Since the bakery opened in September, it has offered various classes for kids and teens as well as one-day workshops on things like French macarons, cupcake decorating and working with fondant, but the new cake classes will be its first comprehensive class series for adults that is focused entirely on cake.

“You learn the whole process, from the basics of scratch baking and making a cake mix, to finishing the cake and making flowers and ruffles,” Jaime Manning, Love+Flour owner and class instructor, said. “It’s definitely more in depth, whereas at a workshop you learn to frost a cake and call it a day.” 

The six-week series begins Tuesday, Feb. 28, and will continue weekly on Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Each session will involve hands-on instruction and focus on different techniques or aspects of making cakes, such as the fundamentals of baking, making a cake mix from scratch, making buttercream, frosting a cake, crafting fondant flowers and more. 

Over the course of the series, participants will complete and take home four projects: basic cupcakes, a buttercream cake with basic rosettes and embellishments; customized gourmet cupcakes with dozens of flavors to choose from; and lastly, a drip cake. 

“For a drip cake, instead of getting borders and swirls like on a normal cake, it gets a perfect ganache finish that drips down the edges,” Manning said. “Then, we’ll add some crazy toppings on it like French macarons, Oreos, Hershey chocolate bars, all kinds of different stuff.” 

Participants will be given recipes of all the cakes and frostings featured in the class so they can try out making their own cakes at home. The recipes for the basic cupcakes and buttercream cake in particular provide a framework that people can build on as they experiment with different styles and embellishments that fit their tastes.  

“We go from learning the basic recipes first, then to the gourmet recipes to show how you can add to [a basic recipe] and change it in so many different ways and turn it into a totally different item,” Manning said. 

Class sizes are kept small to ensure that each participant gets personalized instruction. However, if space allows, there will be the option of taking classes individually, giving people who are only interested in select techniques or topics a chance to sit in on those classes without committing to the whole series. 

Manning said she hopes that for their next birthday party or special occasion her cake class alumni will skip the supermarket cakes and make their own cake instead, using the skills they learned in her class. 

“If people take the class and can leave with the knowledge and the recipes and the confidence to make their own cake at home with quality ingredients, it will be so much better for them,” she said.