The Costco Bakery Find Fans Are Calling a 10 Out of 10

I try my hardest to stick to my list anytime I go into Costco. “I’m just here for the essentials,” I tell myself as I roll my cart past the bakery section. “What am I going to do with a whole cheesecake?” I say out loud as I put a Kirkland Signature Cherry Topped Cheesecake into my cart.

I’d also seen some chatter about this particular cheesecake on a Costco Reddit thread and, having fallen head over heels for Costco’s Mixed Berry Streusel Cheesecake last year, I couldn’t resist trying the cherry-topped version.  I arrived home with my Kirkland Signature butter, frozen potstickers, and ground beef hoping I hadn’t just wasted $22.99 on cheesecake that definitely wasn’t on my list.

Kirkland Signature Cherry-Topped Cheesecake

• Price: $22.99 for a 6-pound cheesecake

• Why I Love It: The cheesecake is rich, but not overly sweet. The sweet-tart cherry topping is perfectly balanced by the delicate sour cream-meets-whipped cream border.

Costco’s Kirkland Signature Cherry-Topped Cheesecake Is an Instant Classic

While $23 might seem like a high price for cheesecake, this nearly six-pound dessert easily feeds at least 15 and looks so good on a serving plate. Atop Costco’s classic cheesecake is a cherry mixture held in place with a delicate whipped border.

The cheesecake layer is pretty standard for Costco’s bakery—rich and not-to-sweet with a thin graham cracker crust that is buttery and somewhat soft. It is truly the cherry topping paired with its sour cream-meets-whipped-cream border that really makes this dessert special.

While I am sometimes put off by cherry desserts (they can be cloying or taste artificial), Costco’s cherry topping perfectly captures what I love about the stone fruit. The topping is sweet but a little tart and syrupy without being thick and gloopy. The addition of a little sour cream topping along the cake's edge also beautifully balances the cheesecake layer’s richness, too.

This cherry cheesecake would be ideal for a party—think Valentine’s Day, Easter, graduations, baby showers—but it could also be easily frozen to become a treat for smaller families like mine. We happily devoured slices for dessert one evening, then I cut the cake into eight more slices and froze them on a parchment-lined sheet tray before moving the solid pieces to an airtight container for longer storage.

Now I can take out an individual slice of this gorgeous cheesecake any night, let it thaw on a plate for 15 minutes, and have a delicious dessert. Next time I go to Costco for basics, this cherry cheesecake will be on my essentials list.

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