Baking

Courses

ADVP-302: Advanced Bread Baking

This course is an exploration of advanced bread baking techniques, emphasizing fermentation control, ingredient sourcing, and innovation. Students will work with a range of dough styles, including lean, enriched, and naturally leavened, while also exploring recipe development and commercial applications. Students will engage in hands-on lab work, class discussions, sensory analysis, and three creative projects. Quantitative evaluations will consist of weekly formula development and recipe costing models.

ADVS-300: Navigating Degree Completion

Students who enter the Culinary Institute of America seeking the Bachelor of Culinary Arts or the Bachelor of Baking and Pastry Arts degree will take this course. The content is specifically geared toward understanding the unique program requirements of degree-completion transfer students. Each student will meet with an advisor who will review the student's degree audit and expected graduation date. Any questions about transfer credits will be addressed in the advising sessions. Each student will also have the opportunity to meet with the Dean for Academic Engagement and Administration to review their educational plan. The course will run for half a seemster.

BAKE-105: Baking and Pastry Techniques

This introductory-level course covers the basic theory and skill sets used throughout the field of baking and pastry. Topics covered include the use of hand tools and equipment found in a bakeshop, as well as the exploration of baking and pastry ingredients and their functions. Students will gain an introductory knowledge of the major methods such as creaming, blending, foaming, meringues, pre-cooked, cut-in, lamination, straight dough, custards, and working with chocolate. Students will be encouraged to taste and evaluate products they create in class to enhance their understanding of the course material.

BAKE-110: Baking Ingredients and Equipment Technology

Students will learn to identify quality grains, fruits, vegetables, gelling agents, nuts and seeds, dairy products, baking spices, egg products, flours, chocolates, fats and oils that are used in the Baking and Pastry industry. The theory and operation of large equipment and hand tools used in bakeries and pastry shops will be explored along with the advantages, disadvantages, and operational requirements of various types of equipment found in the bakeshop.

BAKE-115: Café Savory Foods Production

This production experience concentrates on previously learned knife skills, fundamental cooking techniques, and quantity food production principles. Students will further develop their ability to organize an assigned station based on preparation methods, while focusing on production, plate presentation, and cooking techniques as applied to specific menu items. They will also learn the importance of getting the café foods to the ready stage to be assembled, finished, and served at a later time. Emphasis will be placed on speed, storage, uses, and nutritional aspects of key ingredients.

BAKE-151: Baking and Pastry Practical Examination I

In this two-day practical exam offered in Signapore only, students will be tested on the fundamentals of baking. This hands-on skills exam will draw from a selection of products that have been covered during students' first year of studies. The exam is comprised of a selection of mixing methods, lamination, and basic chocolate work. (High Pass/Pass/Fail Grading)

BAKE-200: Principles of Design

Study the basic concepts of figure, ground, line, contrast, pattern, proportion, color, symmetry, movement, unity, and balance. Students learn the principles of two- and three-dimensional design and develop language to analyze product design, plate presentations, decoration, and packaging on visual, tactile, and conceptual levels.

BAKE-202: Specialty Breads

This course advances skills and techniques of specialty bread production, including commercially and naturally leavened breads. Flat breads, holiday breads and breads from around the world are introduced as well as cross-utilization of dough and alternative production methods. Properties and characteristics of grains other than wheat are covered. The baker's percentage system, scaling ingredients, mixing techniques, controlled fermentation, hand shaping skills, and baking methodology are reviewed.

BAKE-205: Basic and Classical Cakes

Advancing previously introduced techniques, including the creaming and foaming methods, students will prepare cakes that range from simple to complex, filled and unfilled cakes and tortes. Topics include fillings, icings, custards, mousses, and glazing techniques, along with a comparison of classical and modern dessert preparations and presentations.

BAKE-210: Hearth Breads and Rolls

Students learn to mix, shape, bake, store, and distribute breads and rolls. Students will build speed and increase their proficiency in meeting production deadlines with quality products. Emphasis is placed on the use of traditional fermentation methods, equipment, and methods that emphasize flavor, texture, and appearance as well as techniques that naturally increase shelf life.

BAKE-215: Individual and Production Pastries

Explore the steps for planning and conducting quantity production for banquets and large functions. In this course, students learn how to scale recipes for large-volume production for pastry buffet tables and retail settings. They will create verrines, layered desserts, tarts, petit gateaux, tempered chocolate decor, and a variety of petit fours.

BAKE-230: Baking and Pastry Practical Examination II

In this practical exam offered in Signapore only, students are required to produce items that will demonstrate their knowledge of baking and pastry principles along with the hand skills they have developed during their first and second years of study. This exam allows students to show what they have learned with regard to yeast-raised products, aerated desserts, ganache, and chocolate tempering techniques. (High Pass/Pass/Fail Grading).

BAKE-240: Confectionery Art and Special Occasion Cakes

This course introduces the basics of decorative work as applied to showpieces and special occasion cakes. Each student will produce projects using each of the following mediums, pulled sugar, chocolate, pastillage, gum paste, fondant and royal icing. Styles of cake decoration ranging from the classic use of royal icing to the more modern techniques using rolled fondant will be introduced and practiced. The class will finish with a capstone project where the techniques learned in class will be showcased.

