestic Goddess (2000) saw her win Author of the Year, while her debut book How to Eat (1998) changed everything in the kitchen and remains a modern classic. On TV, she charmed audiences with shows like Nigella Bites, Simply Nigella, Nigella Express, Cook, Eat, Repeat, and more.

Prue Leith

A trailblazer in British culinary education, Prue Leith first made her mark in the 1960s, catering for business lunches, before opening her Michelin-starred restaurant, Leith’s, in 1969 and later founding the renowned Leith’s School of Food and Wine in 1975, which has trained professionals and amateurs ever since. An accomplished author, she’s penned dozens of cookbooks, like Leith’s Cookery Bible, as well as fiction and a memoir. On TV, she was a judge on Great British Menu (2006–2016) before stepping into The Great British Bake Off from 2017 onward. Her leadership in food education and broadcasting earned her honours, including OBE, CBE, and a DBE in 2021 for services to food, charity, and broadcasting.

Ruth Wakefield

Love chocolate chip cookies? Then you have Ruth Wakefield to thank! Co-owner of the Toll House Inn (with her husband Kenneth) in Whitman, Massachusetts, Ruth created the chocolate chip cookie in 1938 by adding chopped pieces of a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar to her biscuit dough. Instead of melting, the chocolate held its shape, and the new treat became an instant hit. She famously sold the recipe to Nestlé in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate, prompting the company to print it on their chocolate chip packaging and, in 1939, introduce chocolate morsels (small, sweet chocolate pieces, similar to chocolate chips, designed for baking), making her creation a home-baking staple.

Nadiya Hussain

Nadiya Hussain not only won The Great British Bake Off in 2015 but also won the hearts of a nation, quickly becoming a beloved national treasure celebrated for championing diversity, mental health awareness, and the simple joys of baking. Her TV repertoire includes The Chronicles of Nadiya, Nadiya’s British Food Adventure, Nadiya Bakes, and Nadiya’s Time to Eat. She’s penned dozens of books, from Nadiya Bakes to her memoir Finding My Voice. A defining moment came when she was commissioned to bake an orange drizzle cake with orange curd, buttercream, and a marmalade glaze for Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday.

Katherine Sabbath

Australian Katherine Sabbath has gained a global following through her Instagram-fueled cake creativity and pop-up workshops. A former high-school teacher turned self-taught cake creative, she’s built a devoted audience with her neon-hued, over-the-top sculptural cakes and bestselling whimsical cookbooks like Greatest Hits: The Pop Edition and Bake Australia Great. Featured on MasterChef Australia as a guest judge and collaborator with fashion brands, she's known for combining education, artistry, and baking in unlikely yet utterly captivating ways.

Delia Smith

A mainstay of British cooking since the 1970s, Delia Smith taught the nation to cook and bake from scratch with her clear, no-nonsense style. She made her TV debut as resident cook on the BBC’s Family Fare (1973–75) and later appeared on the children’s show Multicoloured Swap Shop with simple, confidence-boosting cooking demos. Her bestselling Complete Cookery Course became one of the most trusted cookbooks in Britain, while Delia’s Winter Collection helped define a generation’s festive cooking habits. To this day, her classic Christmas cake recipe remains a beloved go-to for home bakers.

Christine McConnell

America’s delightfully macabre baker Christine McConnell has built a cult following by fusing decadent desserts with her signature dark whimsy. A self-taught creative, she first enchanted Instagram with her eerie, sculptural confections, think towering gingerbread haunted houses, peanut-butter bones, and alien-inspired pastries worthy of a sci-fi set. In 2018, she brought her theatrical vision to Netflix with The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell, while her book, Deceptive Desserts: A Lady’s Guide to Baking Bad!, invites readers into her world of twisted treats.

Martha Stewart

You simply can’t talk about baking icons without mentioning Martha Stewart, the Baking Queen Bee who elevated American home baking into an art form. She created not just perfectly styled cookies, pies, and cakes, but an entire lifestyle empire. After launching Martha Stewart Living magazine in 1990, she went on to publish dozens of bestselling books, with her very first, Entertaining (1982), becoming a watershed moment, and culminating in her 100th cookbook in 2024, Martha: The Cookbook. On television, she hosted beloved programs such as Martha Stewart Living (1993–2004) and The Martha Stewart Show (2005–2012), bringing her trademark homemade elegance into the homes of millions, a legacy she revisited in her 2024 Netflix documentary Martha.

Lorraine Pascale

Former model turned baking star, Lorraine Pascale, has charmed audiences with her warm elegance and expert tips. After establishing herself as a specialist cake maker and following a contract to supply Selfridges with 1000 Christmas cakes, Lorraine opened a cupcake shop, Ella’s Bakehouse (named after her daughter), in 2009 in Covent Garden.

TV work followed and she quickly rose to fame with BBC favourites Baking Made Easy, Home Cooking Made Easy, and How to Be a Better Cook, alongside bestselling cookbooks like Bake and A Lighter Way to Bake. Later, as a judge on Food Network’s Holiday and Spring Baking Championship, she mentored bakers with the same approachable style that made her a beloved icon for home bakers everywhere.

