Individual No Bake Mini Lemon Curd Cheesecakes with homemade lemon curd, topped with a decorative whipped cream ‘chick’. Vegan, No-Egg, No-Dairy, gluten-free and the perfect Easter Cheesecakes that the whole family will enjoy!
This cake has been made in collaboration with Doves Farm. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. (For more information along with affiliated links, check out my disclosure policy.)
Mini Lemon Curd Cheesecakes
My Mini Lemon Curd Cheesecakes are the best dessert for Spring. These bite-size cheesecakes have a deliciously buttery and crumbly base, made using homemade digestive biscuits, with a thick and creamy vanilla cheesecake filling, swirled with fresh zesty lemon curd. They BURST with citrus! The creaminess of the cream cheese filling is rich and soft, and the lemon curd adds a sharp zesty-ness which combined, is scrumptious! And then they’re topped with even more lemon curd and an adorable whipped cream Easter chick. Can it get any better than this?
Looking for more Easter treats? Check out my Homemade Vegan Cream Eggs, Vegan Easter Madeleines and Vegan Sweet Almond Cake. Click here for ALL of my Easter recipes!
Why you’ll love this recipe!
- They’re easy to make.
- Made using homemade digestive biscuits!
- Gluten-free recipe!
- Fully vegan!
- Great for kids (and big kids) to enjoying making.
- Super fun to decorate.
- Filled with fresh, zingy lemon.
- Individual servings, meaning no sharing!
- Great for Easter baking.
- Oat base is buttery and delicious!
Ingredients you’ll need:
Listed below are the ingredients you’ll need in order to make these mini lemon cheesecakes. You can find the full ingredients list including measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the page. Click the ‘Jump to Recipe’ button at the top of the page, or simply scroll down.
- Corn flour – helps to thicken the lemon curd!
- Water – Simply use room temperature water.
- Dairy-free butter – Use a vegan block butter or margarine.
- Caster sugar – Fine caster. white sugar is great for this recipe. I wouldn’t recommend granulated or it can make the lemon curd grainy.
- Unwaxed lemons – Be sure to use un-waxed lemons as you’ll be using the zest.
- Vegan condensed milk.
- Turmeric – This is optional, but adds a slight yellow tinge to the lemon curd. Alternatively you could use a small drop of yellow food gel.
- Doves Farm Organic Oat Flour.
- Whole oats.
- Baking powder – Helps to bind the biscuit base.
- Dairy-free milk – You can use any dairy-free milk including almond, soya, oat or cashew for example.
- Cashew nuts – Make sure the cashews are soaked overnight in water then fully drained before using. Check out step 1 for more details.
- Vegan cream cheese – My go-to is Violife!
- Icing sugar – Make sure to sieve it to remove any lumps.
- Coconut cream – Use the thick white cream from a can of coconut milk, not the lear liquid.
- Dairy-free whipped cream – Use a thick / stable vegan cream. My personal favourite is The Coconut Collaborative Double Cream. It holds it’s shape, is stable and colours great too!
- Food gel – You want a mixture of black, yellow and orange food gel for the chick decoration on top. Don’t use liquid food colour as this can effect the consistency of the cream! Make sure they’re vegan friendly!
Layers of mini lemon cheesecakes
These cheesecakes have four main layers, from base to decoration. I’ll run you through some of the steps that goes into making these easy little lemon cheesecakes along with some key ingredients and tools needed.
- Base: SO, the base of this dessert is an buttery biscuit base. Instead of store bought biscuits, we make homemade digestive biscuits using Doves Farm Organic Oat Flour. We call these little biscuits Digestives in the UK, similar to Graham Crackers in the US, crumble them up with melted butter make for the best buttery biscuit base for the dessert.
- Cheesecake filling: I call this my ultimate no-bake cheesecake recipe. It’s the base recipe I use for all of my mini no-bake cheesecakes and is completely fool proof. It’s thick and creamy with swirls of the lemon curd… truly irresistible! In order to remove them from the tin for serving, use a loose base tin! This will make removing them super easy and neat.
