Pastry students and Chef Instructor smile together in one of ICE's Los Angeles pastry classes

Pastry & Baking Arts - Los Angeles Campus

Explore proper techniques and methods for pastry, baking and contemporary desserts in our Pastry & Baking Arts program.

Diploma Program

Launch your culinary career in an urban oasis for food and restaurant lovers

Nestled in Pasadena’s historic Playhouse District, ICE LA opened its doors in 2018 and has been a thriving center for professional training and culinary inspiration for everyone looking for Los Angeles baking classes ever since. Between the heralded restaurant scene and the bountiful produce, southern California is an oasis for food and restaurant lovers. There’s no better place to launch a culinary career.

The ICE Los Angeles pastry arts program curriculum is filled with techniques, theory and practical knowledge. The program begins with a comprehensive exploration and critical tasting of ingredients to learn how flavors and textures combine. You will progress through development of all the dough-based products then on to breads and cakes.

Where Creativity and Technical Skills Come Together

The delicate balance of technique and creativity is what makes the world of pastry and baking unique. This intensive hands-on Los Angeles baking arts program is designed to help you become an accomplished baker. In as little as eight months, our proprietary curriculum covers a plethora of baked goods, including cookies, breads, cakes, viennoiserie, pies, choux and more. In addition, entire courses are dedicated to plated desserts, chocolate and sugar confections and cake decoration technique, both modern and traditional.

Quick Facts

Program Name: Career Pastry & Baking Arts

Program Duration: 7-11 months

Class Times: morning, afternoon, evening

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Los Angeles Pastry & Baking Arts Schedule Options

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Afternoon (7 months)

  • Hours: Mon. - Fri., 12 p.m. - 4 p.m.
  • Start Date: April 9
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Morning (7 months)

  • Hours: Mon. - Fri., 7:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
  • Start Date: May 16
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Evenings (11 months)

  • Hours: Tues. - Thurs., 6 p.m. - 10 p.m.
  • Start Date: TBD

Dual Diploma Discount

Combine business and pastry and baking skills to accelerate success. Students enrolled in the Pastry & Baking Arts program who also enroll in another diploma program, such as Restaurant and Culinary Management, can receive a discount worth up to $4,000.

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One Quick Conversation is All it Takes

From day one, ICE is here to help make your dreams of attending pastry & baking school a reality. One quick conversation with your Admissions Representative can open the door to endless opportunities. They’ll also set you up with a personal Student Financial Services counselor, who can help guide you through the many financing options available for the ICE Los Angeles pastry arts program, including federal financial aid, loans, scholarships and more.

Explore our LA Campus

With professional teaching kitchens, a culinary technology lab and an expansive learning resource center, ICE LA spans 38,000 square feet in the heart of southern California. ICE’s LA campus is designed with you in mind. Come see for yourself, or take a virtual tour to get a first-hand look at what ICE Los Angeles' pastry classes are all about.

Learn about Externships

After completing your ICE Los Angeles pastry classes, you'll move on to the final course of your program — the externship. A hands-on externship in a professional industry kitchen is a vital component to the ICE education. Working closely with your Career Services Advisor, we’ll help you find the right fit to start getting experience and broadening your network even while you’re still in school.

Alumni News

ICE is proud to have over 17,900 alumni across the culinary industry, many of whom graduated from the ICE Los Angeles pastry arts program. Our students come from diverse backgrounds with varied goals, which means our alumni land in some of the most interesting roles across the industry. Read some of their stories and get inspired.

Image removed.ICE’s Career Pastry & Baking Arts program contains nine courses, offering students comprehensive training in the art and techniques of a variety of methods. The first eight courses are composed of 100 four-hour lessons taught by expert ICE Chef-Instructors at ICE’s Los Angeles baking arts program facility. Students start with a foundation of essential techniques and ingredients and build upon that knowledge to study breads, cakes, chocolate and intricately plated pastries. 

The ninth course is an off-site externship at a location chosen by the ICE Los Angeles baking arts program student based on their career goals, working with our dedicated Career Services advisors to ensure the right fit.

The program is constructed as follows:

Course 1

INTRODUCTION TO BAKING ARTS TECHNIQUES AND INGREDIENTS PART 1

44 hours

The ICE Los Angeles pastry arts program begins by giving students an in-depth understanding of the ingredients, techniques and procedures they will use throughout the program:

• Identification and discussion of the essential ingredient groups: sugar, dairy, fruit, flours and chocolate.
• Weights and measures, culinary math, food safety, sanitation and equipment identification.
• Introduction to basic decorating skills, the use of a pastry bag and making and utilizing cornets.
• Techniques for preparing fruit-based desserts, including paring, poaching, roasting, macerating, drying and candying.
• The theory and practice of sugar cookery including the preparation of sugar syrups, glazes, fudge and caramel.

