Easy No-Bake Raspberry and White Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe UK

Recipe Notes

If you have any questions about how to make this recipe, please post a comment below and I will get back to you.

Servings: The recipe makes 8 tasty portions of no-bake raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake.

Calories per serving: 720 calories.

Remember: Please tag #whitakerschocolates with photos of your homemade no-bake raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake.

Laura's Top Tips for Making No-Bake White Chocolate Cheesecake

I have made this style of cheesecake more times than I can count, and the difference between a wobbly slice and a clean, firm one usually comes down to a few small habits. I treat them as non-negotiable now.

I always start with full-fat cream cheese that has sat out of the fridge for about 30 minutes. Cold cheese stays lumpy no matter how hard I beat it. Soft cheese blends into a smooth paste in minutes and that smoothness carries through to the finished filling. Low-fat versions look tempting on the label, but I find they stay loose in the fridge and never set with the same snap.

White chocolate is the part that catches people out. I melt it slowly and then leave it until it is only just warm, not hot. If I fold hot chocolate into cream cheese, the mix can split and look grainy. If the chocolate cools too far and starts to thicken, I give it a few seconds more heat rather than forcing stiff chocolate through the bowl. A silky melt is what I am after.

When I whip the double cream, I stop at soft peaks. Stiff cream makes the filling heavy and can leave streaks. Soft peaks fold through the cheese without knocking the air out. I add the cooled chocolate first, then the cream, and I use a spatula rather than a whisk at that stage. Overmixing after the chocolate goes in is the quickest way to lose that light texture.

The base needs a firm press. I use the back of a spoon and then the base of a small glass to pack the crumbs right to the edges. A loose base crumbles when you cut it. I chill that layer for a full 20 minutes before any filling goes on, even if I am in a rush. Warm butter in the crumbs will mix into the filling and blur the layers.

Raspberries bleed if they sit in the filling for too long. I scatter some on the base, keep most of them for the top, and I add the topping just before serving. If I decorate the night before, the juice stains the white surface and the berries soften. Fresh fruit on a cold set cheesecake looks brighter and tastes sharper.

I line the base of the springform tin with a circle of baking paper. It sounds fussy, but it means the first slice lifts cleanly. To release the ring, I run a thin knife around the inside edge, then unclip. I wipe the knife between every cut. A sticky blade drags the filling and ruins the look of the next slice.

Overnight in the fridge is better than the minimum four hours. I make it the day before I need it and leave it covered, still in the tin, so the sides stay supported. That extra time gives the chocolate and cream a proper set and makes serving far less stressful.

Serving Suggestions

I like this cheesecake cold, straight from the fridge, so the filling stays dense and the biscuit base stays crisp. Room temperature filling slumps on the plate.

A simple slice is enough on its own after a roast dinner. If I want a little extra, I add a spoon of lightly crushed raspberries with a pinch of caster sugar. The juice runs pink across the plate and cuts the richness of the white chocolate. A few extra berries on the side look generous without much work.

For a pudding table I keep the topping plain and put a small bowl of Whitakers white chocolates next to the board. Guests can break a piece over their slice if they want more chocolate. It keeps the cheesecake looking tidy and gives people a choice.

This also works well with coffee after lunch. The sweetness of the filling sits nicely against a strong brew. In summer I serve smaller slices with a jug of cold cream on the table, though most people find the cheesecake rich enough without it.

If I am taking it to a friend, I leave it in the tin until I arrive, then release it there. Travel is kinder to a supported cake. I pack the raspberries in a separate box and dress the top at the last minute so it still looks fresh.

Nutritional Information for This Recipe

How to Store Your Homemade Cheesecake

Keep the cheesecake in the fridge from the moment it is set. I leave it in the tin, covered with a plate or a loose layer of cling film, so the surface does not dry out and fridge smells stay out. Once sliced, I transfer leftovers to an airtight container.

It keeps well for up to three days. After that the base starts to soften and the raspberries lose their shape. I do not leave it out on the side for long. Cream cheese and cream need the cold.

You can freeze it, but I freeze it without the fresh raspberries on top. I wrap the whole chilled cheesecake, still on its base, in cling film and then foil. It holds for about a month. I thaw it in the fridge overnight, still wrapped, so condensation stays on the wrapping rather than on the filling. Fresh berries go on after it has thawed.

I do not refreeze a slice that has already been thawed. The texture of the cream filling changes and becomes icy.

A Brief History of Cheesecake in the UK

Cheesecake is older in Britain than many people think. A recipe called sambocade appears in The Forme of Cury, the 14th-century cookery collection linked to the court of Richard II. It used curd cheese, egg whites, sugar and elderflower, baked in pastry. That is a long way from a digestive base and a fridge-set filling, but the idea was already here: sweetened cheese in a case, served as a pudding.

Later British versions stayed close to curd. Yorkshire curd tart, still baked today, uses fresh curds, butter, sugar, eggs and often currants in pastry. Georgian and Victorian cookbooks printed many “cheesecakes” that were really small tarts. Some used lemon or almonds and barely any cheese at all. The word covered a family of rich baked fillings rather than one fixed recipe.

The cheesecake most UK kitchens make now arrived much later. Cream cheese, developed in New York in the late 19th century and sold widely under the Philadelphia name, gave cooks a smooth, reliable cheese that did not need straining. Digestive biscuits, first made in Scotland in the 19th century and later a McVitie’s staple, became the British answer to the American graham cracker crust. Butter and crumbs pressed into a tin replaced pastry for everyday cooking.

No-bake cheesecake took hold in Britain in the second half of the 20th century, when home cooks wanted a pudding that set in the fridge and did not ask for a bain-marie. Full-fat soft cheese beaten with cream, and sometimes a little melted chocolate, firms up as it chills. That method is now the default in many UK households.

Raspberry and white chocolate is a more recent favourite. White chocolate became a familiar British sweet through bars such as Milkybar from the 1930s onwards. Raspberries have a long growing season in Scotland and the north of England, so the sharp fruit and the mild chocolate were a natural match for ice creams, traybakes and fridge puddings. By the 1990s and 2000s the pairing was common on supermarket shelves and in dinner-party cookbooks.

The version in this recipe sits firmly in that British no-bake tradition: a digestive base, a cream cheese filling, fruit on top, and the fridge doing the work. It is a modern pud with much older roots.