17-Year-Old Student at Hills West Writes, Bakes and Blogs

Kimberly Karter may only be a high school senior at Hills West, but she's already got a food blog and a passion for cooking and baking.

She started cooking by necessity at the age of 12—her mom had broken her ankle and needed her help—but learned to love it, almost at once.

"I realized it wasn't such a bad thing, and I've continued with it ever since," Karter said.

Her culinary "training"? The Food Network.

"I pretty much like everything that they show," she admitted.  Although if she had to pick a favorite or two, she would choose Tyler Florence's show and Throw Down with Bobby Flay. She started watching the Food Network at around the same time she started cooking—age 12—and still watches it whenever she can.

Not that she has a lot of free time. She's also the editor of Hills West's newspaper—The Round-up—which she's worked on since her sophomore year.  They try and put out "five solid issues a year," she said, and there are only about five or so editors who help her put the paper together, along with maybe a dozen writers. Her sophomore and junior years she was the design editor for the paper.

Her older sister, who is a senior at Brandeis University, also loves to write and has written some articles for Sachem Patch.

Right now, cooking for her is just a hobby and she doesn't see that changing, even though she loves it. "Working in a restaurant is a tough job to take on," Karter said. She'd rather have a different type of career—maybe writing. She started writing a blog in January 2010; it was a culinary commentary.

"That didn't last too long," she said. "I wasn't too passionate for that style." Then Karter found Joy the Baker.

"I love her recipe delivery system. I just love her site," Karter added.

Karter noticed that when she looked at food magazines, she found herself stopping at the dessert recipes. So she started focusing on baking, although she still cooks meals as well.

Now Karter loves blogging about the things she bakes. She said she tries to avoid recipes when she's baking. 'I've had my good share of failures," she said, but she enjoys altering recipes a little to try different flavors.

She didn't get her love of cooking and writing from her parents, who are both dentists.

"My parents don't write for a living," Karter said, "but they are very articulate, so that probably had some influence on me and my sister, Kara. She and I both kind of stumbled upon our love of writing and we would both like to pursue it."

And since both sisters have already written for Patch (Kara for Sachem and Kim for Dix Hills), they are both on their way.