Easy No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

Easy, no-bake, strawberry and cheesecake, oh what a lovely collection of words amirite? 

Truthfully I have a bit of penchant for cheesecake and there are certainly times when I think it is the most delightful dessert in the world. One such moment was yesterday morning, when I shoved down a few spoonfuls of this strawberry cheesecake before rushing out the door because I was almost late for work. Now I know that cheesecake for breakfast it slightly toeing the line, but in my defence I was concerned that by the time I'd get home late in the evening, the dessert loving residents of my house would have scoffed the whole thing.

I suppose the silver lining in that sordid scenario would be that this cheesecake is ridiculously easy to make - I whipped it together at 11pm at night when I was undeniably exhausted, but it was worth it because I got delicious homemade cheesecake for breakfast.

 Lil' life update - I started an extra job at the start of Feb working for a charity organisation and although I'm enjoying it الحَمْد لله  my schedule has become a whole lot more hectic. I'm still wanting to find time to bake and blog but it will definitely be more intermittent than ever. 

Now back to more important matters such as this delightful cheesecake, it is velvety smooth, creamy and indulgent. Sweet yet slightly tangy, made with whipped cream and soft cheese swirled with a strawberry conserve and spread on a crumbly, buttery biscuit base. Oh and decorate it with pink heart shaped jellybeans if you want because you deserve all the love, just saying (the jellybeans were actually part of a wedding favour - the bride made the cutest little sweet mason jars).

So to make this easy, no-bake strawberry cheesecake you will need the following ingredients: 

- Digestives biscuits

- Butter

- Brown sugar

- Double cream

- Soft cheese

- Icing sugar

- Strawberry conserve

 Begin by putting 100g of digestive biscuits (or other crumbly biscuit of your choice) and 35g of brown sugar into a ziplock bag. Using a rolling pin or other heavy item bash the biscuits until they resemble crumbs. An alternative option is to use a food processor. 

Melt 45g of butter then pour in the biscuits crumbs and sugar - mix until well combined.

Press the mixture into a 20cm circular cake tin with detachable base, lined with baking paper. Use the back of a spoon or you fingers to ensure that the mixture is compact. Place this is the freezer to set whilst you prepare the topping. 

For the topping whip up 250ml of double cream and 85g of icing until stiff. To this, beat in 80g of soft cheese and 6 tblsp of good quality strawberry conserve. Taste and adjust as you see fit i.e. add in more strawberry or icing sugar if necessary. If you want you can also reduce the cream to 200ml and use 130g of soft cheese for a tangier flavour.

Spoon the mixture over the cold biscuit base and smooth the top using a palette knife, then leave in the refrigerator to set overnight until firm, this step is required as we haven't used any gelatine or thickening agent. 

Once the waiting game is over, decorate with whatever you like (within reason!) - fresh fruit such as sliced strawberries or flowers like sprigs of lavender and baby's breath.

Or even jellybeans and love hearts! (p.s. this copy of Dracula from Roads is my absolute fave).

😋

Enjoy!

 Q x