The best cheesecake in Israel for Shavuot 2026

Is it fun to taste 40 cakes? Maybe if you spread them out over the whole year, but we arrived driven by a single purpose: To discover which cheesecakes in Israel are the most delicious and the most worth your money. This meant sacrificing our bodies and digging into dozens of beautiful cheesecakes, with and without gluten, in order to crown the winner, the runner–up, and the teenage beauty queen.

To make it easy, we divided them into categories, so whether you are a fan of yeast cake, Basque, classic, or just love special combinations: Here you will find a cake for every craving. Happy holiday!

In first place:

Wow, wow, and once again, wow. That was all the people who tasted it could manage to utter from their full mouths, and then another wow because we haven't seen such a beautiful cake in a long time. The stunning, spring–like tart by partners Shahar Signor and Ariel Zarbiv, the bakers behind Seniora Bakery, combines flavors that seem to enchant the palate: The base of the tart is made of a crisp, buttery almond shortcrust pastry.

Above it is an almond and citrus cream that refreshes and lightens the flavor, and then comes a layer of nectarines with a yogurt mousse delicately seasoned with rosewater, which takes you straight to the world of Turkish delight. The creation is topped with a sweet–salty yogurt crumble that adds a playful character to the bite.

We haven't encountered such a unique combination in a long time, one that both looks like a million dollars and is executed to absolute perfection. Thank you, Shahar and Ariel, for this.

We are suckers for Basque cheesecakes, and obviously our top choice was the one from Nordinyo by We Like You Too. At least until today. The Basque cake by young pastry chef Eden Nissim from "Bread" entered our lives and upended everything we thought we knew about Basque cheesecakes. On the outside, it is well–burned, bordering on charred, but the taste, oh the taste: It is caramel–like and sweet, yet balanced, precise, and there is a chance it even has a slight citrus note.

But that wasn't the main thing that caused us to devour it like beasts throughout the entire week. Its interior is creamy to the point of being nearly liquid, something truly exquisite that grew better and better with each passing day. And so, with its internal softness and tough exterior, we conquered it after 5 days of massive devouring, and even on the fifth day – it was simply amazing. What did you do to us, Eden, to turn us into such beasts?

This pastry excels in a beauty that is hard to resist. The color is a tempting golden brown and the design looks straight out of a magazine, with dozens of buttery, perfectly golden layers of pastry. When you cut into them, another layer of beauty is revealed: A filling of almond cream, ricotta, and citrus that tastes entirely of marzipan.

And it is so delicious and crispy that you can just grab it with your hand, eat it like a bourekas, and blissfully enjoy the thin layering that is caramelized to perfection. It is no exaggeration to state that this cake causes supreme happiness, especially if you are a fan of marzipan and butter.

When the woman with the golden hands connects her two most beloved cakes, nothing bad can come from the match. Imagine a golden anniversary wedding between an insane carrot cake and a delightful cheesecake, each swirled into the other in a tempting spiral that creates different, special bites. One moment it is a spiced cinnamon flavor, the next a soft, melting cheese, and topped with a sour cream chantilly that lightens the bite. No matter from which side you attack, an adventure awaits you in your mouth and an endless desire to trim slices until it is gone.

Not all of us love tiramisu. What can you do, the taste of coffee in a dessert does not suit everyone. However, almost all of us love whipped cream. So Ha'achim came along and said, forget about coffee, how about a refreshing fruit? And this makes so much sense that it is hard not to ask where this idea has been until now.

This is something they call a kumquat (Chinese orange) tiramisu, and it consists of a vermouth sabayon, mascarpone cream, candied kumquat, and above all, cocoa powder. Broadly speaking, apart from the sabayon and the mascarpone cream, there is no real connection to tiramisu, but the name invites you to taste it and the taste invites you to taste more.

The sabayon and mascarpone cream are wonderful, sweet just to the right degree, and the kumquat, a fruit that not everyone likes, is simply excellent here. It is refreshing, sweetish, and blends wonderfully with the creams. The whole thing is served in a deep dish, the kind where you will need long spoons to enjoy everything together, and pleasure is guaranteed.

There aren't many of you, but you exist out there. We are talking about you, guava lovers. And if you are one of them – a highly festive day awaits you, with a summit meeting between an i–n–s–a–n–e guava jam and a velvety, soft cheesecake.

We haven't seen guava lovers (and even a few who aren't) get this excited in a long time, and only when we disassembled the beautiful slice into its components did we understand the secret of the magic: The base layer is made of a yeast shortcrust pastry typical of Bavarian baking, the cheese layer is very airy but also rich and, most importantly, not very sweet, which leaves the stardom to the guava layer. It is a bit jelly–like but also soft, and feels just like a real guava of the delicious kind, with all the fun fragrance in every bite.

We flipped over it to the extent of wanting a wedding right here and now, during Shavuot and throughout the entire year.

It takes the wow effect in a second. Elegant, beautifully designed, and studded with small, crisp raspberry diamonds, and despite the nickname "panna cotta," it is a multi–layered cake in every respect.

