Carrie's Kitchen Creations: Interview with Carrie McClain

September 11, 6:23 PMFood Blog ExaminerDonna Diegel

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Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

Carrie McClain of the tasty food blog Carrie's Kitchen Creations, shares her food photography tips, scrumptious recipes, and what it's like to have a popular food blog, all the while juggling family life. Even though I stumbled upon Carrie at Tuesdays With Dorie well over a year ago, she's been blogging for a lot longer than that. Always interested in good food and photography, the two blended together makes for a gorgeous blog!

Carrie says, "I wrote this on my blog's "about" page, I think it explains it pretty well:  I love food, I love photography, and I love creating a website about food and photography. Something about having the opportunity to be creative while needing to be technical/scientific at the same time is incredibly appealing to me! This site is both a fun and effective way to bring it all together!"

Carrie's Kitchen Creations has a page devoted to "TIPS", that includes everything you ever wanted to know about Food Photography. Most people pay for tips like this – Carrie gives it away freely. Be sure to take advantage of her generous knowledge! Do you have a food blog of your own? Carrie is looking for guest bloggers. Check her out, then give her a shout! Tell her Donna sent you!

Carrie's Kitchen Creations: Interview with Carrie McClain

Carrie, how did you get into blogging? What was your motivation for starting Carrie's Kitchen Creations?

• I began blogging after stumbling on a few other food blogs.  It was a year or so after I got my BA in Fine Art.  I wanted to combine a couple of my favorite things, photography and baking.  The blog seemed a brilliant way to "keep myself working".
• I wrote this on my blog's "about" page, I think it explains it pretty well:  I love food, I love photography, and I love creating a website about food and photography. Something about having the opportunity to be creative while needing to be technical/scientific at the same time is incredibly appealing to me! This site is both a fun and effective way to bring it all together!

Carrie's Kitchen Creations was originally Bakers Bakery? Did you have a bakery at one time, dreams for a bakery, or bake from home?

• Carrie's Kitchen Creations changed (url-wise) to "Bakers Bakery" after I moved from blogger to wordpress.  It's a play on my husband's last name and the fact that I do far more baking than cooking.  I'm still considering officially changing the name to Bakers Bakery.  I only bake from home for now, but would love to have my own bakery one day.

Where did you get your culinary training from?

• I can't say I have culinary training, unless you're willing to count various apartment kitchens and their wacky ovens!

Does cooking and baking run in the family?

• Ha!  Well, it seems to have skipped a few generations. My mother is not a baker, but I do have a cherished scrapbook full of recipes that belonged to my great-grandmother.  Some of her recipes are on the site, most notably her banana bread.

It's obvious your main love is baking. What other foods do you enjoy?

• Thankfully my husband is an excellent cook!  We aren't vegetarians, but we eat vegetarian meals probably 75% of the time.  There's a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables in our kitchen.  The "made from scratch" theme applies to nearly every meal we have, not just my baking.  We started our first vegetable garden this year.  We're very excited to grow and eat our own food!

Charlie shows up a lot in your blog posts. Who is he, and does he play a big part in your baking and blogging?

• Charlie is our 11 year old Pomeranian!  He does a lot of supervising while I bake.  He's a big fan of standing in the doorway watching to see if I drop anything.  Unfortunately for him, I'm very careful not to let him near people food!

Do you blog full time, and if not, what is your real day job?

• I used to blog much more often!  I took some time off this past winter due to a missing camera cord and pregnancy.

Carrie McClain has a BIG secret that's not so secret anymore. Care to share the excitement with us?

• We had a baby boy! His "online" name is Baby O, and he's almost 3 months old now!

How will this BIG news change the way you bake and blog?

• I'm hoping that after the initial settling in, I'll be right back in the swing of things.  When it's time, I hope to include things like homemade baby food and I imagine eventually there will be a lot more focus on kid friendly recipes.  Some mamas dream of having doctors or lawyers; I dream of a mini pastry chef! Another great thing that's come about due to having Baby O, is my new Mommy-Blog, Oh Baby O! Please stop by and have a look around!

You're so well connected in the food blogging world. What's your secret to blogging fame?

• I try to take the time to read other blogs and comment as I go.  Remembering that there is a real person on the other end of the blog I'm reading and just being kind goes a long way.  Who knew?  ;-)

Your photography is stunning. You're very free with your food photography tips. What's your secret? 

• Natural sunlight, a tripod, and not getting overzealous with the photoshop.

What camera are you using, and if you had unlimited funds, what camera would you buy?

• I'm actually using a sony mavica.  I've been dreaming of a Nikon since my photo school days.  It certainly is nice to have the best DSLR out there, but it's also entirely possible to create wonderful photos with something a bit more budget friendly as long as you learn how to use it!

Tell us more about the baking gigs you were involved with. Tuesdays With Dorie, Blake Bakes, etc?

• Tuesdays with Dorie is an online baking group that is baking their way through Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours one recipe, one week at a time.  It was a lot of fun and I miss it.  BFMHTY is by far my most beloved and most used baking book! Blake Bakes was a baking blog from the well known parent blog Blake Makes.  I was acting as an administrator and had to give it up to concentrate on other things, mostly baby-having.  :-)

How many cookbooks do you own?

• I own many, but I'd say I only actively use 6 or 7 of them on a regular basis.  I also keep a recipe journal that I scribble things in.  It's not technically a cookbook, but I go back to it again and again!

Favorite kitchen equipment or appliance?

• I'm in love with my KA stand mixer.  Second only to my engagement ring, it is the best Christmas gift I've ever received.

Do you taste-test everything you make?

• Are you kidding me?  Absolutely!

What has been your #1 favorite meal or most requested recipe?

• Probably my cookies.  I started making them at the tender age of 10 and have perfected the recipe over the years.  The original recipe is chocolate chip with walnuts, but a more recent variation includes crasins, coconut, and white chocolate chips.  It sounds so smug, but I've really never had a chocolate chip cookie better than my own!

Any duds, something you threw away and don't want to talk about?

• No recipe in particular stands out, buuut whenever I make something in batches I almost inevitably burn a batch (even when I use the oven timer).

Where do you see Carrie's Kitchen Cretions going from here?

• CKC has done a lot of growing since I started almost two years ago.  I'm doing more research into the chemistry of baking these days and hoping to begin creating more of my own recipes.

What 5 food bloggers would you like me to interview next?

• Shelby - Honey B's Kitchen  AKA The Life & Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch 
• Katie -  good things catered 
• Annie - Annie's Eats 
• Joelen - Joelen's Culinary Adventures with Friends & Food 
• Susan - She's Becoming Doughmesstic 

Any cookbooks in the works?

• Not yet, but it is a goal!

Last meal - What would it be? 

• Real Mexican food followed by the most sinfully chocolate dessert possible.

Do you have an awesome food blog with sinfully rich photos we can lick off the screen? If so, email me at cruisingkitty@hotmail.com for an exclusive interview and some great press!

Photos and interview are copyrighted and used with written permission by Rebecca Crump of Ezra Pound Cake.