Giada De Laurentiis

Italian-American chef, restaurateur, and TV favourite Giada De Laurentiis has long charmed audiences with comforting Italian treats, be they biscotti, amaretti, or even torta della nonna, each one both beautiful and authentic. Her breakout series Everyday Italian debuted in 2003, followed by Giada at Home, which earned the team a 2008 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle Program, while she alone scooped the award for Outstanding Lifestyle Host. Giada is also a familiar face on NBC’s Today, and in 2025, she premiered her latest show, Giada in My Kitchen, on Prime Video.

Rachel Allen

Trained at Ballymaloe Cookery School, Rachel Allen has charmed audiences with her warm, approachable style in hit RTÉ shows like Rachel’s Favourite Food, At Home, and Bake! The bestselling cookbook author is also a familiar face on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and Market Kitchen, plus she's a regular columnist and contributor for numerous magazines, including The Sunday Tribune and BBC Good Food, bringing her accessible, flavour-packed baking to home cooks across the UK and Ireland, and beyond.

Rosanna Pansino

Think breakout YouTube baking stars, and American baker Rosanna Pansino has to be one of the queens at the top of the list! Having launched her iconic series Nerdy Nummies in 2011, she baked her way to global fame with irresistibly creative, pop‑culture-inspired desserts that have drawn in over 14.7 million subscribers and nearly 5 billion views. A talented actress and singer, she’s also authored two bestselling cookbooks, The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook and Baking All Year Round, as well as launching a successful baking line. Add in her hosting of her baking competition show, Baketopia, and accolades like inclusion in Forbes’s “Top Food Influencers” list, and you’ve got an iconic baker still on the rise.

Fanny Craddock

One of Britain’s first celebrity chefs, Fanny Cradock was a pioneering TV personality whose ballgown-and-apron glamour, sharp tongue, and on-screen partnership with her husband Johnnie captivated audiences for two decades. From the mid-1950s, she brought French-inspired sophistication to post-war kitchens on shows like Kitchen Magic, creating elaborate dinner-party showstoppers such as croquembouche and bombe surprise (once described as a “cheesy” ice cream surprise).

A prolific author of over 40 cookbooks and a forthright restaurant critic, she helped usher in a new era of modern British food. Her television career ended abruptly in 1976 after a now-infamous appearance on The Big Time, when her criticism, tame by today’s standards, of amateur cook Gwen Troake’s coffee cream dessert (suggesting it was too rich after duck) sparked public outrage and led to the BBC terminating her contract, a scandal that became as famous as her recipes. Yet her dramatic flair, technical skill, and talent for turning desserts into theatrical centrepieces have secured her place as one of Britain’s most enduring baking icons.

Claudia Roden

Born in Cairo and educated in London, Claudia Roden, a celebrated cookbook author and cultural anthropologist, has created a body of work that's unquestionably shaped British food for over six decades. Her landmark 1968 debut, A Book of Middle Eastern Food, introduced millions to Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Jewish culinary traditions.

Throughout her long career Claudia has amassed numerous accolades including a CBE in 2022 and the Observer Food Monthly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, and while she’s predominantly famed for her savoury dishes, her baking is equally influential, with her delicious orange and almond cake, apple latkes, ataïf with clotted cream, and Turkish yogurt cake certainly securing her a place among the baking greats.

Paula Deen

A true doyenne of Southern comfort baking, Paula Deen went from delivering boxed lunches for her home catering venture, The Bag Lady, to becoming a Food Network favourite with Paula’s Home Cooking, earning a Daytime Emmy in 2007. Famous for her warm Southern charm and unapologetically indulgent recipes, she has authored more than 15 cookbooks, including the hugely popular Paula Deen’s Southern Baking, brimming with her signature pies, cakes, biscuits, and cobblers.

Beyond the page, the Southern Belle launched her own baking line, built a 36-year legacy with her Savannah restaurant, The Lady & Sons, and created the Paula Deen Network, a subscription platform bringing her recipes and signature style to whole new generations of fans.

Eliza Acton

Poet turned pioneering cookery writer, Eliza Acton’s Modern Cookery for Private Families was the first British cookbook to use precise ingredient lists, clear instructions, and accurate cooking times, a format that would go on to shape how all recipe writing would be done. The 1845 guide also included early versions of sponge cakes, seed cake, and gingerbread, laying the groundwork for other domestic bakers to refine, adapt, and popularise in the decades that followed.

Christina Tosi

Founder of Milk Bar, the cult-favourite US bakery chain celebrated for its playful American bakes, Christina Tosi has built an empire on nostalgic flavours with a twist. Christina’s signature creations include the Milk Bar Pie (formerly known as Crack Pie), with its oatmeal cookie crust and rich, gooey, buttery filling reminiscent of a sweet oatmeal cookie crossed with custard, and the Cereal Milk Cake, layered with fluffy cereal milk cheesecake mousse, wrapped in creamy cereal milk frosting, and crowned with crunchy sweetened cornflakes.

