Shavuot 2024: The pastries and cheesecakes to make your holiday special

Lehamim Bakery

Uri Sheft's Lehamim Bakery has released a special edition of challahs, quiches, and various cheesecakes this year. At the center of the collection is the classic cheesecake on Breton dough—a rich, flavorful cake with a delicate and tasty base, evoking childhood memories with just a few bites. Next to it, you can find a tiramisu cake with mascarpone cream, amaretto liqueur, and espresso-dipped ladyfingers—a perfectly crafted cake that's impossible to stop at one slice. Additionally, don't miss the excellent quiches or the giant challah adorned with wheat stalks, perfect for the holiday table.

Price: NIS 69-150 Rating: 9.5

Mimi

As every year, Mimi offers a series of elegant cheesecakes, often gluten-free. The classic baked cheesecake with lemon zest remains a favorite—airy and traditional. Another highlight is the vanilla cheesecake with berries on crunchy almond sable, a refreshed version from last year. However, the real showstopper is the New York Chocolate Cheesecake—an indulgent bite of rich, creamy cheesecake with chocolate, featuring chocolate fudge and dark chocolate cream.

Price: NIS 135-144 Rating: 9

Biscotti

Biscotti Bakery launches a collection of dairy cakes and pastries for the holiday, catering to sweet and savory lovers alike. The collection's centerpiece is the Philly cheesecake—a baked New York-style cheesecake enhanced with pistachio frangipane, delicate lemon cream, Chantilly cream, and pistachio cream—a true delight. Also noteworthy is the cookie brownie cheesecake—a shortbread base with baked cheesecake, cookie chunks, brownies, and salted caramel cream. It's a super interesting cake with texture and flavor play, ideal for chocolate lovers who don't want to forgo cheesy flavors.

Price: NIS 74-154 Rating: 9

Roladin

For Shavuot, Roladin has launched a rich collection of cheesecakes, yeast cakes, quiches, sourdough breads, and more. Among the special holiday desserts is the rich Basque cheesecake with Breton sable, cream cheese, and baked mascarpone—a perfect execution of one of our favorite cakes. Another successful creation is the chocolate marble cake—a variation of the baked Basque cheesecake with dark chocolate, offering a fun flavor play. Lastly, the lemon tiramisu cheesecake with lemon curd, citrus syrup-dipped ladyfingers, and mascarpone cream is a refreshing and beautiful cake, not overly sweet.

Price: NIS 46-149 Rating: 8.5

Shany Confectionery

Shany Confectionery's Shavuot collection includes a wide variety of cheesecakes and cheese desserts, from tortes to tiramisu, crumb cheesecake, brownie cheesecake, Basque, and peach cheesecake. This year's surprise is the lemon meringue hurricane cake. Perhaps not surprising, but the cake is designed with contemporary spirit. The lemon cream symbolizes sorrow and the desire to return the hostages, the sweet cheese cream represents hope, and the topping expresses our daily emotions. In terms of taste, the cake is a huge success—a great blend of tartness with delicate sweetness.

Price: NIS 149 Rating: 8.5

Boutique Central

Boutique Central patisserie launches a variety of holiday-themed cheesecakes, ensuring everyone finds their favorite. We tried two classics: the carrot cheesecake—layers of carrot cake and rich mascarpone, simply delightful. Everything we love about carrot cake with a rich cream treat. The Basque cheesecake, with a charred crust hiding a creamy and delightful center, was excellent—delightful texture and precise sweetness.

Price: NIS 76-168 Rating: 8.5

Ma'afe Ne'eman 

Ma'afe Ne'eman chain has a Shavuot collection featuring cakes, quiches, lasagnas, and focaccias in collaboration with blogger Ron Yohananov. Offerings include the classic crumb cheesecake, which was wonderful—soft and just the right sweetness, a cheesecake with a refreshing berry topping, and blueberry-stuffed cheese pastries that are simply irresistible.

Price: NIS 49-170 Rating: 8.5

Showroom Bakehouse X Osem Nestlé

For the holiday, Showroom Bakehouse and Osem Nestlé collaborated on a special collection of pudding-filled desserts based on sweet Bamba and pretzels. The collection includes Berliners filled with pretzel pudding cream and sweet Bamba pudding cream, filled croissants, and vanilla buns coated in milk chocolate with pretzel/Bamba pudding cream and Bamba pieces. This colorful and joyful collection made us feel like we traveled back in time to Hanukkah. Both cream versions were successful and creative, though we wished the Berliner's dough was airier.

Price: NIS 25 per dessertRating: 8

Miki Shemo

Pastry chef MikiShemo launches a festive and rich cheese collection, including a wide variety of sweet and savory pastries: cakes, quiches, focaccias, and breads. Shemo's baked cheesecake is one of our favorites—simple, soft, and delicious, leaving a lasting impression. The crumb cheesecake we tasted was creamy and fun—sweet but light. The cheese yeast cake was the least exciting, possibly due to excess filling making the dough a bit mushy.

Price: NIS 69-200 Rating: 8

Biga

For the first time, Biga chain launched an unbaked, sugar-free, gluten-free crumb cheesecake for the holiday. Despite our low expectations for a gluten-free and sugar-free cake, we were pleasantly surprised. The cake has a creamy texture without the aftertaste sometimes found in sugar substitutes.

Price: NIS 64 per loafRating: 8

Bonjour

For those seeking a simple classic, Bonjour offers a cheese brioche cake for Shavuot. Made from soft and delicate dough with a slightly sweet cheese filling, it's a good cake overall, perfect for snacking with coffee.

Price (according to Pricez website): NIS 20-33.90 Rating: 7