Become a Great Baker #2: Cheesecake Extravaganza from Udemy

What's inside

Learning objectives

Advance your baking career by learning a huge variety of critical recipes and sophisticated decoration skills.
Create many kinds of cheesecakes, leveraging modern designs and stunning presentations
Customize the recipes to match any taste, and add surprising, bold and unexpected flavors using various sauces and spices.
Create cheesecakes in multiple sizes: large cakes and personal desserts
Advance your decoration skills: make many kinds of elegant decorations using filo, isomalt and more

Learn many exciting recipes: cream cheese filling, graham cracker crust & fruit flavored sauces.
Serve the cheesecakes as sophisticated fine-dining style plated desserts, with 4 stunning designs to chose from.
Create 3 modern and elegant fruits-based designs of large 8" cheesecakes
Master critical baking techniques to ensure your cakes always turn out perfect.
Apply cakenuvo's "principle of balance" to create cakes and desserts that are culinary masterpieces.

Advance your baking career by learning a huge variety of critical recipes and sophisticated decoration skills.
Create many kinds of cheesecakes, leveraging modern designs and stunning presentations
Customize the recipes to match any taste, and add surprising, bold and unexpected flavors using various sauces and spices.
Create cheesecakes in multiple sizes: large cakes and personal desserts
Advance your decoration skills: make many kinds of elegant decorations using filo, isomalt and more
Learn many exciting recipes: cream cheese filling, graham cracker crust & fruit flavored sauces.
Serve the cheesecakes as sophisticated fine-dining style plated desserts, with 4 stunning designs to chose from.
Create 3 modern and elegant fruits-based designs of large 8" cheesecakes
Master critical baking techniques to ensure your cakes always turn out perfect.
Apply cakenuvo's "principle of balance" to create cakes and desserts that are culinary masterpieces.

Syllabus

First Off - Let's Have Some Fun!

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

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Traffic lights

Read about what's good

what should give you pause

and possible dealbreakers

Taught by an award-winning pastry chef, which can provide valuable insights and techniques for creating impressive cheesecakes

Explores modern designs and unique presentations, which can help learners create visually appealing and innovative cheesecakes

Covers techniques for working with isomalt and filo dough, which are advanced skills that can elevate the presentation of baked goods

Includes guidance on decorating and plating unique cheesecake desserts, which can help learners develop their artistic and presentation skills

Requires specialized tools and ingredients such as isomalt, filo dough, and edible flowers, which may not be readily available or affordable for all learners

Includes recipes for cream cheese filling, graham cracker crust, and fruit-flavored sauces, which are foundational elements for creating a variety of cheesecakes

Reviews summary

Mastering elegant cheesecake creations

According to learners, this course provides a comprehensive deep dive into creating advanced cheesecakes, extending beyond basic recipes to focus heavily on stunning presentations and sophisticated decoration techniques. Students particularly appreciate the detailed guidance on working with less common elements like isomalt and filo dough, as well as creating beautiful edible flowers. Many find the instructor's expertise and step-by-step demonstrations invaluable. While the course is highly praised for its focus on high-level baking skills, some notes suggest that a basic understanding of baking fundamentals might be beneficial for the faster-paced parts.

Downloadable resources enhance learning.

"The included Class Companion eBook is a treasure trove of recipes and tips that I'll use long after finishing the course."

"The Project Timelines and Food Cost Calculators are incredibly useful, especially if you plan to bake for events or commercially."

"Having the templates and conversion guides readily available made following along much easier."

Reliable and delicious cheesecake recipes.

"The cheesecake filling recipe is fantastic - it's lighter but still has that classic creamy texture."

"I loved learning different flavored crusts and sauces; they truly enhance the cakes."

"The recipes provided in the course consistently yielded perfect, delicious cheesecakes."

Go beyond basic baking to create art.

"This course isn't just about baking; it's about transforming cheesecakes into truly stunning, professional-looking desserts."

"The plating and large cake designs section provided fantastic inspiration and practical methods for beautiful presentation."

"I learned how to think about balance and composition, making my desserts not just tasty but visually appealing."

Instructor provides clear, thorough instructions.

"Chef Irit breaks down complex steps into easy-to-follow instructions, making even the difficult decorations manageable."

"The demonstrations are very clear, showing exactly how to achieve perfect results with the recipes and techniques."

"I appreciated the detailed walkthroughs for assembling and plating the different cheesecake designs."

Learn techniques for stunning cake visuals.

"The sections on isomalt and filo dough opened up a whole new world of decoration possibilities for me."

"I loved learning how to make the fruit and fondant flowers; they really elevated the final look of my cheesecakes."

"The course teaches truly advanced decoration techniques I haven't found elsewhere."

Best for those with basic baking experience.

"While very detailed, some sections moved quickly and might be challenging if you're a complete beginner with no prior baking experience."