BAKE-241: Baking and Pastry Skill Development

An introduction to the principles and techniques used in the preparation of high-quality baked goods and pastries, with an emphasis on fundamental production techniques and evaluation of quality characteristics. Topics include bread fermentation and production, ingredient functions, and custard ratios and preparations.

BAKE-242: Chocolate and Confectionery Technology and Techniques

This course will focus on chocolate and confectionery technology, ingredient function, and the production of chocolates and confections in an artisan setting. Vital concepts in both theory and practice will include controlling the crystallization of fats and sugars, manipulating water and free water in centers, and understanding the mechanics of emulsions. Students will apply their knowledge of these concepts in daily production of a wide range of chocolates and confections. Types of centers to be discussed and produced include varieties of ganache, crystalline and non-crystalline sugar confections, nut-based centers, jellies, and aerated confections. Ingredient function will focus on fats, nutritive sweeteners, dairy products, binding agents, and chocolate. Techniques include chocolate tempering methods, sugar cooking technique, hand dipping centers, and shell molding. Students entering this class should have a working knowledge of chocolate-handling techniques and chocolate tempering.

BAKE-245: Contemporary Cakes and Desserts

An examination of modern cakes assembled and decorated with a contemporary approach using the latest technology and equipment. Topics will include travel cakes decorated as a whole; entremet cakes finished in large variety of molds, metal, and silicon; a variety of decorations are also covered, including but not limited to tempered chocolate, sugar, and meringues. Students will study and explore flavor combinations, original and timeless using seasonal products with simplicity of style in mind.

BAKE-251: Advanced Baking Principles

An examination of baking methods and principles from a nutritional and chemical/physical point of view. Students will conduct experiments (using controlled formulas) and nutritional analyses on various baking ingredients and products in order to develop a better understanding of baking principles. Topics include preparation of common products with a variety of specialty ingredients, modified to accommodate vegan, diabetic, and gluten-free products; comprehending and creating nutritional labels; and preparation of desserts, breads, and cakes for special dietary needs.

BAKE-254: Café Operations

Experience the reality of producing and marketing products in the setting of an actual bakery café. Students prepare, display, and present savory items, pastry products, and signature baked goods. In an on-campus bakery café environment, students practice the skills of controlling inventory, analyzing sales, and operating a complete shop. Specialty items for customers are developed under the direction of a faculty member.

BAKE-255: Beverages and Customer Service

This course builds on the topics introduced in Introduction to Service and Beverage (HMFB 210) and will give students a realistic environment in the café where they will interact with guests and be able to identify and handle customer needs while engaging in critical-thinking topics. The student will learn to define and execute exceptional hospitality and learn what it is to provide accurate guest service. The course will provide an overview to a wide variety of beverages; hot, cold, alcoholic, and non-alcoholic; models of service, retail packaging, point of sales system, marketing, merchandising, inventory management, and the processes of receiving, storing, and preparing all beverages. In addition, students will learn to pair beverages with food items, manage inventories, control costs, and understand the need for teamwork in a front of house service-focused café environment. Students will apply and evaluate operational systems that are relevant to provide high quality café service and hospitality.

BAKE-260: Applied Baking and Pastry Production

An examination of baking methods and principles will be used to introduce an overview of larger bakeshop production. Through lectures, readings, demonstrations, and hands-on experience, students will gain exposure to different types of equipment and organizational systems and begin to learn how to organize a bakeshop for production. An emphasis will be placed on forecasting, production planning, food safety, sanitation, proper work habits, nutritional aspects of baking, and inventory control.

BAKE-300: Restaurant and Production Desserts

This course will focus on individual desserts, à la minute preparations, and components within dessert production. Students will learn station organization, timing, and service coordination for restaurant dessert production and be guided through the cross-utilization of products to improve food cost and labor efficiency. Classroom production will include items appropriate for various uses, such as an à la carte menu or banquet operations. Topics will include dessert balance, flavor pairing, menu planning (à la carte vs. banquet), frozen dessert production/troubleshooting, and developing items to match the style of an operation.

BPSE-340: Retail Bakery Operations

This course introduces students to the real-world dynamics of planning, operating, and promoting a retail bakery. From concept development to equipment selection, pricing, and marketing, students will gain hands-on experience with the business side of baking. The course culminates in a Pop-Up Bakery Showcase, where student teams will produce, display, price, and sell bakery products at the student recreation center.

LART-339: Sustainable Pastry and Local Foodways

This Advanced Concepts in Baking and Pastry Concentration course examines how artisan pastry is shaped by sustainable food practices and local food systems. Students will explore the agricultural landscape of the surrounding region, focusing on how climate, crops, producers, and community food traditions influence pastry production. Course work emphasizes ethical sourcing, environmental stewardship, and the role of chefs and pastry professionals in supporting resilient, place-based food systems. Through site visits, hands-on experiences, and research, students will learn how sustainability principles can be integrated into pastry practice while strengthening connections to the broader community. The course encourages critical thinking about food's role in creating a more sustainable food future within diverse local and regional contexts.