Baking Mini Chocolate Cakes Class

Date: July 11th, 2026
Time: 2:00-4:30 PM
Location: Laconiko Event Room, Manassas, VA
Limited spots available.

Mini Chocolate Cakes with Chocolate Ganache & Blood Orange Garnish

Join award-winning Pastry Chef Dawn Alston of Ravy Cakes, featured on Food Network's Wedding Cake Championship, for a fun and delicious hands-on baking experience!

In this interactive class, you'll learn how to bake, assemble, and decorate beautiful mini chocolate cakes from scratch using premium Laconiko olive oil. Whether you're a beginner or love baking at home, Chef Dawn will guide you step-by-step through professional techniques that you can recreate in your own kitchen.

Class Details
Skill Level: All experience levels welcome
Format: Hands-on, instructor-led
Duration: Approximately 3 hours
Ages: Adults and children 10+ (children must attend with a parent or guardian, and each participant requires a ticket)
What to Bring: Just yourself and a love for sweets!
What You'll Learn

• Bake a rich and moist chocolate cake from scratch. 
  Students will prepare a decadent chocolate cake completely from scratch, learning proper mixing methods, batter consistency, and baking techniques that guarantee a tender, flavorful crumb every time.
• Assemble and frost mini layered cakes like a pastry chef. 
  With all components prepared, you will be guided through the professional process of assembling your mini layered cakes — from leveling and filling to stacking and crumb-coating with precision and care. You will learn how to build a structurally sound, beautiful, even mini cake that looks just as impressive on the inside as it does on the outside.
• Make smooth chocolate buttercream and learn basic piping techniques. 
  We will cover the proper technique for creaming butter to the ideal consistency, incorporating rich cocoa, & Laconiko's exclusive products to achieve a complex flavor, and a perfectly smooth, pipeable texture. You will use this luscious buttercream to fill and frost your mini cakes, learning how to apply it evenly and professionally for a polished, bakery-worthy result.
  
• Create a silky chocolate ganache for the perfect finishing touch. 
  Students will learn the correct ratios of cream to chocolate, temperature control, and how to achieve the perfect pourable consistency for a flawless, elegant drip finish.
  
• Decorate your cakes with a beautiful chocolate drip and elegant garnishes.
  You will learn professional decorating techniques, applying the ganache drip with confidence and artfully garnishing each cake blood orange slices, candied zest curls, and elegant finishing touches that transform your creation into a true showpiece.

What's Included
Students will work in groups and receive:

✔ All ingredients and professional-grade equipment.
✔ Hands-on instruction from Chef Dawn
✔ Printed recipe cards to take home
✔ Your own decorated mini chocolate cakes in a box to enjoy yourself and the skills to make them again.

By the end of the class, you'll leave with new baking skills, professional decorating tips, and a beautiful box of handcrafted mini cakes.

About Chef Dawn

Celebrity Pastry Chef Dawn Marie Alston of Ravy Cakes, LLC is an award-winning Pastry Chef who enjoys serving her community, instructing baking & pastry, and cake decorating classes for both children and adults. Chef Dawn enjoys instructing the youth and adults by teaching culinary arts enrichment programs. Dawn Alston of Ravy Cakes, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native, grew up in Northern Virginia. She developed her passion for baking at the age of six, thanks to her Uncle David.

Uncle David was well known for his Southern cuisine and cakes made from scratch. Every opportunity she had with him  she tagged along in the kitchen, especially during cake baking time! Her last and most fond memory of time spent with her Uncle David was very sweet: He baked the family a mouthwatering lemon pound cake that they eagerly lined up in the kitchen to taste. It’s amazing how a freshly baked cake can bring joy, happiness, and togetherness to family, this is what will forever motivate Chef Dawn to create the most delicious cakes imaginable.

Pastry Chef Dawn holds and Associate of Science degree in Culinary Arts with a concentration in Baking & Pastry from The Arts Institute of Washington, and a vast number of certifications and awards.

Competing in cake competitions is something that Chef Dawn loves to do. Competing on “Food Networks” The Wedding Cake Championship was a grand highlight in her career.

Chef Dawn takes great pride in coaching and mentoring her students, some who have competed on The Food Network and various competitions.

Chef Dawn serves the entire DMV and Beyond!

www.ravycakes.com

FB: https://www.facebook.com/ravycakes

IG: @myravycakes

Tickets & Registration
$70 per person
All materials, tastings, beverages, and take-home goodies are included.
Space is intentionally limited to ensure a high-quality, personal experience.

Reserve your seat - maximum of 25 seats.