This Strawberry Cheesecake is a stunner! Based on my classic Baked Cheesecake which I describe as a magically rich-yet-light, finished with a gorgeous strawberry topping that tastes as amazing as it looks.
You’ll love how the sauce slowly drips down the cheesecake with every bite, and how the filling is creamy and rich, but it’s a bit fluffy rather than heavy and dense. And because I love the biscuit base so much, I’ve made it go aalll the way up the sides….
Strawberry Cheesecake
This has been my go-to cheesecake recipe for many years now. It’s the cheesecake that rendered a group of girls silent when we were on a weekend away. And that’s saying something with my friends!
I’ve shared this cheesecake recipe in all its naked glory. Because it really is the sort of cake that’s rich enough and so good (and that BISCUIT BASE!!) that you don’t need to trick it up with anything – just serve a plain slice and it will be devoured.
But it’s that time of the year for excesses. Where we take a cake that’s already perfect as it is, and take it over the top with a glossy Strawberry Topping for Cheesecake….
PS You’re going to go a little bit bonkers when that Strawberry Sauce is on the stove. The smell is outrageous!
I did say that this Strawberry Cheesecake is pretty straightforward, but I never said it’s a quick and easy recipe! It takes time but it’s not complicated. I’m going to walk you through each part, there are process photos and a recipe tutorial video too.
Here are the 3 main components:
Cheesecake biscuit base and walls: blitz and press. No baking required;
Cheesecake filling – plonk and mix. The easiest part!
4 ingredient strawberry sauce – couldn’t be easier (hardest part is trying not to “taste test” too much)
The Cheesecake Biscuit base
Oh that buttery base!!! I love it so much, I make an entire wall of it for this Strawberry Cheesecake. Actually, the practical reason for the biscuit wall is to hold the Strawberry Topping in. But even without topping, I always make my cheesecakes with biscuit walls!
It’s as simple as blitzing (or bashing) biscuits into crumbs then stirring in melted butter. The biscuit base can be made with pretty much any type of plain biscuit – or even plain flavoured biscuits (like gingersnaps!). Arnott’s Marie Crackers or Nice biscuits (Australia), digestives (UK), and in the States, Graham Crackers are ideal.
PRO TIP: Inverted base & paper overhang
To make it easier to remove finished cake: Flip the base of the springform pan. Grease then top with a square sheet of paper. Secure sides of pan so excess paper is sticking out. Then you can easily move the cheesecake as follows:
use the paper overhang to grip, and slide the cake off the base onto the cake stand;
finished cake will slide safely off the inverted base (because it has no lip); then
once the cake on the paper is on the cake stand, slide the paper out from under the cake. Voila!
Cheesecake Filling
The easiest part! The ingredients in the cheesecake filling are simply cream cheese (Philadelphia all the way!), sugar, lemon zest (this really gives it a special touch), vanilla, a tiny amount of flour (for stability – keeps it fluffy) and eggs. It’s a plonk-and-mix deal.
This cheesecake has sour cream in it which lightens it up a bit. While rich, it has a slightly aerated texture which is quite different from a New York cheesecake which is much denser and calls for twice as much cream cheese as this Strawberry Cheesecake recipe!
PRO TIP: Don’t overbeat, it can cause craters
No need for water bath
Some recipes say to bake cheesecake in a water bath, swearing that this a) makes the cake more moist; and b) is the secret to avoiding cracks.
Out of curiosity (because some people are so adamant!) I made this exact cheesecake with and without a water batch just to compare. Logistical issues aside (because no springform pan is 100% leakproof, it requires double layers of heavy duty foil and even then, I was still wary).
Both cheesecakes looked exactly the same – no cracks, and tasted exactly the same. Except one was a heck of a lot more of a hassle to get in the oven.
So it’s confirmed. NO WATER BATH!
PS Santa, may I please have new matching oven mitts for Christmas?
Strawberry Topping for Cheesecake
5 simple ingredients – strawberries, sugar, cornflour/cornstarch, lemon juice (or water) and vanilla. Plonk in saucepan, simmer for 10 minutes, stand over stove and inhale the incredible smells. Stir through halved strawberries (nice to soften them a bit), cool then spread on cheesecake.
