Karen Wright: A showstopping strawberry and lemon no-bake cheesecake

Summer is a busy season for me as it is food festival season!
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Karen Wright writes: Last weekend I was booked at Trentham Gardens near Stoke-on-Trent for The Great British Food Festivals.

My biggest dilemma is always deciding what to make on stage.

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There are several factors to consider – holding the audience’s attention, the practicality of making a dish with limited facilities and achieving the wow factor.

Karen on stage at The Great British Food Festival.Karen on stage at The Great British Food Festival.
Karen on stage at The Great British Food Festival.

I think people like to see something with a bit of pizzazz.

I also like to make things that look difficult to do but are actually easy enough for anyone to try.

With the weather forecast set to be warm, I decided that my first demo would not involve an oven at all!

I plumped for a delicious no-bake cheesecake.

Delicious no-bake cheesecakeDelicious no-bake cheesecake
Delicious no-bake cheesecake

For the base I used a food processor to whizz up 300g of dark chocolate digestive biscuits.

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I poured in 140g of melted butter and then pressed the mixture into the bottom of a 20cm loose bottomed tin. I lined the tin with some acetate strip which I bought online.

For the filling I whisked together 500g of full fat cream cheese, 130g icing sugar and 300ml double cream.

When it was very thick, I stirred through a couple of tablespoons of lemon curd. I made my own on stage but shop bought is fine.

Karen's strawberry and lemon cheesecakeKaren's strawberry and lemon cheesecake
Karen's strawberry and lemon cheesecake

I sliced some strawberries lengthways and placed them all around the side of the tin and then covered everything with the filling.

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For the topping I cooked 300g strawberries in a pan with 150g sugar.

When the strawberries were very soft I sieved everything into a jug resulting in 250ml of clear strawberry juice.

I returned this to the pan and brought it back to the boil.

I then added one tablespoon of arrowroot and a half teaspoon of agar-agar which had been mixed to a slurry with a little cold water. This instantly thickens the liquid.

I removed it from the heat and allowed it to become quite cool before pouring it on the top of the filling.

Chill yours in the fridge overnight – I obviously had to take one I’d made earlier with me.

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