"Having a little experience with pastry or cake decorating is helpful before tackling the more advanced techniques like isomalt."

"I found that having a basic understanding of ingredient interactions made it easier to grasp the nuances Chef Irit explained."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Become a Great Baker #2: Cheesecake Extravaganza with these activities:

Review Basic Baking Techniques

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Refresh your understanding of fundamental baking techniques to ensure a solid foundation for the more advanced cheesecake recipes and methods covered in the course.

Browse courses on Baking Techniques

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Review basic mixing methods like creaming, whisking, and folding.
Practice measuring ingredients accurately using both weight and volume.
Familiarize yourself with different oven temperatures and their effects on baking.

Read 'The Professional Pastry Chef'

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Gain a deeper understanding of pastry fundamentals to improve your cheesecake baking skills.

View The Professional Pastry Chef on Amazon

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Read the chapters on doughs, fillings, and sauces.
Take notes on key techniques and ingredient ratios.
Try one or two basic recipes from the book.

Experiment with Fruit Sauce Variations

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Solidify your understanding of fruit sauces by creating your own unique flavor combinations, building on the recipes taught in the course.

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Select three different fruits to use as the base for your sauces.
Experiment with adding spices, herbs, or extracts to enhance the flavor.
Document your recipes and taste-test each sauce.
Pair your sauces with different cheesecake flavors.

Four other activities

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Document Your Cheesecake Journey

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Reinforce your learning by creating a blog or social media series documenting your progress through the course, sharing your successes and challenges.

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Create a blog or social media account dedicated to your baking journey.
Document each cheesecake recipe you try, including photos and notes.
Share your creations with the online baking community.

Design a Plated Cheesecake Dessert

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Apply the plating techniques learned in the course to create your own unique and visually stunning plated cheesecake dessert.

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Sketch out your plating design, considering color, texture, and height.
Prepare the cheesecake and any accompanying sauces or decorations.
Carefully plate your dessert, paying attention to detail.
Photograph your creation and share it with others.

Study 'Advanced Bread and Pastry'

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Deepen your understanding of baking science to improve your cheesecake recipes.

View Advanced Bread and Pastry on Amazon

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Read the chapters on ingredients and baking processes.
Take notes on key scientific principles.
Apply these principles to your cheesecake recipes.

Help Others in Baking Forums

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Solidify your knowledge by answering questions and providing guidance to other bakers in online forums, reinforcing your understanding of the course material.

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Find online baking forums or communities.
Answer questions related to cheesecake baking and decoration.
Share your knowledge and experience with others.

Career center

Learners who complete Become a Great Baker #2: Cheesecake Extravaganza will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Cake Decorator

A cake decorator specializes in the artistic design and embellishment of cakes. This course provides an in-depth look at decorative techniques, using a variety of materials such as filo, isomalt, fruits, and fondant to create visually stunning cheesecakes. A cake decorator will benefit from learning how to create various elegant decorations, as well as how to make edible flowers using fruits and fondant. The course also shows how to create modern designs and unique presentations for a variety of cakes.

See salaries and explore the career path for Cake Decorator

Dessert Stylist

A dessert stylist focuses on the visual presentation of desserts, often for photography, restaurants, or events. This course provides excellent training for this role, as it covers not only the making of cheesecakes but also the detailed plating and presentation skills required to elevate the final product. A dessert stylist will find the step by step guidance on decorating and plating four unique personal desserts, as well as the instruction on creating three large cheesecake designs, to be particularly useful. The course provides the skills to create modern designs and unique presentations.

See salaries and explore the career path for Dessert Stylist

Pastry Chef

A pastry chef creates a variety of baked goods and desserts, often with a focus on visual appeal and sophisticated flavor combinations. This course, with its emphasis on modern cheesecake designs, unique presentations, and advanced decoration techniques using filo, isomalt, and edible flowers, directly aligns with the skills a pastry chef needs. Someone aiming to be a pastry chef would benefit specifically from the recipes for cream cheese fillings, graham cracker crusts, and fruit sauces, as well as the instruction on creating elegant decorations and plated desserts.

See salaries and explore the career path for Pastry Chef

Baker

A baker creates a variety of baked goods, often in larger quantities for a commercial setting. While this role sometimes leans more towards bread making, a baker who specializes in desserts such as cheesecake will find this course very helpful. The course provides instruction on making various kinds of cheesecakes, developing unique flavor profiles through the use of spices and fruit sauces. The course also teaches how to create large 8 inch cakes and individual personal desserts. The techniques for decoration and plating will also be useful in this role.

See salaries and explore the career path for Baker

Food Blogger

A food blogger creates recipes and content for an online audience, and they need to be able to present dishes in an appealing way. This course helps a food blogger elevate their cheesecake recipes through its instruction of modern designs, unique presentations, and sophisticated decoration techniques. A food blogger would benefit from the course's recipes, including cream cheese fillings, graham cracker crusts, and fruit flavored sauces, as well as the plating and decoration skills, and the use of edible flowers.