Don’t fret about getting the strawberry sauce consistency 100% right straight off the stove. Cook the sauce until it’s the thickness you want for your cheesecake (ie slow ooze – watch the video!), then it will thicken more as it cools. THEN use the teeniest touch of water to loosen it up to the desired consistency – as in, 1/2 teaspoon at a time. That’s the safest way to get the sauce consistency perfect. 👍🏼
That Strawberry Topping for the cheesecake…. it is unbelievable. Not only does it make the cheesecake look stunning, it tastes incredible. The addition of a sauce to an already amazing cheesecake really does take it over the top.
As regular readers know, I specialise in “brown foods”. Think – stews, roasts, curries.
So when I make things as beautiful and colourful as this Strawberry Cheesecake, the immature child within can’t help getting overly excited and sending these photos to everyone in the RecipeTin family and more friends than she cares to admit.
And their reactions made my head swell. 😂
Make this. You WILL be praised for days on end! – Nagi x
Strawberry Cheesecake
Watch how to make it
Accidentally forgot to include adding cornflour/cornstarch in the strawberry topping in the video! Whisked it in off camera. 🙂
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Strawberry Cheesecake
Ingredients
Cheesecake Biscuit Base:
- 200g / 7oz Arnott’s Marie crackers or other plain biscuit (Aus) or 28 Graham Cracker squares (Note 1)
- 120 g / 8 tbsp unsalted butter , melted
Cheesecake Filling:
- 1 lb / 500g cream cheese , softened (Note 2)
- 2 tbsp plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sour cream (full fat, sub sour cream)
- 1 1/2 cups caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 3 eggs , at room temperature
Strawberry Topping for Cheesecake:
- 500g / 1 lb strawberries , half diced and half halved
- 2 tbsp lemon juice OR water (Note 3)
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tsp cornflour/cornstarch
- 2 tbsp water
Instructions
Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 160C/320F (standard) or 140C/295F (fan/convection).
- Get a 20cm/8″ springform cake tin. Turn the base UPSIDE DOWN (Note 4), butter lightly and place a square piece of parchment/baking paper on the base. Then clip into the springform pan – excess paper will stick out, see photos in post and video.
- Butter and line the side of the pan.
Cheesecake Biscuit Base:
- Break up biscuits roughly by hand and place in a food processor.
- Blitz until fine crumbs (Note 5). Add butter, briefly blitz until dispersed and it resembles wet sand.
- Pour into the prepared cake tin. Use a spatula to roughly spread it out over the base and up the walls.
- Use something with a flat base and vertical edges (I used a measuring cup) to press the crumbs up the wall almost to the top of the sides, and flatten the base.
Filling:
- Use a mixer or beater to beat the cream cheese until just smooth, no longer than 20 seconds on speed 4. (You do not want to aerate cheesecake filling as it causes cracks when it bakes)
- Add flour, beat for 5 seconds on speed 4 until just incorporated.
- Add vanilla, sour cream, sugar and lemon zest. Beat until just combined (10 sec max, speed 5).
- Add eggs one at a time, beat in between until just combined (5 sec each), and after the last one, beat just until the egg is fully incorporated.
- Pour into prepared crust.
- Bake for 55 minutes. The top should be a very light golden brown, not cracked, and near perfectly flat. It should jiggle slightly when you gently shake the pan.
- Cool the cake in the oven with the door open 20 cm / 8″ (Note 6), then refrigerate for 4 hours+ in the pan.
- Remove sides. Use overhang paper to slide cheesecake off the cake pan. Then slide the cheesecake off the paper.
Strawberry Topping for Cheesecake:
- Place chopped strawberries, vanilla, sugar and lemon juices in a saucepan. Stir then bring to simmer over medium heat.
- Simmer for 10 minutes until strawberries breakdown.
- Mix cornflour with water, then add into saucepan and stir.
- Add halved strawberries and cook for 1 minute to soften.
- Sauce should be syrupy – remove from stove and cool. Will thicken as it cools.
- Once cool, stirl. Adjust thickness to make it the right “oozing” consistency (see video, Note 7) with a tiny touch of water (be careful!).
