Chilled Lemon Cheesecake (No-bake)

This is a delightfully refreshing dessert. It’s light, soft, smooth yet firm, strong lemon scent, a little tart & tangy.

Chilled Lemon Cheesecake is a perfect accompaniment for a hot summer garden BBQ party. Over the years, I’ve made it many times, for birthdays, New Year BBQ parties, potluck parties and Chinese New Year dinner parties and, even some who don’t like cheese enjoyed it as the tart lemon gives the cheesecake a light feel.

I extracted this recipe from the Australian Women's Weekly … a very long time ago but have adjusted the ingredients here and there.

Crust

115g crushed digestive biscuits (Mc Vitie’s)

70g butter, melted

1.  Get an 8” springform pan and line the base only, with baking paper. Lightly grease the side.

2.  Crush the digestive biscuits in a food processor or … fill a large plastic bag with biscuits and smash them with a rolling pin! (Just don’t vent your anger …chuckling… on the innocent biscuits)

3.  Melt the butter and pour into the crushed biscuits.

4.  Mix well and press into the bottom of the pan forming a thin crust at the base of the pan.

5.  Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or until needed.

Fillings

250gm cream cheese (Kraft's Philadelphia), softened

105gm caster sugar

1 piece lemon, zest and juice

2 tsp unflavoured gelatine powder

2 tbsp hot water

250ml whipping cream, whipped

Toppings (Optional)

2 tsp unflavoured gelatine powder

200ml water

2 tsp caster sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

1 drop of lemon yellow-colouring

1.   Meantime, we prepare the fillings. Softened the gelatine powder in hot water for 10 minutes in a metal bowl till gelatine dissolved. (I keep the gelatine solution warm by placing the small metal bowl over a bigger bowl of very hot water and stirring till all the gelatine powder dissolved)

2.   Beat cream cheese with sugar till smooth. Add in lemon zest and beat well.

3.   Mix in lemon juice and gelatine.

4.   Finally, gently fold whipped cream into cheese mixture.

5.   Pour into the cake pan and chill in the fridge for 3 hours before decorating with the toppings.


      Toppings (Optional), thin yellow transparent jelly on the upper layer will make the cheesecake prettier. Heat gelatine powder in a small saucepan with water, sugar and 2 tsp of lemon juice, till dissolved. Remove and add in a drop of lemon yellow colour. Cool slightly and gently spoon on top of the cheesecake. Chill again in the fridge for 3-4 hours or preferably overnight.


Serve chilled cheesecake with a dollop of fresh cream and fresh fruits like slices of kiwi or strawberry.

Cheesecakes are so rich and so calories-laden, but so smooth and so delicious. Alright, it’s fattening, it goes to your hips…but how bad can an occasional slice be?

My little prince will request for this every week. “Mom, my ‘bestest’ and ‘toppest’ favourite dessert!” Max said. I’d better make sure these adjectives don’t make it to the weekly spelling list or his teacher will freak out! But every time he said that, it makes all the efforts worth it. J