Jacksonville baker Amanda Axelrod enters Favorite Chef competition
A self-taught Jacksonville chef who went from investment banker to baker is entering a national competition with a $25,000 top prize and the chance to be featured on the cover of a national cooking magazine.
Amanda Axelrod, chef and founder of Happy Bake Day LLC, creates baking videos for YouTube and social media content. She is a participant in Favorite Chef, a competition designed to help raise money for the nonprofit James Beard Foundation.
“I try to do something for every baker,” Axelrod told the Times-Union.
She cooks both sweet and savory recipes. She especially enjoys making macarons and French éclairs, but she also enjoys “decorating a box of Duncan Hines cake mix and turning them into cookies.”
Axelrod is a quarterfinalist competing against 11 others to advance to the semifinals in her category. To advance, she must get the most votes from the public in the round that ends at 10 p.m. Thursday. People can vote for Axelrod on her nominee page on the Favorite Chef website, favchef.com.
Although voting is free, it is possible to make a tax-deductible donation to the James Beard Foundation. The amount of the donation is equal to the number of votes it receives, Axelrod said.
According to its website, Favorite Chef is hosted by celebrity chef Carla Hall, who has her own HBO show, “Chasing Flavor.” Hall previously competed on the fifth and eighth seasons of Bravo’s “Top Chef” cooking competition and was a co-host of ABC’s “The Chew,” a daytime cooking talk show from 2011 to 2018.
The winner will be announced “around” August 2, according to the contest rules.
From “banker to baker”
Her YouTube channel, “Happy Bake Day Show,” is rooted in Axelrod’s love of baking, which she says began as a child. Some of her fondest memories are of baking with her mother.
After graduating from UNF in 2013, Axelrod began working as an investment banker. When she and her husband, Philip, welcomed their son in 2021, she decided to change careers so she could spend more time with her baby.
Baking has always been her passion. But she didn’t want to become a caterer or cake decorator. At the time, the COVID-19 pandemic was still ongoing, so Axelrod ruled out working in a restaurant or bakery.
“So my husband suggested I try filming a bake and putting it on YouTube as an instructional video,” she said, noting that they used their iPhones to film the videos.
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“I ended up loving it and having a great time. And after that, it just became what it is now. I film what I call ‘full tutorial episodes’ once a week, so they’re live every Friday on my YouTube channel,” she said.
Axelrod also posts short videos three to five days a week on YouTube and Instagram. They’re less instructional and more focused on demonstrating the process, she said.
It makes baking fun and seem easy. But it takes a lot of thought and work, says Axelrod, who made a batch of macarons every day for weeks until she got the recipe and technique just right.
“My kitchen is my happy place,” she said on the contest entry form. “I get so much joy out of creating something delicious, and my little one has become interested in baking right alongside me. I love sharing my passion for food and hope to nurture the foodie in my son (the little toddler) too.”
Teresa Stepzinski is the Times-Union’s food reporter. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @TeresaStepz or contact her by email at tstepzinski@jacksonville.com.
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