These No-Bake Mini Cheesecakes are the perfect no-sweat, no-effort Easter dessert. They’re cute and easy pastel striped cheesecakes, with no baking required!
Easy Easter Cheesecakes
When it comes to popular Easter desserts, you probably usually think of things like carrot cake, fresh fruit tarts, and fun candies like peanut butter eggs and truffles.
Cheesecake probably isn’t the first thing that pops into your mind…until now. Once you make these adorable, easy Easter No-Bake Cheesecakes, you’ll want to make them an Easter tradition for your family year after year.
Since this recipe was first published in 2017, it has been liked, shared, and pinned hundreds of thousands of times, and gotten more rave reviews than any other Easter recipe on SugarHero. Readers love how beautiful and easy the cheesecakes are, and I’ve heard from many people that they have become a yearly spring staple at their family celebrations!
If you want more gorgeous spring desserts, don’t miss our Pastel Rainbow Gelatin Cups, Hydrangea Cakes, Easy Chocolate Flower Cupcakes, or Cherry Blossom Petit Fours!
Why You’ll Love These Easter Cheesecakes
There are so many reasons you’ll fall in love with these beautiful pastel-striped cheesecakes! Here are just a few of their charms:
- They’re easy – no baking required! (more on this below)
- They can be made in advance and kept in the freezer for over a week
- They’re a crowd pleaser – who doesn’t love cheesecake?
- They’re mini sized, so no need to mess around with slicing a whole cheesecake
- The pastel colors makes them perfect for Easter
- The light and fresh texture goes well with berries, whipped cream, etc
What’s a no-bake cheesecake?
Another reason to love this recipe? They are not your traditional cheesecakes! These no-bake babies have a soft and fluffy texture, closer to a cream cheese mousse than to the ultra-dense New York Style Cheesecake.
A traditional cheesecake can feel indulgent, yes, but also very heavy. These are a gateway cheesecake, perfect for convincing cheesecake skeptics and for delighting long-time cheesecake lovers alike.
No-bake cheesecakes contain a lot of cream cheese, which gives them that signature tangy cheesecake flavor. But instead of adding eggs and baking the cheesecake, this recipe uses gelatin to provide stability and body, and whips heavy cream into the cream cheese mixture to lighten the texture. If cheesecakes typically feel too dense or heavy for you, a no-bake cheesecake might be the perfect recipe for you!
🧾 What You’ll Need
Ingredients
Here’s a summary of what you’ll need to make these mini cheesecakes. You can find more detailed information in the recipe card down below. (Links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)
- Shortbread cookies: the crust is made from buttery shortbread cookies. You can also use graham crackers or another type of cookie, but you may need to adjust the amount of melted butter in the crust to account for different crumb textures.
- Unflavored gelatin: Gelatin gives the cheesecakes stability and helps them keep their shape at room temperature. If you don’t want to use gelatin, you can assemble and serve the cheesecakes in glasses or parfait cups. See the FAQ below for more information and alternatives.
- Cream cheese: Use full-fat bricks of cream cheese–do not use “lite” or fat-free cream cheese, and don’t use the whipped variety in tubs. Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature before beginning.
- Granulated sugar: The granulated sugar adds just enough sweetness to balance out the tangy cream cheese. And no worries about grittiness–it dissolves perfectly so there’s no grainy texture.
- Heavy cream: You can use either heavy cream or whipping cream in this recipe. The recipe also lists “whipped cream,” which is optional and used for decorating.
- Vanilla bean paste: I love vanilla bean paste for its bold vanilla flavor, but you can substitute vanilla extract, or another flavored extract like lemon, orange, almond, or coconut.
Equipment
- Silicone muffin pan: The #1 piece of equipment you’ll want is this silicone jumbo muffin pan. A silicone pan is a must for easily unmolding the cheesecakes, and this pan makes perfect individually sized desserts. It also has straight sides, which look really nice, and the soft silicone is easy to work with.
