Lilian's Strawberry Bottom No-Bake Cheesecake

This is one of my husband's favorite desserts and it's pretty simple to prepare. I "developed" this recipe when a student at our old church asked me to prepare this dessert. I love to cook and I used to ask all the students who came to church what was their favorite dish so I could prepare them for the weekly potluck. That way I got to learn to how to cook several American dishes that I would never have cooked otherwise! I created my own version of no-bake cheesecake based on various recipes I found in the pre-made graham cracker pie crust labels. You can make your own pie-crust and use larger pans, since the pre-made ones are pretty small -- that's why I have two recipes, a small and a large one. If you don't have strawberries, you can still make it plain, like I explain at the end. I hope you enjoy the pictures too, though I did take too many of them :)

Small recipe (for a 9’’ graham cracker crust or large crust strawberry bottom)
- 8 ounces (226 g) cream cheese (can be low fat)
- ½ can sweetened condensed milk
- 8 ounces (226 g) whipped topping
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- juice of one or 2 lemons and/or limes (I like lots of juice in mine)
- (if desired, you can add sour cream and some sugar - it's one of the variations of the recipes I found in the labels)

Large (for large crust or 2 small - with no strawberry bottom, 3 small with strawberry)
- 8 oz. regular and 8 oz. low fat (if you want) [16 0z or 452 g]
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 12-16 ounces whipped topping [340-453 g] - the amount varies to adapt the size of the recipe to the crust(s) you have.
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- more lemon/lime juice

Beat the cream cheese until it’s light and fluffy, add the condensed milk and beat until blended -- or you can beat both together like I did this time:

(my husband held the mixer while I took the pictures :)

Add the lemon juice, and the vanilla (which I forgot on the day I was taking these pictures), beat some more, and after they’re blended, add the whipped topping and beat in low speed.
Read below if you want to do the strawberry bottom option, if not:
spread the cheesecake "batter" on the graham cracker crust and refrigerate overnight (or for at least a few hours - it's fine to prepare it in the morning for a special lunch or dinner).

Strawberry bottom:
1 qt strawberries (or less), sliced
1 container of strawberry pie glaze.
Spread pie glaze in the bottom of the graham cracker crust, line with the sliced strawberries (don't use too much or else there won't be room for the "cake" mix - in this sense it would be ideal to make your own graham cracker crust, but I'm just too lazy)
and cover with more pie glaze. Spread the cheese cake mix on top and refrigerate (I made three cakes this day). Decorate with strawberries before serving.


It is delicious even without the strawberry bottom, you can eat it with canned pie-filling cherries or thawed frozen strawberries sliced and sweetened. What I like about it most is the lemony (or limey - use whichever juice you prefer, or both) taste, since I love lemon and tangy stuff.

Would you like a slice?