I truly believe that everyone has a purpose. It took me a while to find mine, and over the course of many years of ups and downs, successes and failures, trial and error, I’ve found myself happier than ever knowing what I’m passionate about, and that is food.

When I was in high school, I had a rather tough time at home. I was depressed a lot. I was anxious, and I didn’t really have any idea what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be. One day I decided to try and bake something, and that is where it took off. My mom was a professional baker before I was born, she worked in a bakery and catered events. She continued to cater and bake as I grew up, so I had exposure to the kitchen at a very young age. It wasn’t until high school when I discovered that I loved doing it myself.

It started with molten chocolate cakes. I found a recipe online and asked myself how I could make it better. To this day, it is still my favorite thing to make because it was not only the first thing I ever tried, but the first recipe I ever wrote and mastered on my own. Throughout high school, I found that baking pulled me out of my dark mindset and depressed state of mind. It gave me something to be proud of, something to look forward to, something to tell my friends about. Throughout college, I practiced more and more, watching countless hours of YouTube videos, reading countless pages of cookbooks, practicing more and more every day. I started to get really good at it, and I started to feel like this was no ordinary hobby. I genuinely loved doing it.

Towards the end of college, I was preparing to graduate with a mechanical engineering degree knowing I didn’t want to pursue it. I originally wanted to go to cooking school, but at the time, my family wasn’t very supportive of the idea and I cared too much about their opinion to listen to my own. I tried getting a more technical degree for the sake of a bigger and more reliable income down the road. Something I learned since then is that I would rather be broke and happy with what I do than be wealthy and hate my life. Life is far too short to be miserable with what you do every day, regardless of how much money you make.

Over the last two years, I’ve established my business - AJ’s Baking Company. I sell custom cakes and a variety of other desserts to customers. I also have my online store here where I sell my gourmet handmade dessert mixes for nationwide shipping. In addition, my social media recipe videos are gaining momentum and I have the privilege to partner with The Fresh Market, creating monthly recipe videos for inspiration. I host monthly livestreams with The Fresh Market and highlight the amazing selections of the month and help viewers come up with exciting ideas for their food at home. I had the honor of competing on Food Network’s Halloween Baking Championship in 2022, and have since appeared on Good Day Atlanta, Atlanta News First, the cover of The Georgia Voice newspaper, and several online articles. I now have two published cookbooks, my second one, “Time For Dessert”, highlighting 40 of my best dessert recipes.

I am also teaching baking classes at Cooks Warehouse here in Atlanta on a monthly basis, which is also another dream of mine. At this point in my career, the good things are continuing to come, and I am ready for it.

All of the big accomplishments I’ve made over the last couple years would not have been possible without the support from my family and friends. I am so passionate about what I do and feel so lucky to be able to do it for my career. I am proud to have over 200 of my personal recipes published here on my website, where you can hopefully learn some new things and bake even better at home!