The savvy baking entrepreneur has found equal success as an author with bestsellers like Momofuku Milk Bar and Milk Bar Life, and as a TV personality, making numerous Netflix appearances, including hosting her own series, Bake Squad.

Debbi Field

While Debbi Fields didn’t invent the cookie, she did redefine what a chocolate chip cookie could be, namely, soft, gooey, and comforting, and turned her homemade cookie recipe into a soft-baked sensation, founding Mrs. Fields Cookies in 1977 with a single Palo Alto store.

By the late ’80s and early ’90s, she’d built the cookie shops into a global franchise with over 300 locations across 22 countries. Even after selling the business, the American entrepreneur and author (with hits including Great American Desserts and Mrs. Fields Cookie Book) remains its warm, smiling spokesperson to this day.

Gemma Stafford

Irish-born chef Gemma Stafford, a Ballymaloe-trained pro with over 20 years’ experience, is the creator of Bigger Bolder Baking and the Bold Baking Network, inspiring her 8-million-strong “Bold Baker” community. Known for her approachable recipes, viral mug cakes, and Bold Baking Basics, she’s authored bestselling cookbooks, judged Nailed It! and Best Baker in America, and has pioneered the first-ever 24/7 baking TV channel, helping bakers everywhere create mouthwatering masterpieces with confidence anytime, anywhere.

Marguerite Patten

Pioneering British home economist, food writer, and broadcaster Marguerite Patten is widely regarded as the nation’s first celebrity chef. As a wartime food writer and Ministry of Food adviser during WWII, she taught millions to cook under rationing via BBC radio’s Kitchen Front, and later brought practical, inventive, and comforting recipes to TV from 1947. She went on to author around 170 cookbooks, including Britain’s first in full colour, and became known for her wonderful cakes like Church Window (Battenberg), cherry, and coconut, plus Eccles and Shrewsbury cakes. Beloved for decades, she earned an OBE in 1991 and a CBE in 2010.

Lily Vanilli

Lily Jones, better known as Lily Vanilli, is a former graphic designer turned “artisan baker of choice for A-listers”, famed for her surreal edible sculptures, from brain-shaped cakes to glitter-dusted showpieces for clients like Lady Gaga and Elton John. Since opening her popular East London bakery, Sunday Cafe, in 2008, she’s penned bestsellers including A Zombie Ate My Cupcake and Sweet Tooth, co-founded the YBF (Young British Foodie) Awards, and recently expanded overseas with a café in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Alice Waters

Founding California’s beloved Chez Panisse in 1971, visionary chef and food activist Alice Waters ignited America’s farm-to-table movement with her devotion to simple, seasonal, local ingredients. Her baking reflects the same ethos, from rustic apple galettes to elegant, unfussy tarts adored by celebrities (including Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who invited her onto With Love, Meghan) and home bakers alike. A prolific author of classics like The Art of Simple Food and Chez Panisse Desserts, she has also appeared on several TV shows, including the 2025 Netflix docu series Chef’s Table: Legends, eternally revered for bringing every recipe to life with garden-born purity.

Lisa Faulkner

While also known for roles in Holby City, Spooks, and EastEnders, actress Lisa Faulkner reinvented herself after winning Celebrity MasterChef in 2010, as a TV cook. Today she co-hosts ITV’s John & Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen with husband John Torode, sharing approachable recipes and baking favourites like her Raspberry Fantasy Cupcakes and her festive twist on Christmas Pudding, the Spiced Charlotte.

Lisa is also a bestselling author of Recipes from My Mother for My Daughter and The Way I Cook, and a regular at food events, including the Good Food Show, cherished for her warmth, relatability, and genuine love of feeding others.

Judy Joo

French-trained pastry chef and TV personality Judy Joo blends her Korean heritage with classical technique to create unique, culture-bridging bakes. A former finance professional turned chef, she earned a Grand Diplôme from the French Culinary Institute before working in Gordon Ramsay restaurants. Known for sweet treats like Green Tea Bingsu, Honey Lavender Scones, and Lemon & Lavender Loaf Cake with Lemon Lavender Glaze, she champions Korean cuisine through her cookbooks, shows like Korean Food Made Simple, and her Seoul Bird restaurants.

Ravinder Bhogal

Born in Nairobi and raised in London, chef, restaurateur, and food writer Ravinder Bhogal blends her British, Kenyan, and Indian heritage at her acclaimed “no borders” restaurant Jikoni. Dubbed the “New Fanny Cradock” by Gordon Ramsay, she’s famed for sweet creations like her cult Banana Cake with Miso Butterscotch and Ovaltine Kulfi, Strawberry Falooda Milk Cake, Rose & Pomegranate Jellies with Cardamom Panna Cotta, and Rhubarb, Goat’s Cheese & Pecan Tart. She’s also the award-winning author of Jikoni: Proudly Inauthentic and Comfort & Joy.