Anne Morgan Delia Smith’s cheesecake recipes cover every method: no-bake mascarpone fillings that set in the fridge, baked cream cheese with soured cream topping, ricotta lightened with whipped cream, and everything from lemon to chocolate to banoffee. These are the nine I have made, and each one uses a different cheese or technique.
I have ordered them from easiest to most involved, so if you have never made a Delia Smith cheesecake before, start at the top and work your way down.
1. No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake
Mascarpone, fresh lemon juice, and a brown sugar digestive base, no gelatine and no oven. Twenty minutes of work and 4 hours in the fridge.
Serves 8, 340 kcal. The simplest cheesecake Delia has ever written, and the one I make most because it never fails. If you want a lime version or a lemon-and-lime mix, the article covers both.
2. Lemon Cheesecake with Frosted Grapes
Also no-bake, but richer than the plain lemon version because Delia uses a jar of lemon curd and fromage frais in the mascarpone filling. The frosted grapes on top are egg-white-dipped in caster sugar and they make the whole thing look like a magazine cover.
Serves 8, 420 kcal. I make this when I want the no-bake ease but need it to look special.
3. Baileys Cheesecake
No-bake with a cocoa digestive base, cream cheese and double cream filling spiked with 90ml of Baileys, and melted milk chocolate drizzled over the top. Adults only because the alcohol does not cook off.
Serves 10, 520 kcal. The cocoa base is what makes this one special, giving the sweetness something bitter to push against.
4. Chocolate Ricotta Cheesecake
Dark chocolate melted into ricotta with whipped egg whites folded through for lightness, set with gelatine in the fridge. Topped with hand-made chocolate curls and a cocoa dusting. Delia calls it “subtle” rather than intensely chocolatey, and she is right.
Serves 8, 390 kcal. The article also covers white chocolate and raspberry, and a brandy chocolate version for Christmas.
5. Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake
Ricotta and double cream filling set with gelatine, served with a confit of lemons you make the day before. The lightest cheesecake on this list, almost mousse-like, and the confit turns thin lemon slices translucent and sticky.
Serves 6, 410 kcal. The confit sounds intimidating but it is just simmered lemons, and it makes the whole thing look restaurant-level.
6. Philadelphia Cheesecake
The proper baked cheesecake: cream cheese, eggs, vanilla, baked at 170°C with a sweetened soured cream topping added ten minutes before the end. Close to a New York cheesecake but lighter on sugar and stronger on vanilla.
Serves 8, 480 kcal. The soured cream hides any cracks, and the article covers an orange cheesecake variation using fresh zest instead of vanilla.
7. Baked Vanilla Cheesecake with Raspberries
Delia’s favourite cheesecake. Cream cheese and crème fraîche baked slowly until the centre still wobbles, cooled in the switched-off oven, then piled with fresh raspberries and redcurrants. Softer and more mousse-like than the Philadelphia version.
Serves 8, 440 kcal. The wobble when it comes out of the oven is supposed to happen, and that is the hardest lesson to learn with baked cheesecakes.
8. Strawberry Cheesecake
Baked with fromage frais and curd cheese instead of cream cheese, which makes it the lightest baked cheesecake Delia has. Hazelnuts in the oat biscuit base and a fresh strawberry coulis poured over the top.
Serves 8, 350 kcal. A summer cheesecake best made when British strawberries are in season and cheap.
9. Banoffee Cheesecake
Bananas blended into a curd cheese filling, baked for an hour, then served with a homemade toffee pecan sauce and fresh banana slices on top. From Delia’s Winter Collection, and it tastes like banoffee pie crossed with cheesecake.
Serves 8, 520 kcal. The toffee sauce keeps for a week in the fridge and is worth making on its own.
