Whisk Kid

 

(All photos courtesy of Whisk Kid)

Hi everyone, thanks for your sweet comments about my article coming out in Country Sampler.  Although I've been freelance writing about homes and photographing for regional magazines for the past 12 years, it's still thrilling to me to see my name in print for my writing or photos in the national mags!   So thanks for letting me be all about "me" for a post or two!

Today I'm not really thinking about food, I have a flu bug that my dear husband decided to share with me, but I have been wanting to share something myself for awhile about someone who is a master of food.

Do you remember being 19 or even 20 and what you were doing?  I was spending my days playing tennis at college and wishing I could skip the whole class part and simply hit the courts 24/7.  I lived in an apartment that had a microwave, 2 tiny burners, and no oven.  I considered it a gourmet meal if I slapped some store bought roast beef between two slices of bread and cut up a piece of fruit to go along with it.  And as I recall, Domino's Pizza lost a lot of money on us with that "delivery in 30 minutes or it's free" rule.

At 19 or 20 most of us are in college or starting our first big job, busy just making ends meet and not really thinking about a whole lot more than what needs to be done that day...at least that's how it was for me.  But for one Michigan university student, she has her eye on the prize!

While I was busy worrying about what to wear for a weekend date at her age, she's busy creating this!!!  You see, Kaitlin, also known as the Whisk Kid, has a dream, and one I fully expect her to attain.  She hopes to one day own her own bakery.  

"I'm a marketing major, and I'm hoping to open a bakery after I graduate," says Kaitlin when I emailed her to ask why she wasn't styling food for the likes of Martha Stewart or any other national magazine who wants to feature yummy as well as gorgeously presented food!

One of the things I love most about blogging is the spiderweb effect it has and how you can start one place and end up finding the most wonderful things as you wind your way along the spiderweb.  That's how I found Kaitlin.  

I had read on Kate's blog about a food photography challenge over at Pioneer Woman's site and so off I went to visit the photostream on Flickr to enter a picture and look at all of the other wonderful entries.  It's quite addicting really, flipping through pages of beautiful food shots and I was instantly struck by the photo above of homemade ice cream.  It was one of Kaitlin's photos...as are ALL of the photos in this post.  You see it wasn't just a picture of homemade ice cream in a bowl, it was a picture that said it's summertime y'all and the heat wave is upon us so come onto the big back porch, grab yourself a big 'ole glass of lemonade and enjoy this cold refreshing bowl of ice cream!  Yup, it really said all of that to me with just this one photo.

I was intrigued, so I went to Kaitlin's profile page expecting to find a link to a professional photographer's website, but instead it took me to her great blog Whisk Kid.  When I read the "about the kid" section in her profile I was floored.  She was a college student, cooking in a tiny and very dated apartment kitchen...the one you see above actually!  And she shoots with the same Canon Rebel XTi that I use, but I've never taken a food photo that looked like hers!  

So I emailed her and asked how on earth she does it, baking in a tiny apartment kitchen with only the counter space you see in the picture above?!  She was so sweet and replied by telling me that she was a college student studying marketing and about her dream of one day owning her own bakery.  "I do bake in my apartment, but it's ill-equipped (I have approximately 1 1/2 square feet of counter space) so I often bake at my boyfriend's apartment, which has a larger kitchen."  But we all know that most college town apartments are not equipped with a gourmet cook's kitchen so I'm still over the top impressed!  And can we say lucky boyfriend?!

Kaitlin clearly has a talent for baking, just look at these vegan cupcakes she made in the photo above, but what strikes me as really amazing is her ability to stage and photograph food.  Take a look at a few of her wonderful and oh so mouthwatering photos...

She even makes Pop Tarts look inviting!

And she's no one trick pony, she also makes wonderful main dishes, but her real love can be found in her baking.

Along with providing wonderful recipes on her blog, she also gives her readers helpful hints on how to create these delectable desserts in their own homes, including step by step instructions on things like how to frost the perfect cake! 

But even with Kaitlin's wonderful instructions, I'm betting I couldn't recreate many of her beautiful desserts. 

  

And it's not just her recipes and instructions that are so wonderful, her writing is great too!  I'm just so glad I found her beautiful and inspiring blog, and I wish Kaitlin all the success in the world with her college career as well as her dream to become a bakery owner once she graduates.  I think we'll all be seeing more of Kaitlin in the future.  I think any magazine that would give her a chance on doing food styling would not regret it for a minute!

Thanks Kaitlin for letting me use your wonderful photos and for allowing me to share your story with my readers!  Best of luck in everything you do!  And to see more of Kaitlin's great food, click HERE to visit her blog!

Spread the Love...

Mom's Good Recipes  (so funny this was picked at random and it's a food blog!)

Molly Glover

33 Shades of Green  (ok, this is freaking me out a little, this one has a post up right now with a link party about food!  Apparently the universe is guiding me to food blogs for my random shout outs today!)