Baked Strawberry Cheesecake

This is a lovely summer dessert, that makes the most of ripe, succulent strawberries while they're at their best and the tangy ginger nut base works really well with the sweetness of the strawberries.

This can serve about 10-12 people and the whipped cream topping means you need no sides with it. You should make this in advance of serving; at least a few hours beforehand; but it would also be good to make the day before and chill in the fridge. 

Baked Strawberry Cheesecake

Here's how:

• 680g cream cheese (I use Philadelphia)
• 250g mascarpone
• 2 tbsp natural yoghurt
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 100g icing sugar
• 200g strawberries
• 1 packet of ginger nut biscuits
• 120g salted butter

For the topping:

• 300ml double cream
• Drop of vanilla extract
• Handful of strawberries to decorate

Firstly grease a 23cm springform tin and place the oven on to pre-heat at 160 degrees. 

Now make the base first by crumbling the biscuits. You can do this in a food processor or as I prefer, to pop into a sealed food bag and then I bash with the end of a rolling pin until the texture looks like sand. Then place into a bowl. 

Now melt the butter by popping into the microwave for a few seconds (or longer if you had the butter in the fridge) and pour into the biscuits and mix well. 

Now spoon the buttery biscuit mixture into the springform tin, use the back of a spoon to press down so it is evenly distributed as much as possible and neat, and then place into the fridge while you get everything else ready.

For the filling, firstly take the stalks off of the washed strawberries and place into a blender or Nutribullet and blitz to a puree and set aside. 

In a bowl place the cream cheese, mascarpone, yoghurt and icing sugar and mix well. Add the eggs in, one at a time, mixing really well each time until combined. 

Add the vanilla and again, mix well to evenly distribute, and then finally, add the pureed strawberries and gently swirl around. 

Now spoon over the biscuit base, and again use the back of a spoon to try to evenly distribute. Then place into the hot oven and cook for 50 minutes exactly. 

When you remove the cheesecake from the oven, it should still have a little wobble in the middle, if it still looks very wobbly all over, return to the oven for a little longer. 

Once cooked leave to cool in the tin for a while, and if you can, place into a fridge for a few hours to cool right down before decorating when ready to serve. 

For the topping simply whisk the cream with the vanilla extract either by hand, by electric whisk or use my hack of throwing into the Nutribullet and blitzing for just a few seconds which results in perfect, thick and fluffy whipped cream. 

Decorate with some chopped strawberries to your preference. Enjoy!

Here are a few other dessert recipes you might like:

Cheat's Chocolate Trifle
Rhubarb & Custard Cake
Triple Chocolate Cookie Brownies
Cinnamon & Honey Baked Nectarines
Bread and Butter Pudding
Cheat's Pavlova
Greek Yoghurt & Honey Baked Cheesecake with Berries
Apple & Blackberry Pie