- Lemon Curd : The flavour star of the dessert. Make a really simple homemade vegan lemon curd and swirl it through the cheesecake filling and also puddled on top. It makes each bite delicious and super fresh!
- Decoration: As this recipe is for Easter, I wanted to decorate it with something close to Easter / Spring. The little chicks are made out of coloured whipped cream and piped to the top of the cheesecakes using a large round tip nozzle and piping bags with the tips snipped off. They are simple but very effective and really make you fall in love with the dessert!
How to make Mini Vegan Lemon Cheesecakes
These easy Mini Lemon Curd Cheesecakes are SO creamy and smooth, and the filling is only 5 basic ingredients. It’s a fool proof recipe, so it’s a great one for beginning bakers! Here is a quick overview of the method, but find the full method including ingredients list and measurements in the recipe card below.
- Make the biscuits
In a bowl, mix all of the biscuit ingredients together to form a dough. Roll out, chomp out circles then place on a lined baking tray and bake. Allow to cool.
- Buttery biscuit base
Crumble the biscuits in a bowl, melt the butter then combine. Mix until it forms wet sand them compact to the bottom of a loose base cookie cup tin or cupcake cases.
- Lemon Curd
Mix all of the lemon curd ingredients in a saucepan over the hob. Allow it to melt together, then thicken. Once thick, remove from the heat and allow to cool fully.
- Cheesecake filling
Add the cheesecake filling ingredients minus the lemon curd to a food processor / high speed blender and whizz up until silky smooth. Pour on top of the bases, swirling in some lemon curd between the layers. Chill until set.
- Decoration
In a stand mixer with balloon whisk attachment, whip up the cream until thick. Remove a 2 tablespoons of cream and place into a separate bowl. Colour the majority yellow, then colour the small amount for cream orange and black. Transfer the yellow into a piping bag with round tip nozzle and pipe on two bulbs. Transfer the yellow and black into separate piping bags, pipe on the black eyes and orange beak / feet.
Mini cheesecake tips and tricks
- Chill the cheesecakes: Make sure the cheesecakes have set fully before remove from the tin
- Compact the base: make sure the texture of the base when it’s mixed is like wet sand. It should stick and clump together when you press it together. If its too dry, it may crumble when released from the mould.
- Whisk the lemon curd: As the lemon curd will e very hot when it’s first made, its best to make it the day before making and prepping the cheesecakes. Store in an air tight / sealed container in the fridge. It will thicken up, so make sure to give it a vigorous whisk to help it smooth out, ready for piping / spooning.
- Use any cookie cutter: As we’re making the biscuits to crumble for the base, it really doesn’t matter what size or shape you chomp them in to, just make sure they’re all the same thickness so they bake even.
- Storing the cheesecakes: As they contain cream cheese and whipped cream, they want to be kept chilled.
If you make, and love this recipe, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below. Thank you & happy baking! Make sure to tag me in your photos on Instagram , TikTok and Facebook! And if you want to pin this recipe for later, you can use the button on the recipe card, above or below this post, or on any of the photos. Happy baking all!
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Mini Lemon Cheesecakes
- Total Time: Overnight
- Yield: 6 – 8 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Mini Vegan Lemon Curd Cheesecakes are packed full of tart, zesty lemon flavour, decorated with a fun whip cream chick for easter, so fun!
Ingredients
Ingredients for the base
- 110g of Doves Farm Organic Oat Flour
- 30g of whole oats
- 1/2 teaspoon of Doves Farm Baking Powder
- 30g of caster sugar
- 50g of dairy-free butter ( + extra for making the buttery biscuit base, see step 7)
Ingredients for the lemon curd
- 3 tablespoons of corn flour + 2 tablespoons of water
- 100g of dairy-free butter/margarine
- 100g of caster sugar
- 170ml of lemon juice
- 3 small unwaxed lemons (zest)
- 100g of vegan condensed milk
- Pinch of turmeric (or drop of yellow food gel)
Ingredients for the cheesecake filling
- 125g of cashew nuts (soaked and drained, see step 1)
- 280g of vegan cream cheese
- 75g of icing sugar
- 50g of coconut cream (thick white cream from a can of coconut milk)
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Ingredients for the decoration
- 220ml of dairy-free whipping cream
- Food gels (yellow, orange and black)
Instructions
Method (base)
- Preheat oven to 180°C fan and line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
- Add the Doves Farm Organic Oat Flour, whole oats, baking powder, sugar and butter into a food processor and pulse until it’s well combined. It should come together and feel slightly tacky. You may want to add in a tiny splash of dairy-free milk to help it come together.
