Cake Decorating Skills for All Bakers

December 8 / 5PM - 6:30PM ET

The holidays are a prime opportunity to showcase festive cupcakes, cookies, and tarts—but producing polished decorations isn’t always easy without pastry training. This class will give you practical techniques that any bakery team can use to add visual appeal and value to your offerings. 

Join Dawn Konofaos of Alevrí & Co and Sourdough Heaux for an introduction to cake decorating that’s perfect for bakers of all levels. In this class, you'll learn how a few versatile piping tools can be used to create polished, bakery-ready decorations that you can adopt for the holidays—or use year-round to add value to your menus.  

This session centers on practical decorating methods that any baker can use. As a vegan baker, Dawn will be working with vegan-friendly formulas, but the techniques you’ll learn can be easily applied to any frosting, including traditional buttercreams. By the end of class, you’ll have the confidence to add stunning finishing touches to your baked goods.  

Check out our recent Guild Member Spotlight on Dawn. 

This is a virtual demonstration class with live Q&A. Dawn will be demonstrating techniques online via Zoom.   

Dawn Konofaos’s cakes look almost too beautiful to eat. Delicate wafer flowers, soft color palettes, and sculpted detail make each one feel like a small work of art. But this is more than decoration.
Dawn is a Black, Baltimore-born artist and self-taught cottage baker based in Tampa, Florida. Through her cottage operation, Alévri & Co., she creates plant-based sweets that are soulful, seasonal, and full of intention.
Her work feels ethereal. Frosting flows like brush strokes. Every element is placed with care. What she once did as a milliner—designing whimsical hats and bridal veils—she now does with sugar and flour.
Dawn bakes with her surroundings in mind. You’ll taste tropical notes like calamansi, bright citrus, and floral infusions in one season. Then rich Southern summer fruits—think peaches, blackberries, and figs—in the next. Her flavors reflect the world around her. Like a painter, she brings it all together with precision and feeling.
She often shares her creations at pop-ups hosted by Black Radish Bodega, a local vegan grocer and community space. Her work has been featured twice (here & here) in the New York Times, recognized for its visual beauty and technical mastery. Our friends at King Arthur even featured her technique on crumb-coating a triple-layer cake.
Beyond Alévri & Co., Dawn explores her more experimental and playful side with her side project, Sourdough Heaux, where she documents her love of sourdough fermentation, bold flavors, and doughnuts.