Become a Great Baker #2: Cheesecake Extravaganza

What you'll learn

🚀 Elevate your baking proficiency by mastering a diverse array of essential recipes and refined decoration techniques.
🍰 Craft exquisite cheesecakes with contemporary designs and impressive presentations.
🌶️ Tailor recipes to any taste, incorporating bold, surprising flavors with an assortment of sauces and spices.
🎂 Produce cheesecakes in various sizes, from grand cakes to individual servings.
✨ Enhance your decoration expertise with elegant techniques using filo, isomalt, and more.
🥄 Explore thrilling recipes like cream cheese filling, graham cracker crust, and fruit-flavored sauces.
🍽️ Present cheesecakes as fine-dining plated desserts with four stunning designs to choose from.
🍋 Create three modern, sophisticated fruit-based designs for large 8-inch cheesecakes.
👩‍🍳 Perfect your baking techniques to ensure flawless cakes every time.
🍰 Use CakeNuvo's "principle of balance" to craft cakes and desserts that are culinary masterpieces.

Course Content

First Off - Let's Have Some Fun!

2 lectures

Imagine Serving the Perfect Cheesecake!

Before you start baking the perfect cheesecake, get into the mood and swing a bit with this short and fun promo video!

Optimizing Your Learning Experience

Watch this lesson to get a brief intro to the Udemy Video Player. It'll help you to quickly learn the player's most critical features so you can enjoy this course the most.

Making the Perfect Cheesecake

3 lectures

Before You Begin - WATCH THIS

Introduction

"Cheesecake Extravaganza" is a very broad course, which covers many delicious and beautiful cheesecakes and stunning cheesecake desserts, in multiple flavors and presentations. In this lecture Irit presents a broad overview of this course, including all the recipes and decoration skills that it covers. She also explains how the techniques you’ll learn help to transform the classic cheesecake into a modern edible creation, and how you can also apply them to other baking projects.

The Mind of a Pastry Chef

In this lecture we take a bit of time to plan our project. Specifically, you'll learn how to make important decisions that impact the cakes & desserts you'll make. Irit explains how to choose the presentation and size of the cakes based on the occasion and other considerations. She also presents the CakeNuvo “principal of balance”, that helps you to transform any cake or dessert into a complete culinary experience. Irit demonstrates how these principals are applied in each of the cheesecake designs, using contrasting flavors and colors as well as balanced textures and compositions.

Making the Cheesecake Recipes

4 lectures

Cake Crust

The cake crust is one of the two primary recipes of the cheesecake. It’s usually quite chewy, and adds a nice contrast to the smooth and silky cake filling. In this lecture Irit goes over a quick and easy recipe for making the perfect crust, and explains how to make it unique by flavoring it.

Cheesecake Filling

In this lecture Irit walks you through the main recipe of the cake, which is the cream cheese filling. Irit’s recipe is unique since it’s lighter and has quite a bit less calories. However it retains the familiar taste and texture of a traditional New -York style baked cheesecake. This recipe is fast and simple to make, yet the cake you get is extremely delicious and creamy.

Fruit Sauces - Cherry & Raspberry Sauces

Fruit sauces are traditionally added to many cakes and desserts, and are a staple in most commercial pastry kitchens. They complement almost any dessert really well because of their sweet yet tangy flavors and beautiful vibrant colors. As you’ll see, adding fruit sauces to the cheesecake makes a lot of culinary sense: it’s extremely delicious and also makes the cake prettier. In this lecture we go over two of the three different types of sauces you’ll use in this course. Specifically, Irit guides you through making cherry and raspberry sauces, using fruit purees as well as fresh fruits. You'll also discover how easy it is to use the same techniques to make other fruit sauces as well.

Fruit Sauces - Passion Fruit Sauce

Watch this lecture to learn how to make a fantastic passion fruit sauce. You'll use this sauce later to infuse the cake's filling and get a wonderful refreshing flavor.

