Danielle Mattiello opened A Will and a Whisk Bakery in Fernandina Beach in November 2025.
Tell us about A Will and a Whisk Bakery.
A Will and A Whisk is the culmination of many years of dreaming of owning my own business!
It’s a retro-inspired bakery specializing in custom cakes, cookies and the kind of pastries that Grandma would make if she were an excellent baker (my own grandmas were not, so I cannot credit either of them with my baking talent).
The bakery is named after my son Will, who I call my miracle baby even though he’s about to turn 7. We are known best for our cinnamon rolls and brown-butter sea-salt chocolate chip cookies. I display my vintage Pyrex and copper Jello mold collections in the bakery and swap it out with the seasons, and it definitely adds to the feeling of being in grandma’s kitchen!
Tell us about your background, especially as it applies to your career.
I started baking when I was around 6 years old when I wanted an EZ Bake oven and my ever-so-practical mother told me to just use the real oven. (Supervision was limited; it was the ’90s.)
I continued to teach myself to bake via cookbooks and the Food Network. I got my first job in a restaurant at 16 and decided quickly that someday I wanted to own my own, already having realized I could never sit at a desk. I got a degree in hospitality management from the Rosen School of Hospitality at UCF and pursued restaurant management. I was managing a small café when the baker quit and I thought, hey, I could do the baking.
The owner let me take over the baking to fill a small pastry case, and I realized I enjoyed it much more than managing the cafe. I built a portfolio and was hired as a pastry chef assistant at Cinderella's Royal Table in Magic Kingdom.
After a year of making thousands of plated desserts a week, my husband and I moved to his native New Hampshire. There, I got a job at a very popular bakery and worked my way up from pastry finisher to lead cake decorator and manager. I did not do any of the baking at that job but learned everything about decorating. I was fired for violating my non-compete agreement after five years when I planned to open my own bakery.
Shortly after I found out I was pregnant after four years of unexplained infertility, and the bakery was put on hold. My son was born prematurely in November 2019, and then the COVID pandemic happened, and I stayed home with my son for two years.
I went back to work at Starbucks as a shift supervisor and continued to bake and decorate cakes at home for family and friends. We moved to Fernandina Beach to be closer to family and to put down roots in August 2024. With my son going into kindergarten, I decided it was finally time to open the bakery. I found the perfect spot and signed the lease in July 2025 and opened in November 2025.
What do you like best about what you do?
I love everything! I love making things with my hands. I love being creative. I love talking to people when they come in the shop. I love being a part of people’s most special days. Of course, I have a terrible sweet tooth and I love eating sweets.
What does a typical day look like for you?
A typical day at the bakery, my baker Avery comes in at 6 and bakes the scones, cinnamon rolls, cookies that were prepped the day before. We provide pastries to two local coffee shops, so sometimes I deliver those. My helper Paige and I finish the pastries and set up the display. We decorate the cookies and cupcakes and cakes. Then, I decorate cakes and cookies for custom orders. I answer e-mails and send invoices for orders. If there is more baking to do, I will do that as well. I am always in charge of rolling out the cinnamon rolls and making the scones, for some reason I’m possessive of those two things. We also wash A LOT of dishes.
Where are you from originally?
I grew up in Naples, Florida. When I was 18, I moved to Orlando to go to UCF and stayed there for 10 years after graduation. When I was 28, we moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, for another almost 10 years. My husband’s parents had moved from Naples to Fernandina Beach a couple years prior and we visited several times.
We really loved the area, the small town feel reminded me of Naples when I was growing up. We knew we wanted to move before our son started kindergarten to where we would live until he finished high school. My parents are in Central Florida, and my brother is in South Florida, and we wanted to be closer to them as well, so we decided to move back to Florida.
What do you like best about living here?
I love the community, how people really care about where they live and their neighbors. Of course, we love the beautiful beaches and the charming downtown, but it's really the people who live here that make it special. I’ve met so many fellow female business owners and they have all been so supportive; it’s really lovely to see that there can be community over competition.
How do you like to spend your free time?
As a family we like to go to the beach, fish off the dock in our backyard lake, go to the movies or Dave and Busters. I personally enjoy going to antique stores, reading and shark-tooth hunting.
What would you like our readers to know about A Will and a Whisk Bakery?
We put so much love into everything we make!
