Lemon and Raspberry Cheesecake

This recipe is perfect for any summer get-together - the lemon in the cheesecake and the addition of the raspberries taste so fresh and complement each other nicely. All you need is a BBQ, a glass of Pimms, a cheesecake and you're good to go! What is even better is that this recipe requires no baking, so there is no need to get hot and flustered in the kitchen, especially when the weather is as hot as it has been lately! This recipe is from Billington's and has been tweaked ever so slightly. 

Ingredients

For the biscuit base

30g molasses sugar (I used Billington's)
90g unsalted butter
200g packet of gingernut biscuits

For the cheesecake topping

500g tub of mascarpone cheese
160g icing sugar, sifted
juice and zest of two lemons


Method

1. In a saucepan, gently heat together the molasses and the butter until the sugar has dissolved. Crush your biscuits and add them to the sugar and butter mixture. I crushed half of the biscuits to a fine crumb, and left half of the biscuits quite chunky - I think it created quite a nice texture for the base. Mix the biscuits into the sugar and butter until they are all coated.
2. Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin and press the biscuit mix firmly into the bottom of the tin with the back of a spoon or your hand (be careful as the mixture may still be quite hot). Leave to chill in the fridge while you make your cheesecake topping. 
3. For the lemon cheesecake, mix together your mascarpone cheese, icing sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice until it has all combined. It may be a bit wet, but don't worry as it will firm back up in the fridge. Spoon the cheesecake mixture onto your chilled biscuit base, smooth out and return to the fridge for at least four hours so it can set.
4. Once your cheesecake has set, remove it from the cake tin and decorate with fresh fruit - I used raspberries, but you can use whatever berries you like: blueberries, blackberries or strawberries! Dust with icing sugar and it's ready to eat!

If it's hot when you're serving the cheesecake, I would suggest leaving it in the fridge until it's ready to be eaten as the heat will make the cheesecake mixture melt, as it did with mine when I was taking photos in the garden! I really hope you enjoy this recipe, I'm definitely going to have a play around with cheesecake flavours and different biscuit bases :)