Tampa baker Dawn Konofaos makes stunning sweets, and shares her secrets, too

When people think of the work of Dawn Konofaos, the fine sweets artist and baker behind local baking company Alèvri & Co., they may think of the commonly seen descriptors in the comments section of her Instagram:

“Stunnnning!!!”

“GORGEOUS!!”

“Dreamy 😍”

These are pretty accurate, and newbies to her work may be shocked to find that everything she makes is vegan, the flowers are edible, and she’s been featured in the New York Times (twice).

Locals have a chance to experience it when Konofaos does a special cake-by-the-slice pop-up on Saturday July 15 at Black Radish grover in V.M. Ybor. But where did she start? Konofaos’ origin story can be traced back to Baltimore, Maryland where she was born, and Columbia, respectively, where she was raised, helping her Aunt Angie (who she says is one of her greatest baking inspirations) in the kitchen, where all the kids were invited to join in.

Then, it was off to Florida for fashion design school where Konofaos added more skills to her toolbox and continued baking as a hobby for her college roommates, for fun, and as a way to relax.

But before three-tiered cakes, delicate macarons, and national outlet mentions, Konofaos’ prior lives saw her as a photo stylist and a millner where she crafted ornate bridal veils, hats, and flower fasteners. Those flowers seemed to stick, though, as she moved more into baking, learning, practicing, and ultimately perfecting the art of hand making realistic-looking, edible flowers, sometimes made from sugar, or sometimes made from wafer papers.

The transition from milliner to renowned baker didn’t happen overnight. It was actually her husband who nudged her to transform her baking hobby into a business, and who is partially responsible for its name as Alèvri which means “flour” in Greek.

“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 was around 2016,” she says. “It’s really hard, in the South especially, to make connections with other Black people. So I pretty much hit the jackpot saying yes to doing that event. It’s where I met some of the most important people in my life.”

From there, Konofaos focused on pop-ups and selling at the Indie Flea where she offered her fresh-baked donuts and her most popular item, doughsants. As a self-described nerd, Konofaos loved studying dough lamination and perfecting her recipe.

“Doughsants are laminated donuts,” Konofaos says. “They’re basically a hybrid between a donut and croissant and are sometimes filled with a custard in the middle.”

Focusing on small events and wholesaling for a few shops was great for a while, she said, but ultimately led to her getting burned out. Then, she moved onto her “macaron journey,” and diving into wedding cakes by 2019. “People kind of assume that if you make cake then you also make wedding cakes, so that’s how I started making them and practicing a lot after I got an inquiry,” she adds.

And now, after many, many one-of-a-kind wedding or special order cakes, Konofaos continues to offer unique designs and brand new flavors like Citrus Golden Honey, Strawberry Milk, Coco Banana Dream, Ode to Stone Fruit, Red Wine Velvet Cake, and Lychee Dreams.

These days, she’s also balancing being a new mom and tending to herself and her small family with her business, but importantly, she never lets the latter override her capacity. After becoming a mother, she’s had to adapt in her work as she’s navigating this balancing act which has led to a slower-moving season by nature of re-prioritizing everyone’s needs.

“It’s been difficult,” she says of this era where she is now a working mom, mothering her now two-year-old who hops around her legs. This two-year-old who she says is actually thee most beautiful flower she has ever made. And what’s incredibly real and special about Konofaos is how she invites her Instagram followers, her community, into her home via her stories on the daily, letting us all know what she’s up to, what she may be working on, or if she’s taking a much needed break, and why.

It’s this bit of transparency, this bit of relationship building she does with her community, along with her unwillingness to compromise—herself, her art—that speaks to Konofaos’ ethic and the type of magic she makes and transfers into each bake she sends out into the world. Because when she creates, she seems to do it with and from her whole self—not a compartmentalized component.

These days, though she may feel like she’s moving more slowly, she still finds a way to wake up in the earliest light, hours before toddler, to start on a bake, or stay up late while he sleeps, adding the last touches to a special order. Somehow, she has been finding time to create learning tools, her first-ever asynchronous course, and a newsletter to boot.

“The newsletter is pretty awesome, actually,” Konofaos says. “I’ve always wanted to create a learning community, so this has been a perfect platform for skill sharing, community, and storytelling.”

As for what’s next for Alévri, she says that’s harder to say. As for herself?

“I just want to be making art and sharing it. Not sure if Alévri will always be a part of that, but I hope she will be.”

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This article appears in Jul 6-12, 2023.