Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary

Recipes, travel & adventure from the wild and remote Shetland Islands

No Bake Summer Fruits Cheesecake

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One of the fondest memories I have of my childhood in Cape Breton, on the East coast of Canada, is that of berry picking. In the summertime there were so many varieties of wild berry to choose from. Wild blueberries were my favourite; they were tiny and bursting with flavour. It also took absolutely forever to pick a reasonable amount of them to use in the kitchen! My memories of picking them involve a baking sun and white parched landscape on the top of the hill where they grew. There was a cat with one eye which used to come and visit us too. I never knew who owned it.

Wild strawberries grew on the roadsides and they too were tiny and had a magnificent succulent flavour I have never tasted the like of in a commercially grown strawberry. Picking them was a time consuming task – two for me, one for the container, two for me… maybe two more for me, one for the container…
Blackberries were the scariest to pick. There was a very thick bramble patch nearby that even the birds couldn’t get into the middle of. That’s where we were sent, as small agile children, into the centre of the bramble patch to get those big juicy blackberries the birds couldn’t reach. We’d invariably come running out at full speed, getting shredded to bits by the thorns, as the wasps chased us out of their territory, stinging us over and over again. Calamine lotion was a regular staple of our childhood medicine chest!
We knew where the Indian plum trees grew, and my mother made a gorgeous jam with their fruits. Wild cranberries could be picked from the surface of a freshwater lake in a top secret location. Wild raspberries grew everywhere, invading perfect cultivated gardens with their aggressive manner. We’d sit there, as mucky barefooted children, cross-legged next to the bushes and just help ourselves and licking our raspberry juice stained fingers.
My mother would make jams for the winter months out of these fruits. Come autumn the preserve cupboard would be filled with perfectly lined up labelled Mason jars with blueberry, raspberry, strawberry and Indian plum jams and wild mint jelly (I never liked the wild mint jelly though).

Alas, my own children do not know the pleasure of picking their own berries. I’ve tried to grow black currants and gooseberries in my own Shetland garden but despite the fact the bushes are thriving and healthy, the cold north wind rips off any flowers which might possibly develop. I’ve never had a single fruit from them (a contrast with my neighbour whose blackcurrant bush positively sags with the weight of berries!). I’ve planted a row of willow trees in the hope that this might offer some protection in the years to come. Maybe, one day, I’ll get fruit from my own bushes. In the meantime, fresh fruit tends to come from the supermarket.

Imagine my delight when I received an email from my veg box supplier saying that their soft fruits were ready for delivery in the next order! I received a gorgeous punnet of mixed berries including red, black and white currants (the latter of which I’d never tried before but I am absolutely in love with now!) and a few strawberries and raspberries.

I wanted to make something special with these beautiful local berries. I could have handed the entire punnet to the children and they’d have disappeared in a matter of seconds (my children are fruit mad!) but I thought a no bake summer fruits cheesecake might be a tasty way to show off these berries in all their glory, and I wasn’t wrong!

This no bake cheesecake recipe is remarkably simple to make and the thick, creamy, lemony base compliments the tartly sweet berries adorning the top perfectly. Best of all, since it’s a no bake recipe you don’t need to use your oven on those summer days where it’s just too hot to consider baking. If your berries are a bit too tart for your taste you could always dust the top with icing sugar. As this is a summer pudding I am sharing it with the Four Seasons Food blogging challenge hosted by Delicieux and Chez Foti which, this month, features ‘Summer Puds‘.

Four Seasons Food
Four Seasons Food hosted by Delicieux and Chezfoti
No Bake Summer Fruits Cheesecake
A light, lemony, creamy no-bake cheesecake; perfect for when you don’t want to turn the oven on!
Ingredients
  • 200 grams digestive biscuits
  • 100 grams unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 500 ml double cream
  • 600 grams full fat cream cheese
  • 70 grams icing sugar
  • 2 lemons, zest and juice
  • 250 grams mixed summer fruits (black, red & white currants, raspberries, strawberries, etc.)
Instructions
1. Place digestive biscuits in a food processor and pulse until they form fine crumbs.
2. Stir in melted butter and sugar.
3. Press into the base of an 8 inch spring form pan which has been buttered and lined with baking paper.
4. Leave to chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator (or 20 minute in the freezer).
5. Lightly whip the cream and stir in the softened cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon zest and juice, taking care not to over beat (use a wooden spoon).
6. Spoon onto the prepared base and smooth the top.
7. Leave to chill for 4-6 hours.
8. When ready to serve, arrange the summer fruits over the top.
9. Dust with icing sugar, if desired.
Details

Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: Serves 8-12

Comments

  1. Hi there,
    Just wondering if I can add some softened berries to the cheesecake to give it colour? I’m hoping to make this for my boyfriends birthday as it is his favourite
    Thank you in advance 🙂
    Sarah

    Reply

  4. We’ve got Dad’s 2 sisters over from the UK for a visit so made this with our home-grown strawberries – went down a treat! Doing more tomorrow & will freeze a couple.

