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On Friday, I mentioned that this past weekend was the last before wedding season started for us. We’ve just got two weddings in May, but they are back to back and I’m in both. So this weekend, I wanted to do something fun with our family. One of my favorite local farms opened for strawberry season Saturday and that was all I needed for a plan.
Hubs and I have gone picking for the last three years together and I love it so much! Little also loves strawberries and being outside so I knew that he would have fun getting to pick his own berries.
When we got home, I made a super easy cheesecake for us to enjoy. We topped it all with fresh strawberries of course.
This cheesecake is based off of this recipe from Plain Chicken with my own notes added. If you don’t already know this site, you should check it out because it is filled with simple, delicious recipes!
Sweet & Simple Cheesecake Recipe
Prep-time: 15-20 minutes | Baking time: 1 hour, 35 minutes | Cooling time: 1.5-2 hours
Ingredients
FOR THE CRUST:
- 1/2 box of graham crackers, crushed.
- This ends up being just over 1.5 cups. The original recipe calls for 1.5 cups, but I like a thicker crust.
- 5 tbsp sugar
- 1/3 cup melted butter
FOR THE CAKE:
- (3) 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened.
- It will easily soften if you take it out of the fridge for about 15 minutes. Don’t put it in the microwave to soften. I put it on the counter while I’m making the crust.
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 4 eggs, separated
- But save both parts!
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Lime juice will also work, but with a slightly different flavor.
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325.
FOR THE CRUST:
- Combine all ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
- Press against the bottom of a well greased 9-inch spring form pan.
FOR THE CAKE:
- Mix cream cheese, sugar, egg yolks, lemon juice, and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff.
- Fold the egg whites into the original mixture.
- Pour it all onto the crust.
- Bake at 325 for 35 – 40 minutes.
- Turn off the oven, but leave the door closed and let the cake continue to bake for 1 hour.
- You’ll know the cake is done when the edges are firm, but the middle is just a tiny bit wiggly.
- Remove from oven and allow it to cool on a wire cooling rack until room temperature.
- Move to freezer for at least 1 hour. 1.5 -2 hours is preferred, if you’re more patient than me with dessert.
This cheesecake gets rave reviews every single time I make it. Let me know if you try it. I’d love to hear what you think!
*A reminder – you already know this because you’ve just gotten through the recipe, but make a mental note so you remember it. This cake is quick & easy to put together, but there is a lot of hands off time once that’s done. You’ll want to plan ahead if you’re making this for an event to give it enough time to bake and cool before serving. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve started making this cheesecake only to realize I didn’t have time to let it cool all the way and had to save it for the next day.
I abolutely love cheesecake. I only use Philadelphia Cream Cheese, not only because I’m from Philly. It is the best. It is usually on sale for $.99 around this time, so I snatch enough up and make two cheesecakes for Christmas. I love your idea of strawberry picking. That makes is so yummy, delicious, and fresh. Thank you so much for sharing.
Charlene – https://faithtoraisenate.com
Oh that is a good idea to grab it when it’s on sale! What are your favorite flavors to make for Christmas?
That looks so good. I love cheesecake! #bestandworst
Thank you! It is really yummy!
It is so nice to meet you at Fiesta Friday party. Thanks for coming and for bringing this delicious dessert with you. I hope you stay longer and chat with other party comers. ? Enjoy and happy weekend!
Thanks so much! There are so many wonderful links at the party!
I love cheesecake, but I rarely make it because I always think it’s a lot of work. You make it sound so simple I may need to give your recipe a try. Thank you for sharing at The Really Crafty Link Party this week. Pinned!
Thanks so much! I was always hesitant to make them as well, but this recipe really is easy! You should totally give it a try!
Ok girl now I am hungry for this. Like right now! LOL. So I now have to pin this to make it soon as I can. Looks great you did an awesome job. Thanks for showing us how to make it.
Me too, again. 🙂 Thank you for stopping by & sharing! I hope you make it! It’s the perfect time to go get some fresh strawberries to go on top!
Thanks for sharing at #OverTheMoon and have a lovely week!
Thank you so much!
I seriously cannot wait to take Miss A strawberry picking – one just opened right down the road! YUM to that cheesecake girl – just yum! xo
Oh fun! I bet she will love it! Little LOVED taste testing all the berries for us!
I love strawberries, but I’ve never gone strawberry picking before! I’ll have to see if there’s somewhere close to us that does that. Your cheesecake looks amazing too! It’s one of my favorite desserts!
Thank you! I hope you find a good place to pick berries! It’s lots of fun and then you’ve got fresh strawberries for dessert!
I love strawberry season so much. 🙂 Your recipe looks delicious!
Isn’t it the best?! I love this season so much!
Looks delicious. You can’t wrong with cream cheese and strawberries. I have not had any fresh berries this year. I guess I better get some soon:-)
You totally should! It’s still early in the season so there are lots of good berries out and others still ripening – you’ve got time!
Yum! I love cheesecake; this would be wonderful to make in July when we get to go strawberry picking. Pinned.
Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing! Let me know if you make it!
Mmm everything about this post is delicious and fun! I have never gone strawberry picking. I’m sure they taste amazing fresh and to make it into a cheesecake. Yummy my favourite. Going to try to make this recipe of yours. Bookmarking this! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Maria! They were really good! Please let me know if you make the cheesecake!
Awww I used to love going to pick strawberries on my own 🙂 I keep trying to grow some strawberries in a container, but the squirrels keep getting to them. The cheesecake recipe looks delicious though!
Do you really blame the squirrels, though? The berries are so yummy! I hope you are able to grow them!
This looks so delicious and worth every calorie. The berries are so bright and I bet was bursting with flavor! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Thanks, Leslie! It was so yummy and totally worth it! 🙂
I used to love going fruit picking with my family. We used to make amazing popsickles out of fresh blackberries 😀 This looks amazing and I bet it was even tastier with the hand picked fruit xx
Sophia xx http://sophiawhitham.co.uk
It was really fun and the cake is so yummy! I need to look into some fresh Popsicles! I bet Little would love them!
Oh my goodness – that cheesecake looks amazing!! I’m going to Pin it so I can make it later. We took our kiddos strawberry picking this weekend too! We went to a place about an hour outside of Atlanta. The strawberries are delish!!
Thank you! Did they love picking! We had a lot of fun and we really LOVE the fresh strawberries!
It’s on my to-do list to go berry picking at least once this year! Who doesn’t love homemade cheesecake? It’s an under represented dessert in my book.
Totally under represented! You totally should! It was a lot of fun, the berries are DELICIOUS, and it’s nice to support local farmers!
This cake looks so delicious! I love fresh strawberries too. They are so much sweeter than store bought. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Yes! They are SO much sweeter! We love them!
This looks so fun! What a great recipe too! I will have to try it out!
Thanks, Jehava! I love this recipe! Let me know if you try it out!
Berry picking looks like so much fun! Also, yum way to use the berries with a homemade cheesecake!
xo, Lee
Thank you, Lee! We had a fun time!
I love to go strawberry picking! That cheesecake looks delicious. Jess at Just Jess
Same! It is really fun! (And the cheesecake is so good – I am trying to control myself with it in the fridge!)
Strawberries make yummy desserts. We will be glad when our patch is producing this year. You may be further south than us. Thanks for joining us at Family Joy Blog linkup.
This was the first day ours was open1 It was a lot of fun! I also really love strawberry desserts!