See salaries and explore the career path for Food Blogger

Catering Chef

A catering chef prepares food for large events and often needs to create visually appealing dishes that are easy to serve in a banquet setting. This course can be beneficial to a catering chef as it provides a comprehensive range of recipes and techniques for making cheesecakes. It teaches how to make both large cakes and individual desserts, while also developing sophisticated skills of decoration and plating. A catering chef may find the step by step guidance on plating four unique personal desserts and creating three large cheesecake designs to be particularly relevant.

See salaries and explore the career path for Catering Chef

Bakery Owner

A bakery owner manages the operations of a bakery, which involves both baking and business aspects. This course may help a bakery owner looking to expand their menu or improve the quality of their offerings. This course's instruction on advanced decoration skills using filo, isomalt and edible flowers, as well as the unique recipes, would be valuable to creating a competitive menu. A bakery owner may especially benefit from the course's guidance creating desserts and large cakes for various needs.

See salaries and explore the career path for Bakery Owner

Restaurant Chef

A restaurant chef is responsible for creating menus and preparing food in a restaurant setting. This course may be helpful to a restaurant chef who wishes to expand their dessert portfolio by adding well-made, visually stunning cheesecakes to their menu. This course's recipes for cream cheese fillings, graham cracker crusts, and fruit sauces, along with its advanced decoration techniques, can be very useful to a chef in creating high end desserts. This course also trains in creating modern designs and unique presentations.

See salaries and explore the career path for Restaurant Chef

Culinary Instructor

A culinary instructor teaches cooking and baking skills to students. This course may be useful to a culinary instructor who wants to expand their repertoire and curriculum with modern and unique cheesecake recipes and techniques. This course's advanced decoration skills with filo, isomalt and edible flowers would help instructors in communicating advanced concepts. Learning how to create both large and personal desserts is also useful to a culinary instructor.

See salaries and explore the career path for Culinary Instructor

Recipe Developer

A recipe developer creates and tests recipes for publications, product development, or food service. This course may be helpful to a recipe developer who is looking to enhance their skills in creating unique cheesecake recipes with modern designs. The course covers the recipes for cream cheese fillings, graham cracker crusts, and fruit sauces. Furthermore the course shows how to customize recipes to match various tastes, and add surprising flavors with sauces and spices. The techniques for advanced decoration are also of value to this role.

See salaries and explore the career path for Recipe Developer

Personal Chef

A personal chef prepares meals for clients based on their preferences, and it is important to be able to create a variety of dishes, including desserts. This course provides a broad exploration of cheesecake recipes and techniques that can assist a personal chef. The course specifically teaches how to customize recipes to match any taste, and how to add surprising flavors using sauces and spices. This course also expands the personal chef's presentation skills by showing how to create impressive large cakes and plated desserts.

See salaries and explore the career path for Personal Chef

Food Photographer

A food photographer captures images of food for various purposes such as cookbooks, magazines, and menus. While this role does not involve baking, a food photographer in particular will benefit from the skills taught in this course, as it provides the means to create visually stunning and sophisticated desserts for photography. The course's lessons on decorating with isomalt, filo dough, and edible flowers would be valuable to creating a variety of striking images. The plating and presentation techniques are also directly applicable to this role.

See salaries and explore the career path for Food Photographer

Food Product Developer

A food product developer works on creating new food products for manufacturers. This course may be helpful for a product developer focused on cake or dessert development. This course provides a comprehensive overview of cheesecake techniques, including a variety of flavors and decorations, and may be useful in product design. The use of modern designs and unique presentations, as well as techniques for working with isomalt and filo dough to create decorations, enhances the value of this course for this role.

See salaries and explore the career path for Food Product Developer

Event Planner

An event planner coordinates various aspects of events, including catering and decorations. This course may be helpful for an event planner seeking to expand their knowledge of cake design and presentation. This course provides instruction on modern design and unique presentations, and the sophisticated use of decoration techniques such as working with isomalt and filo. It also shows how to create plated desserts as well as large cakes, which increases its value for planning many types of events.

See salaries and explore the career path for Event Planner

Culinary Consultant

A culinary consultant advises restaurants, food manufacturers, or other businesses in the food industry. This course may be informative to a culinary consultant who wants to advise on dessert menu design or product development for bakeries. The course can aid by providing a wide range of recipes and techniques, and in covering modern design, unique presentations, and advanced decoration techniques. A culinary consultant may also find instruction in the use of isomalt and filo to be of value.

See salaries and explore the career path for Culinary Consultant

Become a Great Baker #2

Cheesecake Extravaganza

What's inside

Learning objectives

Syllabus

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Reviews summary

Mastering elegant cheesecake creations

Activities

Career center

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