Annie, you said it yourself...it's simply a "no bake" cheesecake. Lots of recipes for them. Or, just call it "chocolate cream cheese delight." Purists schmurists. ;-)

I'd rather call it an elegant Mousse. Sounds delicious and will have to concoct my own since my mouth is watering from your photo. Elery is right in that cheesecake is dense and contains baked cream cheese. The texture is different. Lovely though.

IMO there are two kinds of cheesecake -- TRUE cheesecake and no-bake cheesecake. Both are good but they are different.

I make a classic baked cheesecake. And we love it. I usually top it with fruit and whipping cream rosettes. My late mil, who wasn’t much of a cook insisted it wasn’t a cheesecake, but a pound cake. She made her cheesecake from a no bake box. She stuck by it that I didn’t know what I was talking about.

No bake cheesecakes are more the norm here. DH doesn't care for baked cheesecakes.

Not mousse because mousses do not contain cream cheese and are much, much lighter.

I would note that antique English recipes exist which are called "cheesecakes" but which actually contain no cheese, so clearly the definition has changed.

louise, your MIL is seriously weird if she thought a cheesecake was a pound cake. Not even in the same ballpark. :-)

It's not a cheese cake it's a mousse......
Remember what Shakespear said..."A rose by anyother name....etc..."

I knew I'd get opinions here. (grin) I always thought both types were cheesecake, much like molten lava cake, pineapple upside down cake and Texas sheet cake are all cakes, although much different.

Nancy, it did have a nice, fluffy and soft texture, a lot like mousse. I'm not a fan of baked cheesecake, but this one was pretty good. I had ONE bite, then made sure the Princess took all leftovers home with her. No temptation to go off the "diet" that way, you know...

I really had trouble sending the lemon bars home with Amanda, though. Although gluten free they are really good and it hurt to say goodbye to them, LOL.

Annie

I haven't made a cheesecake in years, but when I did, it was a fabulous baked cheesecake. A good one is incomparable.

I agree.....and I make one fairly often....well often consider how often I make a dessert. It's such an easy dessert and so simple to vary with toppings or by stirring stuff through it

Elery is right - it's not a cheesecake. When you mix cream cheese with confectioners sugar and don't bake it it's called frosting! :0)

IMO, unbaked cheesecakes, especially those made with gelatin or a can of sweetened condensed milk, aren't worth eating. :p

I agree with those that call it a "no bake cheesecake". Or you could call it a cream cheese pie.

Whatever you want to call it, it looks delicious.

I think I would have skipped the chocolate ganache/ melted chips & sprinkled the top with chopped pecans.

Just a thought. My fecipe, which I have used for 30 years, “only” has 1 lb of cream cheese andhas 1 cup of sour cream. A friend asked me for the recipe and now her son asks for that for his birthday cake. The other thing I like is that it’s pretty no fail. I have made it I anywhere in a 9 inch to a 12 inch pan and it turned out great. The only problem I’ve had it that it always cracks a bit, even though I put a pan of water in the oven. No biggie s though, I usually put a topping on it

LOL Ann! I keep my dog's pill bottles in the kitchen too! I always love your photos - they are real, and very much like mine!

Being a self-described custard snob and all around dessert lover, I'd call it a cheesecake because there are no-bake cheesecakes. ...And because Makayla made it, and she's a sweet-heart.

I do prefer baked cheesecakes, though : )

However, I think Ricky is being very self-centered (said with a grin!)... send me a piece too, and that way the judging can be fair.

Would have had a tough time letting those lemon bars go, too!

Dictionary.com defines cheesecake thusly:

a kind of rich dessert cake made with cream and soft cheese on a graham cracker, cookie, or pastry crust, typically topped with a fruit sauce.

