Get those baking puns off the back burner, because things are heating up.

Veteran comic writer Kevin Panetta and artist Savanna Ganucheau are teaming up on a new graphic novel for First Second Books called Bloom, a coming-of-age love story set in the sweetest of places — a bakery.

As Panetta describes it, the story is "a bit of a coming of age story. It takes place right after high school for the main character Ari, who works in his family’s bakery and wants to leave and forge his own path. And then his dad asks him to find a replacement. This guy that he finds, he then starts to develop a romantic relationship with. And it has baking in it — lots and lots of baking."

Though the book won't be published until 2018, MashReads has a sprinkling of exclusive art from the upcoming project.

"Knead" to know more? Mashable spoke with Panetta and Ganucheau to learn the recipe for Bloom.

Panetta and Ganucheau are friends, but haven't collaborated yet.

"I do a comic with Savanna’s sister that I write called Zodiac Starforce." Panetta explained. "I’ve known her sister [Paulina] for a few years and I just kind of became friends with [Savanna] because they’re both super nice and really cute and love each other. She really liked the same kind of sweet romance stuff that I liked, so it seemed like a good fit.

"Everything else I’d been writing had been fantasy/scifi and I wanted to do something more of a coming of age, teen romantic comedy thing. She seemed like the perfect person for that."

"It’s been a blast!" Ganucheau add. "Despite me living in Australia and the fact that Kevin and I have never met in person before, we work really well together."

Panetta's love of baking was the key ingredient for Bloom's setting.

The idea struck Panetta in the way most ideas do: "I’d been baking a lot recently, so I said, 'we should just do a baking comic.'"

But Ganucheau's passion for the project, and the collaboration, really got it cooking. "What stemmed from the initial conversation was me doing a bunch of small doodles of two characters in a bakery. During that time, Kevin was working on Zodiac Starforce — but every now and then I’d draw some ‘bakery comic’ doodles to lure him into writing a comic for me."

Despite living on different continents, their work is incredibly collaborative.

With Ganucheau in Australia and Panetta in DC, a lot of their work is done online in the few waking hours that they overlap.

"Savanna," Panetta said, "she loves to do quick sketches, so I’ll describe a scene to her and she’ll send me something and we’ll chat." His writing will influence her art, and vice versa. "For some reason when somebody draws a character, I’ll look at them and think 'oh I know who that character is,' so I’ll start to tweak their personality around that. When you see what people look like you have some preconceptions about how they act, and that kind of helps me write their character."

For Ganucheau, that collaboration has helped her grow as an artist. "I think we both have changed a bit in our style for this project. Kevin and I have talked at length about the tone for Bloom. We want Bloom to feel open and calming, which will reflect in the style of writing and the art. I think Bloom has really pushed me into becoming a better artist. I want to do my best for this book."

Ganucheau learned a lot about baking from this book, and so will readers.

"I've also learned heaps about baking! While I am competent in the kitchen, I am notoriously bad at baking. I'm just too messy for the 'exact measurement' thing. So, I leave all the baking knowledge up to Kevin." Ganucheau explained.

"Although I have a long baking playlist for drawing references. My youtube recommendations have been ‘Bakery footage’ for a while now."

Panetta wants their readers to learn as well. "I definitely tried to make it so that people will be able to cook some of the stuff [in the book]. Some of the more complicated stuff, it’s hard to organically put it in there without just sticking a recipe in. But I’ve made some of the scenes so you can follow them and definitely cook the stuff that they’re cooking.”

And he's tested these recipes as well. "When I write it, I cook all the stuff I’ve been putting in it. So yeah, I’ve been eating way too much bread recently.”

Finally, it's more than a love of baking that propels this story.

"We've put a lot of thought and care into this sweet love story," Ganucheau said. "I've really loved getting to know these characters. I feel very attached to them! Even though Ari is a little rough around the edges, he’s my favorite. It’s become an 'unconditional love' sort of situation with these characters."

"I feel like it's evocative of those teen movies that I really love, like Say Anything or Can’t Hardly Wait or 10 Things I Hate About You," Panetta added, "but with a lot of baking in [them]."