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured worktop until approximately 2-3mm thick.
- Use a small round cookie cutter to chomp out the shapes and place on the line tray. They don’t spread out much so you can place them close together.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the sides start turning a golden brown. They will feel slightly soft in the middle if you press them with your finger, thats fine, they’ll firm up as they cool and turn deliciously crisp.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool fully.
- Once cool, crumble the biscuits in a small bowl, melt a few tablespoons of butter and gradually add it into the biscuit crumbles. You want the texture to be like wet sand, it should stick together without feeling dry to the touch. This will make for an intact buttery biscuit base.
- Add 1 + ½ tablespoons of the base mixture into loose base mini cheesecake tins or cookie cup tin.
- Press down with the end of a flat spoon or utensil / clean hands to compact. The more compact, the less likely it will crumble when removed from the tin.
- Set aside while you make the lemon curd and filling.
Method (lemon curd)
- In a small bowl, add in the corn flour and water. Stir together into thick paste.
- Add the cornflour paste, dairy-free butter, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, condensed milk and a pinch of turmeric into a medium sized saucepan.
- Place the saucepan on the hob and heat over low to medium, stirring constantly, preferably with a whisk. After around 5-8 minutes the lemon curd will thicken. If the curd isn’t thickening, turn up the heat and constantly whisk.
- Pour curd into a heat proof jar or bowl, cover and place aside to cool down.
- You can either put it in the fridge or keep it at room temperature to cool. Before you use it, give it a good stir as it will thicken.
- Transfer into a piping bag for ease, or you can use add it to the cheesecakes using a spoon.
Method (cheesecake filling)
- The cashew nuts will need to be soaked overnight in water. Simply add them into a bowl, cover with water and set aside. Drain fully before use.
- Drain the cashew nuts from the water and place them into a food processor/blender along with the dairy-free cream cheese, icing sugar, coconut cream and vanilla. Whizz up on high speed for around 5 minutes until smooth. Add some more cream cheese if needed. It’s best to use a high-speed blender if possible as the mixture is quite thick, and you want it as smooth as possible. You might need to stop the mixture a few times and scrape down the sides to make sure everything is incorporated and smooth.
- Equally pour some of the mixture into each tin, swirling lemon curd throughout the layers. Repeat until all the cheesecakes are layered with lemon curd and cheesecake filling. Make sure to tap the cheesecakes onto the worktop to remove any air bubbles.
- Place into the fridge overnight to set.
- Once set, remove from the fridge, and push out the cheesecake (as the base is loose bottomed). To make it easier, place the tin into the freezer for 15-20 minutes to help firm up the cheesecakes, then slide a knife around the edges of the cheesecakes to help loosen them from the tin. Making the cheesecakes firmer will help push them out the tin and won’t damage them.
- Add a swirl / bulb of lemon curd to the top of each cheesecake, spread out.
Method (cream chick decoration)
- In a stand mixer with balloon whisk attachment or bowl with an electric hand whisk, whip up the whipping cream until thick.
- Transfer ¾ into a bowl and colour with yellow food gel. Transfer into a piping bag fitted with a medium round tip nozzle.
- With the remaining cream, colour half black and half orange. Transfer into separate piping bags and snip off the tips.
- Pipe bulbs of yellow cream in the ‘chick’ shape. Pipe on two black dots for the eyes and orange beak and feet.
- Serve and enjoy!
- Store in the fridge to keep firm, allow to fit at room temp for 5 minutes before enjoying.
- Prep Time: Overnight
- Category: Cheesecakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Any neutral cookie will work. Something like Graham crackers or sugar cookies.
Author
Yesss!! Happy baking x