Davia @ Raven Cakes Bakery

Davia grew up in Germany, baking the way a lot of German kids first learn it: at the kitchen counter beside her mother and grandmother, flour everywhere, something always in the oven on a Sunday afternoon. When she moved to New Jersey and started a family of her own, those recipes came with her. They were too good to leave behind, and too good to keep to herself.

For years she has taught traditional German baking in a real classroom here in New Jersey, taking students through the cakes, breads, and pastries Germans grow up on, one step at a time, with nothing fussy and nothing left to guesswork. That is the whole idea behind the way she teaches. If she can show you exactly how the dough should feel and where people usually slip up, you can make it yourself the first time. Now she has partnered with One Stop German Shop to open that classroom to anyone who wants to bake like a German, wherever they happen to live. Watch one of her masterclasses and you are not looking at a studio set; you are sitting in on the real in-person class she teaches.

Every ingredient she reaches for is one you can find in our German baking ingredients, so your pantry matches hers and your results do too. Anyone who has stopped by her table at the monthly farmers market already knows how good these bakes are, and come the holidays, when she turns to the traditional Christmas baking Germans look forward to all year, there will be a masterclass for that too.