    Reply

  5. My Mom is from a tiny village in Snowdonia & all up the hill (!) from the village to her parents house was a (to us little ones) huge wall holding up the mountain and stopping it from falling down! In every nook & cranny of that wall were the most delicious wild strawberries. We’d whisk up a fool with evaporated milk and have what was left of the strawbs (if any) for tea. Further up the hill & off the beaten track we used to pick bilberries, like tiny, sweet blueberries – yum!

    Reply

  6. This looks delicious. I may have to have a crack at this – as much as I’d like to pick berries or even grow some myself (maybe one day) they’ll be supermarket bought for now 🙂

    Reply

  7. How wonderful to have so many wild berries at your finger tips when you were growing up and I love the thought of all those rows of jam jars. Your cheesecake looks fabulous and shows off the berries beautifully.

    Reply

    • They’re really nice memories. I only wish my own children could experience it too. Ach, they’re experiencing different things I never got to when I was little. 🙂 Thanks for the positive feedback, much appreciated!

      Reply

  10. I may have mentioned that cheesecake is my nemesis…specifically the no bake kind. I have had so many disasters which just collapse. I fear the cream out here in France just can’t stand up to the whipping necessary. But oh my gosh yours looks perfect! Rich and thick and unctuous! Just how I wish mine would be! And the berries are stunning on top. It’s just lovely. A really gorgeous entry to Four Seasons Food so thank you very much x

    Reply

    • Aw that’s a shame. French pastries always look piled high with cream though. Maybe there is a different way of preparing it? HHrrrm…

      Reply

  12. Wow this looks absolutely delicious and super easy too. Must find an excuse to make this over the Summer – thanks for sharing it!

    Reply

  13. I love fruit picking, nothing calms the mind like looking for the next little jewel to stretch and pluck, but it can be a long business if more go in the mouth than the basket.

    Reply

  14. I’ve to admit. I love cheesecakes. I’ve never had currants on my cheesecake, maybe it’s not too common here in the U.S., but I would love to make a vegan no-bake cheezecake with these beautiful currants of yours!

    Reply

    • I never had currants until I moved to the UK and I love them. Do let me know if you veganize this recipe, I’d love to hear about it!

      Reply

  15. everything tastes better in childhood – if only we knew it then! I never went berry picking but we have some pick your own farms not too far away that I sometimes think would be fun to visit. Love the cheesecake – they were a staple of my childhood too but never so elegant

    Reply

    • So very true Johanna! You should visit those farms, I bet your children would have a blast! I don’t ever recall having cheesecake until I hit adulthood, and it is a rare indulgent treat in this house now and then.

      Reply

  16. I have wonderful memories of berry-picking as a child. Unfortunately, I’ve not done it in years and I’m not sure why… I must motivate myself to do it again, for the nostalgia if nothing else! This cheesecake looks so indulgent, and I love the idea of no-bake desserts in this Summer heat.

    Reply

    • Oh if you have the opportunity to you very much should! I do miss berry picking, but as you say, it might just be nostalgia! I seem to suddenly recall trying to avoid horseflies too, which wasn’t so much fun!

      Reply

  17. I remember picking berries as a child too. Such nice memories. What a great use for the berries. I haven’t had cheesecake for ages. Oh how I want a slice!

    Reply

  18. oooh, that looks so lusciously thick and creamy… I adore cheesecake, especially when they’re really high like yours.. gorgeous stuff!

    Reply

    • Thank you Dom 🙂 I’m a big fan of piled-high cheesecake too, which is why I deliberately made so much filling and squashed it into an 8 inch pan!

      Reply

  19. Some of my best childhood memories also involve fruit picking up in Scotland. Every summer we used to go and pick raspberries and strawberries for the local farmers – otherwise known as cheap child labour 🙂 You’ve done your punnet of berries proud.

    Reply

    • I’m pretty sure my mother employed us in the same capacity! Why did we do all the berry picking!! 🙂 Thanks for your lovely comment x

      Reply

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