Quick, no bake, raspberry cheesecake – cheaper than premium shop bought version and perfect for ripe raspberries.

I could harp on about the weather, about how the raspberries have grown this year, how the kids want to spend everyday out in the garden in the paddling pool etc, etc, etc.

Whisper – I kind of want it to rain, just a little bit. Like a fellow plotholder suggested to me over the weekend, as in Camelot – only after sundown and clearing by morning.

Time is at a premium this month and yet I can’t neglect the beautiful bounty coming from the allotments. Sweet sugar snap peas are eaten raw, as they are, like a health bar from my hand. The toddler has taken to trotting around after me with a pod clasped in his hand, gnawing on it as he goes. Tumbling tomatoes are ripe in the polytunnel, little jewelled struts of rusty red which are best eaten as I pick them. Standing beside the vine, the juice pops and dribbles down my chin and I breathe in deep the scent of being alive.  I bring crisp iceberg home in my handbag at every opportunity, then peel back the leaves and eat with fresh black pepper and a light squeeze of lemon juice.

Potatoes! Waxy and fluffy at once, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of cooking our harvest this year. Although I admit to being a bit weary of washing the prátaí.

The majority of the work at the allotment is down to my hubby. He’s been spending many long hours working hard and I feel I have to do justice to his labour. One of his favourite desserts is raspberry cheesecake by a well known Irish brand but we can rarely afford it and personally I don’t like the gelatin loaded supermarket version.  This is my take on a quick no bake cheesecake. It’s not really reinventing the wheel, but it is sweet, tart and the perfect treat to serve up on a summer evening with a hot cup of tea.

I normally make my base with digestive biscuits and so the recipe is made that way. You may notice the absence of a biscuit base in my pictures, and that’s because I had some left over shortcrust pastry so I baked it blind then put the cheesecake mixture on top. I don’t like to waste anything here!

Raspberry Cheesecake – Serves 8

Ingredients

• 12 digestive biscuits
• 50g butter
• 125g fresh raspberries
• 100g icing sugar
• 200g cream cheese
• 200ml whipping cream

Method

Line a springform cake tin with cling film. I use an 8″ tin. Crumble the digestive biscuits and melt the butter in a large saucepan on a low heat. Mix in the crumbled biscuits with the butter then press firmly into the bottom of the tin. Put into the fridge to cool while you get on with the next few stages.

Take 100g of the raspberries and 25g of the icing sugar and squish together with a fork until you get a jammy kind of mixture. The icing sugar should dissolve into the mixture.

In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining icing sugar, then all the cream cheese and cream until the mixture holds its shape well. Gently stir in the 25g of whole raspberries and half the jammy raspberries into the cream cheese mixture.

Pour the mixture on top of the biscuit base, use the back of a spoon to smooth a small hollow in the middle, leaving about 1″ at the edge which is higher than the middle of the cake. Spoon the remaining jam into the hollow.

You can eat this cheesecake straight away or chill and serve later.  My fresh raspberry cheesecake is best eaten on the day it is made but as it doesn’t take too long to make it’s not such a hardship!