DESSERTS
Cheesecakes Are Diff erent!
Even though “cake” is a part of the name, styling cheese-
cake is nothing like styling cake. Th e techniques for
styling cheesecake are unique to cheesecake. Th e texture
of the body of the cake is smooth, yet it can be very
textural when cut. For photography, one of the requi-
sites of a cut cheesecake is that the surface of the cut
area has good texture.with the slice removed plus a hero slice, I’ll ask for a
minimum of eight whole cheesecakes. Remember, if you
will be removing a section of a whole cake to show in
your shot, you can cut away a portion of the cake that
has imperfections. Always select the whole cake hero fi rst
and set it aside on a tray marked as hero before looking
for cakes to cut and remove hero slices.When you style cheesecake, the exposed interior of the
cake and slice should refl ect both smooth and textural
areas. Cheesecake crusts have a separate set of challenges
for styling because they can be made out of a variety of
diff erent mixtures, from pastry to graham crumbs to
chocolate cookie crumbs. Th e cheesecake texture and the
crust texture and appearance need to be addressed
separately.Before you begin cutting slices, determine the size of slice
needed in the shot. Use a stand-in or non-hero cake to
cut a stand-in piece to help determine the size. Use the
cake you used to remove a stand-in slice from as the
stand-in for the whole, cut cake. Determining the size of
the opening in a cut cake is usually driven by lighting
issues. Th e opening has to be wide enough to light the
interior of the cake. Removing around one-third of the
cake seems to be a fairly reliable standard to allow light-
ing in the interior of the whole, cut cake.TRICKS OF THE TRADE It is important to keep cheesecakes
in the refrigerator until you are ready to make cuts. When you
bring the cakes to the studio, look at them carefully to identify the
hero cakes and mark the packaging accordingly. Let them chill
overnight and keep them in the refrigerator until you are ready to
make cuts.Th e thing about cheesecake is that when it bakes, a skin
is formed on the top of the cheesecake surface. Th is skin
has a very smooth texture and is unlike the cut interior
texture of the cake. It’s not impossible, but it is diffi cult
to repair divots and dents in the top surface of a cheese-
cake. By working with several cheesecakes, your chances
of fi nding a hero cake are greater. I have learned to ask
a client to provide a minimum of four cheesecakes to
produce one hero slice. If the client wants to show a cake