Assembling and Baking the Cakes and Desserts

4 lectures

Baking the Cake Crust

Flavoring and Assembling the Cheesecakes

Explore the process of assembling the cheesecakes in various cake and dessert rings, in order to make large 8” cakes as well as personal cheesecake desserts. Discover how to flavor the base filling using fruits and spices, and learn how to mix fruit sauces, such as cherry, raspberry and passion fruit, into the filling. Learn a great technique to infuse the cheesecake with spices such as vanilla. Using these techniques you’ll even be able to come up with new and unique cheesecake flavors on your own.

Baking the Cheesecakes

Getting a soft, creamy and smooth cake each and every time you bake it is a bit tricky, so in this lecture we focus on the secrets of baking. Irit demonstrates important tips and tricks to determine exactly when the cake is ready, so you always get perfect results.

Creating and Flavoring the Cake's Topping

Learn how to give the the cake an extra touch using delicious cake topping. Make a quick & easy recipe for tasty cheesecake topping and learn a cool technique for decorating it with impressive patterns using fruit sauces. Then explore baking the cake for the second time and find out how to check when it’s ready.

Creating the Decorations

5 lectures

Filo Wraps

Flaky and crispy filo elements are great addition to many cakes and desserts, since they balance their soft textures really well. Discover the secrets of working with filo dough to create unique and extremely impressive decorations for the cheesecakes, and learn how to make crispy filo wraps to cover the sides of the cake.

Filo Decorations

Extend your knowledge of working with filo and learn how to make stunning filo objects such as rings and waves to decorate your cheesecakes. The techniques you’ll master in this lecture will help you to to create other kinds of filo elements, which is very likely to come handy in other baking projects as well.

Isomalt Decorations

Explore the fine art of creating stunning colorful sugar decorations using Isomalt! Discover how to color the isomalt and how to properly heat it, and make gorgeous sugar sheets with cool bubble effects. Use these amazing decorations to add height and wow factor to many cakes and desserts.

Fruit Roses

In this lecture you’re going to learn how to create gorgeous edible flowers using fruits. These flowers are really cute, and add a nice touch to many cakes and desserts. Discover how to use thin slices of plums to create delicate and elegant roses, and use exact same techniques for making edible flowers using other kinds of fruits such as peaches, nectarines, and mango.

Fondant Flowers

Fondant flowers bring a fresh and beautiful feel to many cakes and desserts. In this lecture Irit covers quick and easy techniques for creating beautiful fondant flowers, and explains how to customize their colors and size as well as their shape.

Plating Personal Cheesecake Desserts

5 lectures

Introduction to Cheesecake Desserts

This lecture is an overview of four amazing plated cheesecake desserts you’re going to work on. Each of these edible creations has unique flavors and distinct presentation, which you can adopt as is. However you can also use these fantastic designs as inspiration, and come up with your own ideas for new presentations.

Cherry Ring Cheesecake Dessert

Learn how to plate the Cherry Ring design, which is a personal cherry-flavored cheesecake dessert, with an amazing filo ring decoration.

Passion Fruit Cheesecake Dessert

Learn how to plate the Passion Fruit design, which is a personal passion fruit-flavored cheesecake dessert, with an adorable edible rose and unique isomalt decoration.

Vanilla Brulee Cheesecake Dessert

Learn how to plate the Vanilla Brulee design, which is a personal vanilla-flavored cheesecake dessert. This caramelized creation is extremely delicious and quite addictive!

Raspberry Wave Cheesecake Dessert

Learn how to plate the Raspberry Wave design, which is a personal raspberry-flavored cheesecake dessert, with a stunning filo wave decoration.

Decorating Large Cheesecakes

4 lectures

Introduction to Large Cakes

In this lecture irit discusses the benefits of making large cakes vs individual desserts, and explains when it's best to make and serve them. She presents three unique designs for the cakes that are relatively simple but very impressive and beautiful: the Flower Design, the Modern Design and the Tropical design. To decorate the large cakes we’ll use mainly fruits, and you'll discover how it's possible to customize the design based on seasonality and your preferences.

Flower Cheesecake

Learn how to decorate a large 8" cheesecake by creating a stunning flower-like pattern on its top, using slices of strawberry. Augment the presentation using leaf-shaped kiwis and fondant flowers.

