Last Updated on November 23, 2021
Price-check: How much will it cost to make a cheesecake for Shavuot?
We’ve always been about sharing practical tips for new olim and this year more than ever as we come out of the coronavirus, we’re more committed to sharing good advice with you. In spite of the supermarkets’ promise not to raise prices, the prices of some food items have risen considerably. Just today in the Haifa shuk – the fresh produce market – peaches were selling for 32NIS/kg and grapes were similarly priced.
With Shavuot on the horizon, we wanted to know how much would it cost, to bake a cheesecake at home. After a year of lockdowns, and time on our hands, most of us are back at work. So, is it worth the effort or should we just buy ready-made?
Our price-check is based on our classic, baked cheesecake recipe, and my all-time favorite, which includes the following basic ingredients: white cheese, sugar, eggs, cornflour, lemons, biscuits, butter and sour cream. We did not investigate the price of cheesecake toppings but fresh strawberries are around 10NIS/kg right now (in Haifa shuk)..
We did an online-shopping comparison between 3 of Israel’s the leading supermarket chains; Shufersal, Rami Levy and Victory
Obviously you cannot buy 1 cup of sugar or 3 eggs so the prices shown here are based on the assumption that your pantry was bare and you had to purchases every item from scratch. Wherever possible, I try to fill my cart with the house-brands which are usually a little cheaper but I will never, ever buy house-brand ‘Petit Bur’ even if I’m grinding them down to make a crumb base for my cheesecake – they are just awful. So, for our recipe stick with Osem.
We were quite surprised at the results:
| Shufersal | Rami Levy | Victory | |
| 500g smooth white cheese (Ski) | 9.50 | 9.40 | 9.50 |
| Sugar – 1kg | 4.50 | 3.90 | 3.90 |
| Eggs L – 12 | 11.30 | 11.30 | 11.30 |
| Cornflour – 200g | 3.30 | 2.50 | 3.90 |
| Lemons – 1kg | 5.90 | 4.80 | 4.80 |
| Osem Petit Bur biscuits (‘biskvitim’) – 500 g | 10.90 | 8.90 | 7.90 |
| Tnuva sour cream – 200ml | 3.50 | 2.40 | 2.28 |
| Butter – 200g (Tara or Tnuva) | 7.88 | 7.80 | 7.80 |
| The cost of our 2021 basket | 56.78 | 51.00 | 51.38 |
| The cost of our 2020 basket | 60.98 | 55.28 | 61.98 |
This basket will cost more if you use organic ingredients or boutique cheeses and a lactose-free cheesecake will also cost more.
Accurate as at May 9th, 2021 it looks like the supermarkets kept their word. There was an overall drop in the cost of the ingredients and mostly the price difference is in the cost of the lemons. In 2020, just before Shavuot, the supermarket price of lemons was 9.90 NIS/kg and this week it is between 4.80NIS/kg – 5.90NIS/kg
Overall there is a 10% drop in price. Based on this, if you took 10 percent as a typical saving on a 2,000 shekel monthly food bill, it translates into a 200 shekel monthly saving. Multiply that by 12 and you could be saving a whopping 2,400 shekels a year on groceries just by shopping wisely or changing your supermarket. Think what you could do with that…
Would you travel from supermarket to supermarket looking for the cheapest deal? Based on results from an earlier shopping survey, 52% of our readers are not willing to travel more than 10km to do shopping even if the store is cheaper. Luckily most large supermarket chains in Israel have a delivery service and they charge around 30 shekels for delivery.
Rating the online shopping experience
- Shufersal’s site is clear, mostly easy to navigate (if you know Hebrew), the search function yields accurate results but the website’s menu design is not as user-friendly as it could be.
- Rami Levy’s website has improved over the years. The do not have an extensive range of products on offer on their website and we found that very frustrating.
- Shufersal and Victory’s site were user-friendly but Shufersal has loads more product information and nutritional value data
For the benefit of our readers abroad, this is what the cost of the classic cheesecake shopping basket, translates to, in your currency
|
NIS |
US$ |
CAN$ |
AUS$ |
GBP |
SA RAND |
|
| Shufersal cake | 56.78 | 17.45 | 21.17 | 22.26 | 12.45 | 245.44 |
| Rami Levy cake | 51.00 | 15.68 | 19.01 | 20.00 | 11.18 | 220.45 |
| Victory cake | 51.38 | 15.79 | 19.15 | 20.15 | 11.26 | 222.10 |
Bakery prices
If you don’t have time to bake this year, expect to pay between 85 – 150 shekels for a cheesecake from boutique bakeries like Shemo, Dudu Outmezgine and Roladin.
Chag Shavuot Sameach!
