The Best No-Bake Cheesecake Recipe with Strawberry Topping

Hey everyone, it's Natasha of natashaskitchen.com. Today we're making a strawberry no-bake cheesecake. The cheesecake has a surprising ingredient that makes it so fluffy, creamy, and melts in your mouth delicious. For the crust, you'll need one and a half cups of crushed graham crackers from 12 Whole Crackers. You can crush them with a food processor or in a Ziploc bag with a rolling pin. Add eight tablespoons of melted, unsalted butter and one tablespoon of sugar, then mix until the crumbs are evenly moistened. Transfer the crumbs to a nine-inch springform pan and press them into the bottom of the pan, pushing them up about a half inch on the sides of the pan. Place the crust in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes while you make your filling. In a large mixing bowl, combine eight ounces of softened cream cheese and two-thirds cup of sugar. Beat those together on medium-high speed for about three minutes or until fluffy and completely smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed. In a separate large mixing bowl, using a clean hand mixer, beat together one and a quarter cups of heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Once your cream is fluffy and puffy, add 12 ounces of mascarpone cheese and beat on medium-low speed just until well combined and smooth. The mascarpone is the secret ingredient here. It stabilizes the cream and gives the cheesecake a mousse-like consistency with gourmet flavor. Use a spatula to fold the cream cheese mixture into the whipped mascarpone just until well blended. I add two tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, adding one tablespoon at a time and folding between each addition. Do not skip the lemon juice. It balances the sweetness of the cake and gives it sweet and tangy flavor. It's time to pull the crust out of the freezer. Transfer the cheesecake filling over the chilled crust. This filling looks and tastes incredible and feel free to lick that spatula because it's perfectly safe and there is no baking required. Use a food scraper or a flat-edge spatula to even out the top, then cover and refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight, and you can even make this three days ahead. Once the cheesecake is set, run a thin spatula or a knife around the edges to loosen from the pan, then transfer to a cake platter. The walls of this cheesecake are tall and impressive, just like a New York cheesecake, only way easier. To decorate the cake, thinly slice about eight ounces of fresh strawberries. And I love covering this cake in strawberry sauce, so I have pre-made and strained my three-ingredient strawberry sauce, which can be made ahead, and I'll leave the recipe in the notes for you. Arrange the strawberries in rings around the top of the cake. Boom. So pretty, but that's not all. We're gonna add a syrup, and this is from my strawberry syrup. It's so easy, just three ingredients. Simmer it on the stove, and then I strained it through a sieve so I get this beautiful, luscious strawberry syrup, and this is so good. I could drink this stuff. All right, so we're gonna brush it over the top. Oh, yum. This makes the strawberries irresistible, and it kind of preserves them. Okay, so get a generous amount on there, and then I also like serving it with more syrup. Okay, there we go. And now, time for the taste test. And I am so excited. Okay, here we go. Oh, it is so fluffy and soft, has the perfect no-bake cheesecake consistency. All right, so here we go. Oh, getting close. You have to see these layers. Oh my goodness. Can you tell I'm excited? And to serve, I always like to add more strawberry sauce because it gives it intense strawberry flavor in every bite. So be generous. All right, here we go. Ooh, that's a big bite. Wow. I love the double strawberry flavor here. And then the cream filling is whipped, fluffy, and just so good. You can really taste the cream cheese and mascarpone in there. It is a wonderful combination, and it's so airy. Wow. I'm basically gonna inhale this right now. And I love the crust too. It totally doesn't need baking. It's surprisingly easy and super delicious. I hope you guys like this recipe. If you did, give me a great big thumbs up below. And if you didn't, give me a great big thumbs up below. Please subscribe to our channel, and we'll see you next time. This is so good. I can hardly believe it's a no-bake cheesecake. If you love easy summer desserts, check these out right over here, and click below to subscribe. And when you do, click that little bell icon, and that'll make sure you never miss any of our new recipes. We'll see you later.