Course 2

INTRODUCTION TO BAKING ARTS TECHNIQUES AND INGREDIENTS PART 2

56 hours

All well-executed desserts rely on a mastery of fundamental techniques. In this course students begin the journey toward that goal by learning:

• The basics of egg theory as they prepare egg-based desserts like crème brûlée, bread pudding, soufflés, mousses, meringues and éclairs made with pâte à choux.
• Preparation of additional egg-based desserts such as soufflés and meringues.
• How to prepare a variety of cheesecakes along with classic pastry cream.
• Production of frozen desserts such as ice creams and sorbets.

Course 3

BREADS AND OTHER YEAST-RAISED DOUGHS

40 hours

Bread is at the crossroads of the culinary and baking arts. At the heart of this deceptively simple food is some of the program’s most challenging material:

• The technique and theory of working with yeasted doughs: fermentation, dough hydration, temperature control, kneading and shaping.
• How to calculate and utilize bakers’ percentages, with application in sponge, sour and straight dough formulations and more.
• Application of this theoretical knowledge by baking a variety of breads, including braided, rye, olive and sourdough loaves along with brioche, bagels, baguettes, foccacia and pizza.

Course 4

PASTRY DOUGHS

60 hours

Mixing, rolling, turning and forming: these are the essential skills students master as they learn to prepare the wide variety of doughs that are the basis of so many pastry items. Included are:

• The trio of classic doughs: pâte brisée (flaky), pâte sucrée (sweet) and pâte sablée (cookie) to make individual tarts and pastries.
• Laminated or layered doughs, including puff pastry, croissant and Danish doughs, both by hand and with a commercial sheeter.
• Proper rolling techniques for preparing tarts, galettes, pies (single-crust, two-crust and lattice), palmiers, mille-feuille, fruit strips, pithiviers croissants, pain au chocolat and a variety of Danish specialties.
• Specialty pastry shop items including phyllo, donuts, cannoli, sfogliatelle and handstretched classic strudel.

Course 5

CAKES, FILLINGS AND ICINGS PART 1

48 hours

From the humble pound cake to the classic génoise, students go beyond the recipes to explore the theory and technique of cake making and expand their abilities to create original cakes. Students will learn:

• Butter-based and egg-foam cakes including layered and rolled versions.
• The theory of batter balance as they prepare cakes using various mixing techniques including: one-stage, high-ratio and creaming method. Cakes prepared include carrot, pound, white, yellow, crumb and chocolate along with muffins. Egg-foam cakes such as angel food, chiffon and génoise are also included.
• Icings and fillings such as curds and ganaches as well as both Swiss and Italian meringue-based buttercreams. 
• A wide variety of piped, dropped, molded, bar and sheet cookies including biscotti, brownies, madeleines, macarons, spritz, Florentines and rainbow cookies.

Course 6

CAKES, FILLINGS AND ICINGS PART 2

52 hours

Batters produce more than the familiar cakes we often see: more complex techniques give us an international assortment of cakes and plated deserts. Covered here are:

• Complex layered baked goods including plain and chocolate-nut sponges, génoise mousseline, biscuit joconde and pain de gênes.
• A classic assortment of cakes, including opera, miroir, tiramisu, crêpe, mousse and charlotte royale.
• Our plated dessert section includes theory, preparation and presentation of multi-element, contemporary plated desserts. Pastry Arts students recreate and prepare recipes by award-winning chef and ICE Creative Director, Michael Laiskonis.

Course 7

CHOCOLATE CONFECTIONS

44 hours

Of the various mediums used by pastry chefs to express their vision, none is more seductive than chocolate. This comprehensive course takes students beyond the basic techniques and allows them to experience the joy of creativity as they produce and assemble a chocolate showpiece. Students will learn:

• Chocolate production, theory and tempering methods.
• Dipping and enrobing.
• Preparation of fondant, truffles, butter crunch and nougatine; molded, dipped and filled chocolates and, the highlight of this section, showpieces.
• Advanced methods including piped and framed centers and isomalt casting.

Course 8

CAKE DECORATING

56 hours

Cake decorating represents the ultimate fusion of art and craft. Students’ effort and practice in prior classes is rewarded as they take their skills to a new level by preparing tiered cakes. Students learn:

• Buttercream flowers and borders, royal icing and fondant (draping, crimping and ruffling).
• Gum paste flowers, including azaleas, lilies, roses and more.
• Floral arrangement and tiered cake assembly including splitting, filling and crumb coating and the usage of marzipan for covering cakes and making flowers, fruits, vegetables and figurines.
• Finishing techniques like petal dusting and tier assembly. This course culminates in the creation of an original two-tiered wedding cake.

Learn more about ICE's Art of Cake Decorating program in New York City.

Course 9

EXTERNSHIP

210 hours

At the end of their in-class ICE Los Angeles baking classes, all students are assigned an externship. While the ICE recommends that students extern in restaurant kitchens, they may request venues such as hotels, catering companies, pastry shops, bakeries or test kitchens in order to meet their professional goals.

Why Should You Enroll at ICE? Ask an ICE Graduate!

 Alumni Dave Crofton endorses ICE's Pastry & Baking Program"At ICE I was exposed to many different pastries and techniques. I still use that experience today in developing new products, and perfecting old ones."

— Dave Crofton
Owner, One Girl Cookies
Pastry & Baking Arts Graduate