- Tart tamper: If you often make cheesecakes, tarts, or graham crusts, you’ll also want to pick up a tart tamper. They’re cheap and will give you perfectly even crusts, every time!
📋 How to Make Easter No-Bake Cheesecakes
The keyword with this recipe is SIMPLE. It’s made with just 1 batch of cheesecake tinted 4 different colors, layered on top of each other, one after the other, no chilling required in between. Score! Here’s a quick summary of how everything comes together:
Procedure
- Make a quick crust from crushed shortbread cookies and melted butter, and press it into the silicone muffin pan
- Combine unflavored gelatin and cold water, and mix them together. Let it sit for a few minutes so the gelatin absorbs the water.
- Mix the cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, flavorings, and cream until nice and smoooooth.
- Warm up the gelatin until it is liquid, then mix it into the cream cheese mixture.
- Divide the cream cheese into 4 parts, and color each one a different color.
- Layer the colors on top of each other on the crust.
- Freeze the cheesecakes until very firm.
- Pop them out of the pan, and decorate! The final touch is a swirl of whipped cream, a pinch of Easter sprinkles, and a candy egg or two (or three).
💡 FAQs and Troubleshooting
Here are the most common questions we get about this recipe. If you have questions or are having trouble with the cheesecakes, take a look and see if this answers your question. If not, you’re welcome to leave a comment below so we can help troubleshoot!
These Easter No-Bake Cheesecakes are such a beautiful spring dessert, and are sure to be the hit of your Easter table. If you like these, you’ll also love some of our other Easter desserts, like these adorable Spring Chick and Easter Basket cupcakes, delicious Peanut Butter Easter Eggs, and fun Bunny Cake.
💜More Pastel Easter Recipes
Frosted Easter Brownies
New York Style Cheesecake
Leave a Review!
If you make this recipe, let us know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the recipe below, and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram @elabau, or use #sugarhero on IG!
Easter No-Bake Mini Cheesecakes
Ingredients
- 6 oz shortbread cookies, approx. 12 round cookies
- ½ oz unsalted butter, melted
- 1 packet unflavored powdered gelatin, 1/4 oz, or 2.5 tsp, see Note below
- 2 TBSP cold water
- 1 lb cream cheese, full-fat, at room temperature
- 3.5 oz granulated sugar, ½ cup
- ½ tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, can substitute vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- 1 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
- Gel food coloring, 4 colors recommended, I use Americolor brand
- ½ cup whipped cream, to decorate
- Candy eggs, to decorate
- Sprinkles, to decorate
Instructions
- Place a jumbo silicone muffin pan on a baking sheet. Blitz the shortbread cookies in a food processor until they’re fine crumbs, or crush them in a plastic bag with a rolling pin until they’re finely crumbled. Mix them in a bowl with the melted butter.
- Divide the shortbread crumbs between the 6 cavities in the muffin pan, and press them firmly into the bottom of the pan to form your cheesecake crust.
- Place the cold water in a small bowl, and sprinkle the gelatin on top. Whisk them together, then let the bowl sit for 5 minutes so the gelatin can hydrate and absorb the water. Once it feels very firm, microwave it for 10-15 seconds, until fully melted and liquid.
- Put the cream cheese in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and beat it until it is smooth, creamy, and free of lumps. (A hand mixer can also be used.) Add the sugar, lemon juice, vanilla bean paste, and salt, and mix well, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl occasionally.
- With the mixer running on low speed, gradually add the heavy cream, mixing until everything is smooth and well-combined. Finally, add the liquid gelatin and mix it in. Finish mixing by hand, scraping the sides and bottom well.
- Divide the cheesecake into 4 portions (each should be about 7 oz, if you want to measure them out.) Stir a drop of gel food coloring into each one and mixing until the color is smooth and uniform.
- Take your first color and divide it between the 6 cavities—I found it was fastest and easiest to use a cookie scoop, but you could use a regular spoon, or even pipe the cheesecake in if you want to be really precise. Spread it into a smooth layer with the back of a spoon, then add a second color on top of the first.
