No Bake Strawberry Blueberry Cheesecake

This berry cheesecake is our favorite no bake strawberry blueberry dessert, it is always a delicious summer treat! It is made with fresh berries and in a classic graham cracker crust.

If you love cheesecake in the summer too but don’t want to heat up your house with the oven, no bake cheesecakes are the way to go! They are a softer set cake but always delicious.

I love fresh berries and always try to use them throughout the summer for snacks and desserts. This dessert and our no bake strawberry cheesecake have fresh berries.

Ingredients

We keep the ingredients simple for this berry cheesecake recipe. The sugar is shown in 4 bowls because it is added to the berry sauce – both the strawberry and blueberry, along with the cream cheese filling and the whipped cream.

• Graham crackers – We use cinnamon but you can use honey. If you prefer a cookie crust, you can use that in place of the graham cracker crust.
• Butter – For the crust, can leave out if using a different crust.
• Cream cheese – Block cream cheese softened at room temperature.
• Sugar – Granulated is best. You can use pure cane sugar (minimally processed) as long as it has a 1:1 substitution for granulated and it has a similar size granule.
• Lemon juice – This gets used in with the berries and also in the cream cheese filling. I like to use the bottled lemon juice in this dessert, but you can use fresh.
• Blueberries – We prefer fresh for this no bake strawberry blueberry dessert, but you can use frozen. You may need to add 1-2 minutes to the cook time when making the sauce to get some of the excess moisture out.
• Strawberries – We prefer fresh, but like the blueberries you can use frozen if needed.
• Cornstarch – No substitutions, it is used to thicken the berry sauces.
• Heavy cream – For making homemade whipped cream, you can use a frozen whipped topping like Cool Whip if you prefer.
• Vanilla – For the whipped cream, leave out if using Cool Whip.

Making the no bake strawberry blueberry dessert

There is a bit of hands on and it does take a little bit of time, but it is easy to make. The hardest part of making it is waiting for it to set in the fridge before eating – seriously it isn’t easy waiting to eat cheesecake knowing it’s in the fridge!

The crust

The crust is a basic graham cracker and butter combination. We often put sugar in our graham cracker crusts for cheesecakes, but this dessert has more sugar then some so we do not add it.

First you want to crush your graham crackers. Use a food processor or you can put the graham crackers in a bag and use a rolling pin to crush them.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan big enough to mix with the crumbs. Pour the cracker crumbs into the melted butter and mix well.

Pack the crust into a 9 inch springform pan or dish you are using, see below for different dishes. When packing the crust, I try to go up the sides a bit as I pack it down tightly.

This is a soft set no bake cheesecake, the crust up the side helps hold it better in the springform pan when removing the side.

The berry sauce

We make a blueberry sauce and a strawberry sauce for this no bake cheesecake. I like to make these when I first take the cream cheese out. The berry sauces need to cool down and thicken which takes about 30 minutes.

Blueberry sauce

Add blueberries, sugar and water to a saucepot. Use a potato masher or something similar to mash the blueberries a little bit. This doesn’t have to be perfect, they will cook down. If you are using a non stick pot, lightly smash the blueberries in a bowl before adding to the pot so you do not scratch your pot.

Add in the lemon juice and heat the berry mixture over medium low to medium heat (stove tops vary.) You want it to be a rapid simmer. Cook for about 4 minutes stirring often.

Mix cornstarch with 2 teaspoons of water. Slowly pour the cornstarch mixture into the blueberries while stirring. Cook for about 1-2 minutes stirring often, until it has thickened into a syrup. It will thicken more as it cools.

Place in a small bowl and put in the fridge to cool down. If using a glass bowl, cool on the counter slightly first before placing in the fridge.

Strawberry sauce

The strawberry sauce is going to be made just like the blueberry sauce. Add the sliced strawberries, sugar and water to a saucepot. Use the potato masher to mash the berries a little bit.

Add in the lemon juice and bring to a rapid simmer over medium low to medium heat. Cook stirring often for about 4 minutes.

Mix the cornstarch with 2 teaspoons of water and slowly pour into the strawberry mixture while stirring. Cook for about 1-2 minutes until it has thickened into a syrup. It will thicken more as it cools.

Allow to cool all the way through in the fridge.

The whipped cream

I make the whipped cream before making the filling and then set it aside in the fridge until needed. You are only adding about half of the whipped cream and the other half can be used for decorating your berry cheesecake.

Pour the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla into a mixing bowl. You can use a hand or stand mixer for making whipped cream. You can even make it without a mixer if you use a whisk or shake it in a tightly closed jar, but it is easiest to use a mixer.

Mix using a medium high speed for about 2 minutes until the soft peaks start to form into stiff peaks. It makes it easy to decorate in a piping bag if the whipped cream goes just beyond soft peaks.

Put the whipped cream in a bowl in the fridge until ready.

The filling

The filling for the no bake strawberry blueberry dessert is really easy to make and not as delicate of a process as making a filling for a cheesecake that you bake.

Be sure your cream cheese is softened at room temperature. This is important to help it mix better without clumps of cream cheese throughout your dessert.

Cream the cream cheese for about 30 seconds to a minute over medium speed on the mixer. You want it to be smooth.

Add in the sugar and lemon juice, mix well for about 1 minute over medium. It should be smooth with no visible clumps of unmixed cream cheese.

Fold a cup of the whipped cream into the filling using a spatula.

The berry filling

For the no bake strawberry blueberry dessert, you will be adding the berry sauce directly to some of the filling. It is very important that your sauce is completely cooled down before mixing in.

Take a cup of the filling out and put it in a bowl. Pour the blueberry sauce over the filling and mix with a spatula until it is completely combined.

You want to repeat with the strawberry filling too. This should give you about 1 and a half cups of plain filling left.

Layering

The way we make this it is like a red, white and blue cheesecake. Well if the blueberries were more blue them purple it would be a little better, but it is a great patriotic dessert.

You can layer how you like, but I do recommend that the plain filling goes in the middle or on the bottom (we put it in the middle.) It is the filling that is thickest since it didn’t have any berry sauce added to it so it will help hold it all together better.

Since it is red, white and blue we like to put the blueberry filling on the bottom. Then the plain filling with the strawberry filling on the top. But again, layer it how you like!

Once it is layered, cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.

Decorating the no bake berry cheesecake

We keep the decorating simple. I can create a lot of delicious dishes, but I am not great at cake decorating. Just being honest, it is not my strong point!

I use the remaining whipped cream and place it in a piping bag with a decorative tip. You can get fancy here if you want and if you do, please tag us on Instagram @thekitchenandalatte with your creations. I would love to see them!

Another great topping is chocolate whipped cream if you like chocolate with your berries. I like chocolate on almost anything.

Do I have to use a springform pan

No you do not need to use a springform pan! We use a standard 9 inch springform pan here, but you can certainly use another dish.

The best ones would be 11×7, 9 inch square or even a 10 inch square. I would not use a 13×9 as the layers would be too thin spread across that big of a dish. The 9 inch square would be best.

Frequently asked questions