No bake orange cheesecake

This no bake orange cheesecake is light and creamy with a crunchy chocolate biscuit base. It’s the perfect easy dessert for a dinner party, special occasion or holiday season.

This easy no bake orange cheesecake is truly delicious. Made with a chocolate biscuit base and a light orangey cheesecake filling, all topped with some mandarin segments it’s so simple to make it’s great dessert for kids and beginner bakers alike to try.

No bake cheesecakes are so simple and can be made ahead of time which makes them the perfect dessert for the holiday season. Or indeed, dinner parties or special occasions at any time of the year.

I’ve based this recipe on my other no bake cheesecakes. It’s a great recipe which, once you’ve perfected it, you can add different flavours and adapt it for different occasions.

But don’t let their simplicity fool you. This orange cheesecake with a hint of chocolate is spectacular enough and tasty enough to share with friends and family.

How can kids help make the no bake orange cheesecake?

No bake cheesecakes are a fantastic dessert for kids to get involved in making as there are plenty of simple steps for them to get involved in. In fact, it’s so easy you could almost let your kids take over and make the whole thing themselves.

Making the base is a great job for kids to do. And if you want to get very young children involved in the kitchen then this is the step for them. They can bash all the biscuits to a crumb which is a favourite job of my kid’s or if you have one, get your kids to blitz them in a food processor. Once you have the biscuits and melted butter mixed together it’s a simple case of pressing them into the cake tin to form the base.

The cheesecake filling itself s also very easy to make. For us, we were able to add a whole 250ml carton of mascarpone and a whole 300ml carton of cream so there’s no need to even measure anything out.

Finally, your kids can also help prepare the oranges by zesting and juicing them . If you’ve got a juicer this is also a fun job for younger children. And, they can help arrange the mandarin segements on top to decorate. Whether you arrange them in a pattern or just place them all in the middle like we did, it’s a great job for younger children.

How long does an orange cheesecake keep?

This no bake cheesecake will keep covered and refrigerated for a few days.

Can you use cream cheese instead of mascarpone?

Yes, you can swap the mascarpone for an equal amount of cream cheese. We use cream cheese in some of our other cheesecakes and find it a little stronger in flavour and tangier than mascarpone so you might like to add a little extra icing sugar to balance the flavours.

What can you use instead of Chocolate Digestive biscuits in the base?

You could use any chocolate biscuit you like to make the base. Here in the UK, Bourbons would be a great alternative or even Oreo biscuits if you remove their filling. Chocolate Graham Crackers are an equivalent biscuit outside of the UK.

You don’t have to use chocolate biscuits in the base, although they do add a nice dimension to the cheesecake’s flavour. You could use plain Digestive biscuits as we do in many cheesecakes or Graham Crackers.

If you don’t want to use chocolate biscuits but want something more interesting than plain biscuits, why not try a Ginger Nut.

How do you stop the cheesecake sticking to the bottom of the tin?

To stop the base from sticking, make sure you grease the base and sides of your spring-form or loose bottomed tin well with butter. We also lined the bottom of the tin with baking, greaseproof or parchment paper.

How long does it take to set?

A no bake cheesecake will take at least 6 hours to set. I prefer to make it the day ahead and leave it overnight.

If it’s not set after 6 hours or so and you can’t wait much longer, pop it in the freezer for around an hour before you serve it.

What else can you make with oranges?

If you liked this orange cheesecake, you might also like our orange drizzle cake, orange biscuits and orange cupcakes. They’re a great way of using up more oranges if there are a few left over in your pack.

Other cheesecake recipes

If you liked this white chocolate cheesecake, you might like some of our other cheesecake recipes:

Baked chocolate ripple cheesecake
No bake lemon cheesecake
Double chocolate cheesecake
White chocolate and raspberry cheesecake
Biscoff cheesecake
No bake chocolate cheesecake
Millionaire’s cheesecake
Strawberry cheesecake
Banoffee cheesecake
After Eight cheesecake
Maltesers cheesecake
Lemon meringue cheesecake

Useful equipment

You might need the following baking tools/gadgets to make this white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake

Digital scales
Freestanding mixer
Mixing bowl
Measuring cups
Orange juicer
Orange zester
Cake tins
Serving plate

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Ingredients

For the base
250g Plain chocolate Digestive biscuits (or other chocolate biscuit)
100g butter

For the filling
250g Mascarpone cheese
300ml double / whipping or heavy cream
100g icing / confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Zest and juice from 2 Oranges

To decorate
Orange or mandarin slices (from a tin)

How to make a no bake orange cheesecake

Grease an 8 inch (20cm) round loose bottomed or spring-form baking tin and then line the base with a circle of baking or parchment paper.

Make the biscuit base

Get your kids to measure out the chocolate biscuits. Pop the biscuits in a large mixing bowl then get your kids to bash them with a rolling pin until they are a nice fine crumb.

If you prefer, and to save mess, you could put the biscuits into a large zip lock /freezer bag and get your kids to bash them in there. Alternatively, if you have a food processor you use that to crush the biscuits for you.

While your kids are crushing the biscuits, measure the butter and put it in a pan or microwavable bowl. Heat it gently until it has fully melted.

Once the butter has melted, make sure the biscuits are in a bowl if they’re not already, then pour the butter in. Get your kids to stir it together until all the biscuit crumbs are coated.

Now get your kids to help tip the biscuit base mixture into your prepared baking tin. Then, using the back of a metal spoon or spatula press the crumbs down firmly into the tin. Make sure you press it all well into the sides as well as in the middle so that your base holds together and doesn’t end up crumbly later.

Chill the base in the fridge for around 20 minutes while you work on the filling.

Make the orange cheesecake filling

Start by whipping the mascarpone cheese and cream

Get your kids to add the cream and mascarpone cheese into a free-standing mixer or large mixing bowl. This was an easy job for us as ours came in exactly the right sized cartons, but if you need to measure them out, the easiest way of doing it accurately is to use the ml setting on your digital scales or measuring cups if you don’t have scales.

Using the whisk attachment of your free-standing mixer or a hand held whisk, whisk the cream and mascarpone together until the mixture is nice and smooth and has formed soft peaks.

Not sure what soft peaks are? ‘Soft peaks’ form when the whipped cream mixture is thick enough to hold very briefly if you lift the whisk up before it then flops back down again.

Add the sugar, vanilla and orange

Get your kids to measure out the icing sugar and vanilla and add it to your mixing bowl. You may need to hold the measuring spoon while your kids pour in the vanilla or vice versa.

Zest and juice the oranges. Before we do this we normally blast them in the microwave for 15 seconds or so as you get more juice out of them. Get your kids to carefully zest the oranges, or if you have young children, zest them yourself and get your kids to juice them. Add the zest and juice into the mixing bowl.

Whisk everything into your mixture one last time so it is well combined and has thickened up.

Make the cheesecake

Get your kids to spoon or pour the cheesecake mixture onto the base and level the top with a spatula. Cover the cheesecake and chill it for at least six-eight hours, but preferably overnight.

To serve, carefully remove the cheesecake from the tin and put it on a serving plate. Decorate it with orange or mandarin segments and grated chocolate (optional).

Serve and enjoy!

orange cheesecake with oranges next to it

cookingwithmykids