Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake: No-Bake and Baked

The key difference lies in what sets the dessert and how much time you have: no-bake cheesecake sets thanks to gelatine and chilling, while baked cheesecake sets thanks to eggs and oven heat. Choose based on that.

• No-bake: no oven needed, ready in just a few minutes of work plus 4–6 hours in the fridge. The texture is lighter and more mousse-like. Perfect for summer or when you're short on time.

• Baked: denser and creamier, with that classic New York cheesecake flavour. It needs the oven, 60–75 minutes of baking, and several hours to cool. The reward is a velvety texture.

Both versions rest on the same trio – a biscuit base, a cream cheese filling with white chocolate, and raspberries on top. Only the technique differs, not the flavour.

You'll build a no-bake raspberry cheesecake in three layers: a crunchy biscuit base, a mascarpone cream with gelatine and white chocolate, and fresh raspberries on top. The key is to let each layer chill thoroughly before adding the next.

The base holds together thanks to a ratio of roughly 2 parts biscuits to 1 part butter (e.g. 200g biscuits to 100g melted butter). Crush the biscuits finely – in a food processor, or in a bag with a rolling pin – and mix with the butter until it looks like damp sand that holds its shape when pressed but doesn't stick to your fingers. Press the mixture firmly into the base of a springform tin (a flat-bottomed glass works well for this) and chill for 20–30 minutes until firm. A cold base won't collapse under the cream.

Whip mascarpone (or a mix of mascarpone and whipping cream) with sugar, then fold in melted white chocolate and soaked gelatine. Two moments decide how smooth it turns out:

• White chocolate: melt it slowly in a bain-marie or in the microwave in 20–30 second bursts on a lower power setting – it scorches easily. Pastry chefs recommend letting it cool to nearly room temperature before folding it in; hot chocolate poured into cold cream sets instantly into thin threads that you'll never be able to mix out.

• Gelatine: soak sheet gelatine in cold water for about 5 minutes, squeeze it out, then dissolve it in a few tablespoons of warm (not boiling) cream before folding it into the mixture. Boiling liquid weakens gelatine, and the cream won't set.

Spread the finished cream over the chilled base and place the whole cake in the fridge for 4–6 hours, ideally overnight.

Fresh raspberries go on top, adding both colour and a tart counterpoint to the sweet chocolate. If you're using frozen ones, thaw them on a sieve over a bowl so the juice drains away – otherwise it will seep into the cream and make it soggy. Add them just before serving so they stay firm and glossy.

Baked raspberry cheesecake is denser and more velvety than the no-bake version – the filling is set by eggs, which firm up in the oven. Success comes down to two things: gentle baking and slow cooling.

Press the biscuit base (again roughly 2:1 biscuits to butter) into a springform tin and pre-bake it for 10 minutes at 180°C/350°F. Pre-baking firms up the biscuits so the base stays crisp even under the moist filling. Let it cool a little before pouring in the cream.

Beat cream cheese with sugar, then add the eggs one at a time, until the mixture is smooth. Melted white chocolate adds gentle sweetness and a silkier texture. Two rules:

• Ingredients at room temperature. Cold cream cheese is hard to blend smoothly and forces you to beat it longer, which whips extra air into the batter.

• Mix as little as possible, on low speed. An overbeaten mixture is full of air bubbles that expand in the oven and contract as it cools – which is exactly where cracks come from.

Bake slowly at 150–160°C/300–325°F for around 60–75 minutes. It's done when the edges are firm but the centre still wobbles slightly like jelly – it will finish setting from residual heat as it cools. Try not to open the oven unnecessarily while it bakes.

A water bath helps prevent cracks and ensures even baking: wrap the outside of the tin in foil, set it inside a larger roasting pan, and pour hot water up to halfway up the sides of the tin. The water can't rise above boiling point, so the cheesecake is surrounded by gentle, moist heat instead of the oven's direct heat.

Once baked, turn off the oven and let the cheesecake cool inside for an hour with the door slightly ajar. A sudden temperature change will shrink and split the surface. Then transfer it to the fridge to finish cooling (ideally overnight), and only decorate with raspberries or raspberry sauce once it's fully chilled.

You can make a lighter version of raspberry cheesecake by swapping mascarpone or cream cheese for full-fat curd cheese or drained Greek yoghurt – the filling is then less rich and, according to nutritional tables, higher in protein. It stays just as creamy, only fresher and a little lighter.

• Cream base: curd cheese or Greek yoghurt instead of mascarpone. Let the yoghurt drain through a cloth for a few hours so the cream is thicker and holds together better.

• Sweetener: honey or stevia instead of some of the sugar. Honey also adds moistness; go easy with stevia, as it's noticeably sweeter than sugar.

• Base: baked oats with a little coconut oil instead of biscuits – they add fibre and a pleasant nutty flavour.

For the lighter no-bake version, keep in mind that the runnier yoghurt base needs a bit more gelatine to set properly.

Frozen works perfectly well – they're cheaper, available year-round, and just as nutritious. According to available sources, flash-frozen raspberries (–18°C) retain most of their vitamins, since they're picked ripe and frozen right after harvest, whereas fresh imported fruit loses some of its vitamin C during transport and storage. Save fresh raspberries for decoration, and use frozen ones in sauce or mixed straight into the cream, where appearance matters less.

The combination of white chocolate and raspberries works on contrast: white chocolate is richly sweet, buttery, and free of the bitterness of cocoa solids, while raspberries bring sharp tartness and fruity aroma. One balances the other, so the dessert ends up neither flatly sweet nor too sour.

Because white chocolate behaves differently in baking than milk or dark chocolate – it has less cocoa butter relative to milk and sugar, which is why it scorches and seizes more easily – it's worth knowing the differences between dark, milk, and white chocolate. The same pairing of sweet white chocolate and tart raspberries works well beyond cheesecake too.

The simplest, most effective decoration is whole fresh raspberries arranged in rings or scattered densely over the whole surface – the colour and shape do the work for you. A few tips to take it further:

• Fruit as the main feature: arrange raspberries and strawberries in a neat pattern, a spiral, or a ring around the edge. Mixing different shades of red adds depth.

• A touch of green: mint or basil leaves add colour contrast and a fresh aroma. Add them at the very last moment so they don't wilt.

• Raspberry sauce: blend raspberries with a little sugar, strain through a sieve, then drizzle or pipe it in a lattice over the surface. A tart glaze is the perfect counterpoint to the sweet cream.

Always decorate once the cheesecake is fully chilled and set, so the toppings don't sink into the cream.