Modern Cheesecake

Decorate a large 8" cheesecake in a clean and modern fashion, using symmetrical and clean pattern that's made of pomegranate seeds and persimmon slices.

Tropical Cheesecake

Create an exotic and vibrant design for this large 8" cheesecake, using passion fruit, strawberries, kiwis, pomegranate and large isomalt decoration.

Reviewing the Project

1 lecture

Project Summary

Before she says goodbye Irit takes a moment to review and summarize what you learned and accomplished in this course. First and foremost you learned how to transform the traditional twice-baked New York style cheesecake into a sophisticated, modern and exciting culinary creation! You learned how to flavor your cheesecakes in many unique ways, how to create many kinds of decorations for them, and how to serve them as impressive large cakes or stunning plated desserts.

Course Materials

1 lecture

Download Your Printable Class Materials

Here you can download all course materials for "Cheesecake Extravaganza":

Class Companion - 16 pages eBook with all recipes, additional important info, tips and tricks
Project Timeline - Cakes - a bird's-eye view of the preparation process for the large cake designs
Project Timeline - Desserts - a bird's-eye view of the preparation process for the dessert designs
Fillo Wave Template - used in the course to make the fillow wave decoration
Metric Conversion Guides - US/EU metric conversion tables
Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion table
Food Cost Calculator - Large Cheesecake - Flower Design
Food Cost Calculator - Large Cheesecake - Modern Design
Food Cost Calculator - Large Cheesecake - Tropical Design
Food Cost Calculator - Cheesecake Dessert - Cherry Ring Design
Food Cost Calculator - Cheesecake Dessert - Passion Fruit Rose Design
Food Cost Calculator - Cheesecake Dessert - Raspberry Wave Design
Food Cost Calculator - Cheesecake Dessert - Vanilla Brulee Design
Tools & Ingredients - a PDF document that lists most tools and materials used in this course

Next Steps and Bonus

1 lecture

Bonus Coupons

Description

🍰 Amaze your family, friends, and clients with perfect, stunning cheesecakes that never fail to impress. Follow award-winning pastry chef Irit Ishai in this comprehensive course, and create many kinds of cheesecakes, leveraging modern designs and unique presentations.

Learn exciting recipes, including cream cheese filling, graham cracker crust, and fruit-flavored sauces, and discover how to customize them by adding surprising flavors and spices. Master critical baking techniques to ensure your cakes always turn out perfect. Advance your decoration skills by making many kinds of elegant decorations and learn sophisticated techniques for working with isomalt and filo dough. Explore the world of edible flowers and advance your skills in making them using fruits and fondant.

Finally, you’ll get detailed step-by-step guidance on decorating and plating four unique and stunning cheesecake desserts, as well as on creating three fabulous large cheesecake designs. 🧁

You can leverage the recipes and techniques taught in this course for many projects, and advance your baking skills in numerous areas. Simply put your favorite apron on, and join us on the path to baking mastery! 👨‍🍳👩‍🍳

Who this course is for:

🎂 Anyone interested in a serious baking and cake decoration career
🍰 Anyone who wants to learn a huge variety of important recipes and sophisticated decoration skills
🧁 Beginner bakers and pastry chefs who want to make amazing cheesecakes & desserts
🥐 Beginner pastry artists who want to learn how to make filo and isomalt decorations
🧑‍🍳 Bakery and pastry shop owners who want to make and sell fantastic cakes & personal desserts
👩‍🍳 Professional pastry chefs who want to add sophisticated plated desserts to their menus
💖 Anyone who loves cheesecakes and would like to be able to make them at home

Start the Course

Course Reviews

😀 Rich DeSimone

4

Great course, took a star off because instructor seems to have left Udemy. The Amazon store with materials used in the class seem to have been deleted as well. Too bad because her classes are second to none.
😀 Alicja Tetych