The bottom is made of a brown butter crumble and an almond biscuit. Above it is a delicate, cheesy panna cotta mousse, and the whole thing is sealed with a thin coating of white chocolate, crispy raspberry, champagne chantilly, and blueberries. We are not sure we would know how to describe all this without the detailed breakdown, but it was absolutely delicious to us, as well as unique and creative.

Here is an actual reaction from one of the tasters of this cake: "Oh my god, what is this? What is this incredibly delicious thing that I just put in my mouth?!" And it must be said, this is a taster who had already tasted three other cakes that day, but this cake simply jumped above them all. The combination of pistachio with the cheese is delicate and balanced, the crunchiness is precise, and the filling, oh the filling – simply delightful, indulgent, and delicious.

Those who find sweetness difficult struggled with this rather sweet cake. But then we gave it to other people to taste and the enthusiastic responses did not stop flowing. This is a New York caramel fleur de sel with a sablé breton, a caramel cream cheese cream, and a caramel chantilly.

All this caramel provides a deep flavor that caramel lovers absolutely went crazy for, alongside a cool and very necessary crunchiness in these otherwise very soft cakes. When we asked the enthusiasts if it wasn't too sweet for them, the answer was: "Yes, it's sweet? What's wrong with sweet? It's a dessert, what did you want it to be? Salty?!" And with a big laugh, they took down another piece.

Biscotti have always been the spearhead of cool cakes. So much the spearhead that today they are the leading establishment creating cakes for cafes that do not bake their own. Yet, they still have their cute little place in Ramat Gan, and there you can find the next creation: A cheese brûlée. This consists of a crisp shortcrust crumble base, topped with a New York–style baked cheesecake, with the trick coming in the middle: A layer of crème brûlée with a caramelized brûlée coating.

This layer pulls off quite a trick. Suddenly, in the middle of the classic heaviness of the New York cake, there is a liquid softness with a caramel and vanilla aroma. It is really, really nice, adds a great element to the bite, and turns the seemingly regular cheesecake into a holiday experience.

In first place:

The Basque cake from Nordinyo is a brand in its own right. People dream about it at night, and there are, of course, the addicts who return for it at least once a week. All this happens because it is simply perfect. Like a true Basque cake, it is plump and rich with a caramelized layer on top that provides an appealing color and a sweet–bitter caramel flavor.

On the inside, it is extremely soft, melting toward the center and turning into a cream that dissolves in the mouth. The longer you leave it at room temperature, the softer it will become, and the big plus – it lasts for many days in the fridge, and even improves with each passing day.

Lovers of American cheesecakes know that these cakes are often not represented with dignity: They are either dense or so heavy that afterward you need a siesta and soul–searching interchangeably.

The small patisserie from Kiryat Yam rises above the difficulties and brings honor to the Yankees with a tall and very indulgent cheesecake, yet one that is not too heavy. The texture is balanced with a white chocolate ganache topping and a coating of butter crumbs in exactly the right texture that doesn't slip into crumbliness.

In addition to all this pleasure, the cake is decorated on top with blueberries bursting with juice that contribute a delicate sourness to the flavor and texture, giving the cake the festive appearance it deserves.

Sometimes there is no need to be clever. A classic cheesecake, a little sweet, moderately airy, is all you need with a cup of good espresso at the end of the meal (or just like that in the afternoon).

It is hard to explain what makes something so precise, but here it is: A precise cake. You can say what it doesn't have – aftertastes, heaviness, excessive sweetness. You can say what it does have – pleasant, airy, beautiful. But overall – simply a bomb. As 70–year–olds say: Punkt! Meaning absolutely precise. The base is a breton, which is simply butter and flour, and the simplicity works wonderfully there too.

This layered yeast cake makes you want to sit down and pull it apart, as if tearing away buttery sheets of pastry is less bad than trimming edges. But this ricotta babka is so buttery, airy, and inviting that we broke down and gave our craving the freedom to do whatever it wanted. As if it weren't delicious enough, there are also berries. Not a lot, but enough to gently season it and keep you pulling it apart until you reach the end.

In first place:

Forget about the beautiful dish in which it is served. This handsome Italian tiramisu made us return to it day after day, and maybe even hour after hour. It is tall and inviting, airy and light in its texture, but also rich and soaked in excellent coffee.

If you plunge a spoon from top to bottom, to the base of the sponge cake and coffee, you get a delightful boost of coffee followed by endless softness courtesy of the light cream that separates the layers. And what is the most fun? It was excellent even 4 days from the moment of the initial digging.

The Little Bakers are responsible for several gluten–free strip cakes that will delight anyone who has organized themselves around celiac disease or just wants to remove gluten from their life. The almond–based pastry is marzipan–like, stable to the right degree, and decorated with powdered sugar. The cheese filling is lemony and topped with just the right amounts of diplomat cream and lemon zest. On the first bite, it is hard to grasp the concept; on the second, the richness of the flavors is understood along with maximum enjoyment, and therefore only on the third slice did we reach satisfaction.

Honestly – none of the tasters identified that this was a gluten–free cake. The bottom is fun and crispy just as it should be, the cheese filling is creamy and sweet exactly to the right degree, and the tempting appearance also contributed to the experience and helped us keep trimming more and more, even though it is a strip cake. If you avoid gluten – do not miss it.