- Continue to layer the cheesecake colors until all 4 of them have been added to the pan. It's important to work fairly quickly during this step, so the cheesecake colors don't start to set too much and become difficult to spread.
- Smooth the tops of the cheesecakes, then place them in the freezer for at least 2 hours to firm up. (The exact time will depend on the temperature of your freezer.) They should feel very solid to the touch before you try to unmold them.
- To unmold, press from the bottom of one of the cavities and turn it upside-down, pushing the cheesecake out into your hand. Let them sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to defrost before serving. They can also be refrigerated for several days after being unmolded, if you want to make them in advance.
- To decorate, top each cheesecake with a swirl of whipped cream, a pinch of sprinkles, and a few candy eggs.
- Store the cheesecakes, well-wrapped, for up to 4-5 days in the refrigerator. Serve chilled but not frozen.
Video
Recipe Notes
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
Nutrition
I would like to make this a baked cheesecake for more stability. I have made it as a no bake in the past. Would you recommend just adding eggs or also changing the amount of heavy cream and adding sour cream for a thicker cheesecake?
Hi Megan, I’ve never tried converting this cheesecake into a baked cheesecake, but my guess is that you would have more success working from a recipe that is intended to be baked. I have a New York Cheesecake recipe that I think would work well. I don’t think you’ll get the same clean layering effect with a baked cheesecake (since the layers won’t sit nicely on top of each other) but you’ll probably end up with a swirled/zebra effect which is pretty in a different way. 🙂 Linking the NY cheesecake here if you want to give it a try:
https://www.sugarhero.com/new-york-style-cheesecake/
Do you spray your silicone pan with Pam? Because I’m the video I don’t see anything at the bottom of the silicone pan. But I see statements made in a few comments about parchment paper on the bottom of the pan. Thank you. They look delicious
Hi Amy, If you use silicone pans, you don’t need to spray them with anything. Some people opt to use a regular muffin pan instead, in which case I do recommend parchment or muffin liners so they pop out easily. Hope this helps, and please let me know how they turn out for you!
This recipe looks adorable! But my question is could I use Graham cracker crumbs instead of the cookies and if so what amount would I use?
Please and thank you in advance!
Hi Ashley. You can definitely use graham cracker crumbs. I’d start with 6 oz of graham cracker crumbs and 1/2 oz melted butter. Mix part of the butter in and then check to see what you think of the texture. After mixing well, it should be the texture of wet sand and hold together a bit when you squeeze it between your fingers. If it still feels dry, stir in the reserved butter. You could also follow the directions in my Graham Cracker Crust. It has a little sugar and salt in the crust to give it a bit more flavor. I hope that helps. All the best.
Hi ,
I only have 4 inch round silicone molds. 4 inch wide by 2.20 inch deep. I have 6 and want to make all six. Would I need to double, triple or quadruple the recipe? Thank you in advance!
Hi. I’m sorry I didn’t get to your message before Easter but hopefully this will be helpful if you ever want to make the recipe again. A jumbo muffin tin holds approximately 8.2 fl oz x 6 muffin cups = 49.2 oz (original recipe). If I’ve done my math correctly, your silicone molds hold approximately 15.3 fl oz x 6 molds = 91.8 fl oz. If you double the original recipe you’d need 98.4 fl oz. Doubling it would be a little short for your 6 molds. You might go 2.5x the original recipe. You’d have a little extra left over but your molds would be nice and full. I hope that helps. All the best.
Did not meet expectation. I am noticing that many of the reviews are from people who did not make it. The measurements are off
Hi Lena, I’m sorry to hear you had a disappointing experience. It would be very helpful if you could clarify what went wrong or what measurements you think are off. (Weight vs volume measurements sometimes throw off people who are not used to using a kitchen scale.) In looking at the recipe I don’t believe the measurements are incorrect, but of course I’d love to fix anything that is confusing, and more details would be helpful in troubleshooting.