- Spoon onto cheesecake so it’s covered with a single layer of strawberries. Flip strawberry halves so they are facedown. Refrigerate 2 hours+.
- Slice and serve with remaining Strawberry Sauce!
Recipe Notes:
Australia: Arnott’s Marie Crackers, Arrowroot and Nice are ideal, I’ve made it with all these.
US: Use 28 squares / 14 full sheets, yes I measured it with my last Graham Cracker packet I brought back from my last trip.
UK: Digestives are ideal, I LOVE digestives! The crumb should be like wet sand so when pressed, it stays packed firmly, especially up the wall. It’s delicate when uncooked but once the filling is cooked, it becomes much more stable. 2. Cream Cheese – In the UK and some parts of Europe, block cream cheese isn’t available. If you can only get spreadable cream cheese in tubs (softer than block), skip the sour cream. 3. Lemon Juice or Water – Depends on sweetness of strawberries. If they aren’t that sweet, use water instead. 4. Inverted cake pan with overhang paper: The base of springform pans have a slight ridge. By inverting it, there is no ridge which makes it easier to slide the cheesecake on a serving platter without ruining the crust. There is no risk of batter leakage as the crust is thick enough to hold it all in. 5. Crumbs: OR crush in a ziplock bag using a rolling pin or large can. 6. Cool in oven: This helps stop the surface from cracking. 7. Strawberry topping should be like jam consistency, not a set jelly. It should ooze slightly when cut. 8. Different measures: Cups and spoons vary slightly between countries (US and CAN are different to most of the rest of the world). I have made this recipe using both US and Australian measures, using Australia Marie crackers and US Graham Crackers. The Graham Cracker crust is slightly crunchier because the biscuit doesn’t crush to a fine sand like Marie Crackers do. Both are delicious! 9. Make Ahead / Storage: Cake is at its best consumed within 4 days, after that I feel like it starts getting denser but still really fab, most people wouldn’t notice a difference! Ideal to top the day or or day before. After 2 to 3 days, the top does start to “sweat” but it’s not very noticeable.
Nutrition Information:
More Cheesecake recipes
And more strawberry goodness …
Life of Dozer
He’s been waiting all year for a moment like this – when a whole piece of Strawberry Cheesecake fell on the floor!!
(But no, he didn’t get the whole thing. Can you imagine the other mess I’d have to deal with if I did let him?!)
Just finished making the cheesecake – it has the slight jiggle, but it cracked 😕 Oh well, here’s to the strawberry topping to cover it up!
Oh no, not to worry Jenny, cover it will sauce and I’m sure it will taste perfect! N x
I have a 10″ pan how can I switch the recipe to accomodate the extra space?
Hi Tashia, I’d scale the recipe up to 18 serves – you’ll need to cook it for an extra 15 minutes or so, just watch it and if it becomes too golden, cover with foil for the extra bake time. N x
Can’t wait to try your cheesecake recipe! Will let you know how it turned out – next weekend!
I hope you love it Marge! N x
hi Nagi, when baking the cake, do we have to set the heat on the upperside and downside or downside only?
Hi Marissa, are you talking about the oven setting?
yes Nagi. how did you set the heat in your oven?
This is awsome. I made this as my daughter’s birthday cake during the hype of covid 19. She loves chocolate touch on her cake so I used oreo crumbs instead. I / we like it as the cheese cake is not dense and it was a big hit to my family. My syrup didnt thicken and no time to get the cake ready for dinner so I hasten the thickening of my syrup by adding a tablespoon of chia seeds. It was fantastic! Thanks for sharing this recipe, will defintely make it again.
Hi, I was wanting to make a larger cheesecake, when I hover over the servings it changes the ingredients but I’m not sure what changes are needed in the method. I was hoping to serve 16 people, I guess we could just have smaller portions!!
