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Full spread below.
-she’s known for her stunning ethereal wedding cakes, freeform sugar wafer paper flowers, fondant ruffles, and signature palette-knife technique. Her unique flavors and baked goods—Citrus Golden “Honey,” Strawberry Milk, Ode to Stone Fruit, and Smoky Chocolate, to name a few—are inspired by music and poetry and are made with all her intention and care.-
“I started Alèvri with doughnuts,” Konofaos tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “First it was just small orders for friends, for parties and such. Then I made some doughnuts for my friend Mara’s birthday, and through that made some more connections.”
One of those connections got her an invitation to a local event called Crowned, specifically for Black creatives and makers, which marked a pivotal moment for her.
-This styled shoot was born out of a love for all things “Old Florida.” The design and details included nods to citrus echoed through the invitations, vintage postcards, pops of orange and yellow in the florals, and the gorgeous *all edible* 3-tiered VEGAN cake from Alevri & Co.-
-Our vegan friends out there might particularly like this gorgeous gemstone-colored confection created by Alevri & Co.-
The New York Times
-As for Ms. Konofaos, to achieve an impressionistic look in her signature cool colors, she goes to the art aisle of the craft store for a set of tiny palette knives. “You use different-color buttercream and different strokes to make an oil-painted look,” she said.-
-To create delicate decorations, Ms. Konofaos uses the pasta attachment for her stand mixer. “You can roll your fondant through there, or your gum paste if you’re making sugar flowers, and that’s how you get it nice and thin.” Ms. Konofaos also uses rolling pins in both marble and wood in different sizes for everything, from laminating dough to shaping modeling chocolate. If you need a good rolling pin, we have suggestions here.-
-Ms. Konofaos, who creates vegan cakes, uses shortening, which remains solid at warmer temperatures, so that’s another option. She also recommends a cast-iron Ateco cake turntable, which has a heavy, sturdy base for easy piping. “It’s beautiful, so if you want to do a nice video of icing a cake but you don’t want to use your plastic one, you can spend a little bit more money,” she explained.
The Ateco turntable comes with a single nonslip pad, but you can cut additional pads from a roll of nonslip shelf liner. Use these rounds to line the bottom of the disposable cardboard cake board; doing so will make it easy to transport a cake when it’s done. For a full list of additional gear to perfect your next bake, including the Ateco turntable, check out our full list.-