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Bake breads, pastries, and desserts in this 2-week culinary arts program for high school students on UCLA’s campus.
Rated 4.3 out of 5 for course experience by high school students surveyed across the broader program in 2026.
Course Description
A small change in measurement, mixing, or temperature can completely change a bake. Try the technique, compare the results, and decide what you would change next.
In this course you will practice baking from familiar recipes through doughs, meringues, custards, and pastry techniques. No-bake cheesecake, brownies, cookies, muffins, and strawberry shortcake introduce accurate measuring, portioning, whipping cream, decorating, and modifying a formula.
Yeast and overnight dough bring timing into the process as you prepare pita, focaccia, and French bread, alongside hummus, tomato jam, butter, and fruit jams. Later bakes combine more components: cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting; pavlovas, crisp meringue desserts topped with custard sauce and whipped cream; and éclairs and cream puffs made with choux pastry dough. Organizing each recipe and handling its ingredients help you connect technique with texture, flavor, structure, and the finished presentation.
This two-week course takes place at UCLA. The course is available to residential and commuter students. The program is developed by UCLA and offered in partnership with Summer Discovery.
What You Will Do
• Measure, mix, and bake cookies, brownies, muffins, and shortcakes
• Whip cream, make frostings, and decorate desserts
• Knead and shape pita, focaccia, and French bread
• Make hummus, jams, and fresh butter
• Prepare meringue desserts and crème anglaise custard sauce
• Bake éclairs and cream puffs with choux pastry dough
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Apply measuring, mixing, kneading, and baking techniques across different recipes
• Explain how ingredients and methods affect texture, structure, and presentation
• Organize multistep bakes with dough, filling, sauce, or decoration
You’ll leave with experience preparing breads and pastries and a certificate of completion.
Why Culinary Arts Skills Matter
Baking develops precision, timing and the ability to follow a process while paying attention to how ingredients behave. Measuring accurately matters, but so do judgment calls about texture, dough development, browning and doneness. Students learn to observe those signals and adjust their work thoughtfully.
More complex recipes also build organization. A baker may need to prepare dough one day, shape and bake it the next, then add a filling, sauce or decoration. Planning those stages strengthens patience, sequencing and practical problem solving while giving students a clear result they can evaluate.
Who Should Attend?
For students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade.
If you enjoy baking or keep wondering why a recipe worked differently this time, this course gives you repeated kitchen practice. Familiar recipes lead toward breads, custards, meringues, and pastry techniques. Food safety, careful measuring, multistep recipes, and keeping a shared workspace organized are part of the hands-on commitment.
Recommended by More Than 4 out of 5 Students
Based on students surveyed in Summer Discovery’s 2026 UCLA high school program.
Your Summer at UCLA
UCLA gives high-school students the opportunity to explore an academic interest while experiencing university life in Los Angeles, a city where entertainment, technology, business, science, and culture constantly intersect. The campus has its own community and rhythm while connecting students to a wider environment built around creativity and new ideas.
Students learn alongside peers, navigate a large campus, and gain independence through everyday choices and responsibilities. Time outside class expands the experience through friendships, campus life, and opportunities to notice which subjects and settings hold their attention. For families, UCLA offers a valuable combination of substantive academics, personal growth, and clearer direction about what a student may want to study, experience more deeply, or pursue next.
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive