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Creamy No-Bake Lime Cream Cheese Cake from the Fridge

Prep
10 min
Bake
40 min
Total
50 min
Makes
10

Ingredients

Crust

  • 7 oz200 gwhole wheat butter cookiesPlain, crisp German butter biscuits, often crushed for cake bases. In the US use petit beurre style butter cookies, or for crumb crusts graham crackers or vanilla wafers; in the UK, rich tea biscuits or petit beurre, or for bases digestive biscuits.
  • 6 tbsp80 gunsalted butterGerman butter is unsalted and has about 82 percent fat. In the US use unsalted butter (European-style unsalted butter is closest); in the UK, unsalted butter.

Filling

  • 14 oz400 gcream cheeseA soft, full-fat fresh cheese. In the US use full-fat cream cheese; in the UK, full-fat soft cheese.
  • ½ cup100 ggranulated sugar
  • ⅓ cup80 mllime juice
  • zest of the limes
  • 1 tbspgelatinground. 1 German packet of ground gelatin = about 1 tbsp (9 g). German recipes usually mean gelatin sheets of about 1.7 g each; here it is ground gelatin. In the US use unflavored powdered gelatin, bloomed in cold water; in the UK, powdered gelatine, or leaf gelatine weighed (about 1.7 g per German sheet).
  • 1 ⅔ cups400 mlheavy creamice-cold. German cream for whipping has about 30 to 32 percent fat. In the US use heavy cream or heavy whipping cream; in the UK, whipping cream (double cream also works but whips faster, so watch it).

Glaze

  • 7 tbsp100 mlwater
  • ⅓ cup80 mllime juice
  • 2 tbsp15 gcornstarchA fine starch, usually made from corn, used to thicken creams and lighten cakes. In the US use cornstarch; in the UK, cornflour.
  • 4 to 6 ½ tbsp50 to 80 ggranulated sugar
  • Optional for decorating: ¾ cup plus 1 tbsp (200 ml) ice-cold heavy cream and a few lime slices

Method

  1. Grind the butter cookies finely. Work in the butter. Press the mixture firmly into a pan. Chill.

  2. Mix the cream cheese and sugar. Let the gelatin bloom in 5 tbsp water. Whip the cream until stiff.

  3. Gradually stir the lime juice and zest into the cream cheese. Warm the gelatin gently (!!!) and stir it into the cream cheese mixture. Fold in the whipped cream.

  4. Spread it into the pan and chill, ideally overnight.

  5. For the glaze, bring everything to a boil together and add a little food coloring if you like.

  6. Let the glaze cool until lukewarm, then quickly spread it over the chilled cake.

  7. For decorating, whip the cream until stiff and pipe rosettes on top with a piping bag.

From German Pastry Chef. Full recipe with photos: germanpastrychef.com/recipes/no-bake-lime-cream-cheese-icebox-cake/