5
😀 Suhei Lakhani

5
😀 Leah Zelenka

4.5
😀 Rajni Singh Pawar

4.5
😀 P Ershov

5
😀 Farkhunda jamil

5

very good.
😀 Iria Jordan

5

its been wonderful so far!
😀 Nancy Paes

4.5
😀 Patricia Magoon

5

Perfect match
😐 Lorette Brand

3
😀 Fatima

5
😀 Fawzia Alamray

5
😀 Rizki Brazilia

5
😐 Naomi

3
😀 Τασος Αδαμιδης

5
😀 Steven Rodriguez

5
😀 Mj Alberto

4

I love the recipe.
😀 Domenico Cicione

5
😀 Vincent Simpkins

5

So far so good. Thanks
😀 Janet Schubert

5
😀 Seda

5
😀 Sineenart Agamanolis

5
😀 Ava

3.5

She was teaching well but it was only One cheese cake recipe with three different flavours! and Not different recipes.. and some basic decorating which can easily be found on YouTube I personally do not suggest.
😀 Nooreen Carrasquillo

5
😀 Debbie

5

Because so far I love it
😀 Shenika Lee

5
😀 Marisa Heah Tsui Ying

5
😀 Eman Abdul Qadier Abdul Razaq

5
😀 Vela Patankar

5
😀 Denise Graybill

4
😀 Gurpreet Sandhu

4.5
😀 Geetha

5
😀 Marsha Newby

5
😀 Frances Ficorilli

5
😀 Priyanka Sharan

4.5

lots of explaining
😀 Veronel Ferraris

5
😀 Taruna Tilwani

5
😀 Maria luisa

5
😀 Sue Bailey

4.5
😀 Laniqua Miller

5

yes this course appears to be just what i need to launch my home bakery
😀 Briana

5
😀 Dana Ont

5
😀 Recee Mason

5
😀 Oluwapelumi Isehunwa

4
😀 Yulia Gringauz

5
😀 Ma Fatima Pedersen

5
😀 Albert Maldonado

5
😀 Brandi Russell

5
😀 PINAR PEKÖZ

5

Anlatım dili çok güzel
😀 FATIMAH ALZAYER

5
😀 Loti campos

5

Wonderful!
😀 Ahmad

5
😀 Yuliya Antonyuk

5
😀 Tim Wright

4.5
😀 Marcela Nievas

5
😀 Zufadzilah

5

very clear teaching explaination
😀 Christine Topachikyan

5
😀 Beth Perez

5
😀 Melonie Brown-Walters

4
😀 Maria Kaouris

5
😀 Cristina

5
😀 Quinton Davis

5
😀 Daisy I Soto

5
😀 Alda G. Liban

5
😀 Jan Agenbacht

5
😀 Melissa

4
😀 Emi Ariyama

5
😀 Ligia Cooney

5
😀 Nagehan Egen

5
😀 Debra Crubaugh

5
😀 Salha Fallatah

5
😀 Sangeeta Pai

4

Yes it was a good learning experience. Just a suggestion if you can add substitutes for certain products it will be better. Like ex if someone likes the cake as eggless or if they are vegan what substitutes can be used it well help us more
😀 dr. Rosni, M.Biomed Rosni

5
😀 Chin Wai Ling Kareen

5
😀 Hillary Clarence Rosli

5
😀 Chandra prabha

5
😀 Chintan Foflia

4
😐 Amit Singhania

3
😀 Rachel S Wiggins

5

I have learned alot and am looking forward to the rest of the class!
😀 Trudy Perera

4
😀 Loukia Vassilopoulou

5
😀 Jasmeet kaur

5
😀 Karishma malhotra

5
😀 Sandra Najarro

5

Es muy buena la clase
😀 Nisheela Manji

5
😀 Rosemarie Salvarani

5
😀 Enaam Elamassi

5
😀 Elena Leoni

4
😀 Dalal Alnuaimi

5

I love the way of the chef sending the information to us practically and theoretically and also focusing on instruments, ingredients, with great presentation I love here very much , enjoying watching and I hope to see more videos and videos to here to learn more
😀 Teresa G

5
😀 Koulla Kyprou

4.5
😀 Blanca Rojas

4
😀 Darren Narace

5
😀 Vipin Sabharwal

5

Exciting... Very well explained....
😀 Sheila Dado

5
😀 Tia Pickersgill

5
😀 Dhekra Mohammed

5
😀 Shabnam Shaikh

5

The presentation is very simple to follow
😀 Sadi Austin

4