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A delicious, sweet and easy no-bake lemon cheesecake! Part of my back-to-basics series!

Back to basics

So heyyy there, I’m back with another Back to Basics recipe. That’s right, I thought I would post another delicious recipe, but explain it down to the ground so that anyone and everyone can enjoy it and make it.

This is my fifth recipe in my back to basics series, and I am loving them all so far! Everything else has either been vanilla themed, or chocolate themed, so I thought I would delve down the lemon route.

My no-bake vanilla cheesecake was a wonderful hit in the back to basics series, so I know you will all love this fresh and fruity no-bake lemon cheesecake as well!

Lemon cheesecake

The basic premise of this no-bake lemon cheesecake is extremely similar to the vanilla version. The only real difference is swapping out the vanilla for the lemon! The reason that I thought posting a new recipe for such a similar recipe, is partly because people google for a certain recipe, and this version will come up, as well as the other one. Also, because who doesn’t love a new recipe?!

Either way, lemon cheesecake is a cult classic that so many people adore, so many pubs and restaurants serve it as a dessert, it’s a classic flavour and it is just generally brilliant. I adore it so much, and this recipe is so unbelievably easy.

The biscuit base

For this beauty, I thought I would use shortbread biscuits in the base of the cheesecake. This is to show that you can use pretty much any and all biscuits for a cheesecake base! I mainly use digestives as they’re so classic, but shortbread is delightful, and for me are more synonymous with lemon cheesecake.

Blitzing up shortbread for a biscuit base, add a little melted butter, and pressing into the bottom of an 8″/20cm deep springform tin and squishing it down firmly results in a delicious biscuity base, it really is that easy.

If you wanted to use another biscuit that is basic, and not covered in chocolate and has no filling, the butter is always 150g. If you are using a biscuit with a filling (such as an Oreo) or a chocolate digestive, lower the butter to 100g. The reason you have to change the amount of butter is that the butter can make the filling/chocolate melt, and too much butter for those biscuits would be a greasy mess.

Cheesecake filling

For this recipe, and any cheesecake for that matter, you MUST use a full-fat soft cream cheese, never a light or low fat version, as they just do not set in the same way and you may get a sloppy mess which nobody wants. I prefer classic cream cheese for this particular recipe, as the tartness of the cream cheese mixes really well with the lemon juice, but if you prefer it sweeter, you can use mascarpone.

One key point about mascarpone, however, it is more likely to split in comparison to cream cheese as it needs less whipping in general! If you are in other countries, you just need to use your fattiest cream cheese you can find, along with the double cream. Often, double cream is called heavy cream in other countries, but you want the fattiest liquid cream.

I add icing sugar for a hint of sweetness as I find it better than caster sugar which can be a little grainy. If you want your cheesecake to be a bit more ‘yellow’ to represent the flavour of the cheesecake, you add the food colouring in at the same time as the lemon juice.

Method

So, once you whisk your cream cheese and icing sugar together so that they are smooth, you can pour in your liquid double cream. I much prefer to do it this way, but you can whip the cream separately and fold it in. If you have a lower fat content cream, you may want to whip the cream separately to stiff peaks and fold through the rest of the recipe, but generally I find whipping the mixture all in one super easy.

Once I have started whisking in the liquid double cream, and it has started to thicken, I will slowly pour in the lemon juice as it whisks. The lemon juice, as long as it’s not added too quickly, will thicken the mixture quite a bit. Once all finished and delicious, spread it over the base, and leave the cheesecake to set in the fridge for AT LEAST 5-6, or preferably overnight.

Leave the cheesecake the longer, the better. Some times, I have accidentally forgotten or neglected to decorate a cheesecake for a couple of days, and taken it out of the tin and it’s set PERFECTLY. If you find after setting overnight, your cheesecake is still very soft, it wasn’t whisked up enough.

Decorate

Once the cheesecake has set you can remove it from the tin and decorate however you fancy. Of course, you can just leave the cheesecake plain if you aren’t fussed, but I adore to decorate a cheesecake in simple ways; they make such a good dessert showstopper.

I decorate my cheesecake as per usual, with some whipped cream swirls, and the theme of the cheesecake. This time? Lemon slices, and lemon zest. All done, and delicious. You can add in anything you want such as chocolate drizzle, but I really was just sticking to the lemon theme personally for this one.

Tips and Tricks

I use this cake tin
This cheesecake will last 3+ days in the fridge
This cheesecake can freeze for 3+ months
I use these piping bags
I use this piping tip for the decoration
Make sure to use full-fat ingredients