Hi Andrea, you can up the portions to 16 and use a 9″ pan – it may take an extra 10 minutes in the oven, just keep an eye on it. N x
Hello, this recipe looks so delicious and I’m definitely gonna try it, but can you please tell me what the diameter of your baking form is, because I couldn’t find it in the recipe! Thank you!🍰
Hi Emma, it’s 20cm/8″ – it’s noted in step 2 of the instructions. N x
Thank you so much!❤️
Hi! I loved this recipe. However can you also tell if fresh cherries can also be prepared for topping like strawberries?
Yes definitely Fizza – any berry will work perfectly here! N x
I’ve done this recipe two times and it tastes amazing, but I keep having it sink in the middle. I’ve tried to not mix it hardly at all and not opening the oven but it keeps sinking. Any advice?
Hi April, a sinking cheesecake can be caused by a number of reasons – it’s generally a temperature issue though. Did you make any changes to the recipe at all? It could be opening the oven whilst cooking, taking it out too soon, your oven thermostat may have issues – it’s hard to pinpoint what the exact issue could be! N x
Wow! Honestly the best baked strawberry cheesecake recipe… you can just change the strawberry sauce into blueberry sauce and I made it once with both… my family absolutely loved it, you are such an experienced cook thank you so much Nagi for this recipe
Honestly Nagi, you cannot get it wrong! EVERY recipe of yours is amazing!
What temperature should I bake the cake if my oven doesn’t have a fan? After 55 minutes, it had a serious giggle and the top was not brown
Hi Cassandra, listed in step 1, the oven temp should be 160C/320F. Your oven may run cool though and it might need an extra 10 minutes if that’s the case. N x
Made this..
And it was a 9 out of 10 from the family 🙂
Not bad for first time..
Thats awesome, thanks so much Kristel! N x
I’m going to attempt this recipe for school and I have never heard of ultrafine sugar. What’s the difference between that and regular white sugar? What if I can’t find any of it, would regular white sugar still work?
You could also put 1 cup + 2 teaspoons of regular sugar into the food processor to get castor sugar
Hi Crowley – caster sugar is fine sugar – a smaller grain than regular white sugar. I prefer to use it here as it dissolves into the cake nicely. N x
My supermarket has stopped selling caster sugar (why?!) so I used 90 grams caster sugar which I had left in the cupboard and then white sugar for the rest, and it all dissolved fine 😊
The cake did split on top as it cooked but I think that’s because I beat it too much, and with the strawberry sauce nobody noticed anyway!
Delicious, thanks xx
Looks delish! I was thinking of making this for a dinner at a friends house. Do you think transporting it in the car will be dangerous with the strawberry topping? Or is the consistency strong enough to stay in the same spot?
Hi Gaynor – I’ve transported before and it’s been fine 🙂 N x
Hi there, could you please advise if there are any alternatives for the cornstarch? P.S. thanks for uploading UK measurements – so helpful!
I made this yesterday for my husband’s birthday and oh my it’s amazing. Finally found cornflour. Thanks x
Cornstarch is cornflour in the uk and Ireland.
Hi Alia, I haven’t tried with any substitutes sorry! N x
I can’t put my springform pan bottom in upside down. I am afraid I am going to ruin my cheesecake and waste all the money I spent on ingredients.
Hi My first attempt on making a strawberry cheese cake today .. thank you so much it turned out well.. but I had one disaster along the way.. I did not realise that when you put the tray for baking the butter leaked out and due to the leak the oven had some burnt smell of the butter and bit Smokey inside.. was worried that either their might be fire or the cake would be burnt.. but when I googled up it looks like a common fact and it is recommended to keep another tray under that to prevent this spill any thoughts on that.. so that I can do that better
Oh no Reena!!! I’ve never had this issue! N x
I’ve now had that happen TWICE! The 2nd time I placed it on a baking pan, and I didn’t have to totally clean out the oven after I felt like I was going to have to call the fire department!
How many cups of crumbs do we need? I’d rather just buy Graham cracker crumbs from the grocery store
Nagi! This is delicious! Your recipes have been keeping me super busy and happy, haven’t made anything I haven’t liked! You’re amazing
Thanks so much Grace 🙂 N x
Can you tell me what size tin should be used for this recipe? Is it 8″ or 9″? Many thanks
Hi Grace, use a 8″ pan (it’s listed there in step 2 under the preparation heading) N x