Nothing about baking there. However, Merriam-Webster says:

a dessert consisting of a creamy filling usually containing cheese baked in a pastry or pressed-crumb shell

And... from Urban Dictionary, we have:

Cheesecake is a dessert consisting of a topping made of soft, fresh cheese (not always cream cheese), usually on a crust or base made from hard biscuits (such as a graham cracker crust), pastry or sponge cake.1 It may be baked or unbaked. Cheesecake is usually sweetened with sugar and may be flavored or topped with fruit, nuts, fruit sauce and/or chocolate. Various flavours of cheesecake exist, such as lemon, strawberry or toffee.

So... I guess there is really no definitive answer. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And while I'm quoting platitudes, if Elery ate it and enjoyed it then to him I say, "Beggars can't be choosers!" LOL

lowspark/May, I had to grin at "platitudes". Unfortunately, though, I can't use it on Elery because he didn't eat it. We're both doing this Weight Watchers thing and so no dessert for either of us, all leftovers went home with other people...

You did make me turn to the ultimate authority, though, my copy of "Larousse Gastronomique", who defines cheesecake as:

"A cake made from soft cheese. Creamy and dense, baked cheesecake consists of a base made from flour, butter and sugar. This is covered with a mixture of soft cheese, eggs and sugar, with lemon zest and/or dried fruit. The cheesecake is baked, cooled and served lightly chilled. There are many examples of baked cheesecakes from Scandinavia, Russia, Europe and the USA. Eastern European countries, in particular, make traditional rich baked cheesecakes.

Traditional chilled cheesecakes include pashka, a moulded cheese mixture prepared for Easter and Italian ricotta desserts. Chilled set cheesecakes on a biscuit base are the modern version: they may be rich and dense, or light. They are often served with fresh fruit or a fruit coulis."

So now I have to try Pashka, because I've never had that!

Annie

I never saw a the firmer baked cheesecakes until I saw the commercial ones, somewhere around 2001. Are they newer, or were they around the whole time? I much prefer the softer, creamier ones to the firm ones, but they are both great.

What was cheesecake like last millenium for you?

shule, my husband Elery worked in an Italian grocery when he was a teenager, and that's when he found out about baked cheesecake. He's 66, so at least 50 years ago.

I never even had cheesecake until I was an adult, and then my experience was with the soft/creamy/chilled type. Elery will eat either of them, but he really likes the baked ones, heavy and dense.

Annie

Shule, regarding firm vs creamy, I think typically NY cheesecakes are meant to be firm, while most others creamy after baking.

When I've eaten cheesecakes in restaurants, they tend to be baked firmer (whether by the restaurant's chef or ordered frozen and thawed to serve) and perhaps this is so when they are served or thawed, they hold shape easier to be plated. Still, I prefer mine creamy.

I suppose for me it's like very good chocolate, best when eaten at room temp for fullest flavor. Plain, no-extra toppings cheesecake seems to have more flavor to me when it's creamy... and the flavor increases if it's served barely cool. But that's just me : )

AnnieB., cheesecake (baked or unbaked) unleashed the power of 'yes' in me, the day I set foot in the U.S.

Prior to that, the concept of adding 'cheese' to a cake was as off-putting as zucchini or carrots.

Reckless . . . or so I thought.

Nice work, princess M.

Sol

That looks wonderful no matter what you want to call it! Now tell Elery to make the Instant Pot cheesecake #17 to show her a "baked" one. (Tell him to leave out the flour that it calls for. I could taste it.)

So, how do you make the creamy, light, fluffy cheesecakes anyway?

Peppi, I'll tell him, but as I mentioned, we're currently "doing" Weight Watchers and Elery LOVES cheesecake. Me, not so much, so he'd have to eat it all, LOL, and he's been so careful. So, probably not going to bake a cheesecake in the very near future. (grin)

Sol, the Welcome Wagon was waiting? "Welcome to America, have some cheesecake". Now that's a Welcome Wagon!!!

Annie

Shule, you separate the eggs and whip the whites. In one version (the one I grew up with) you fold the whipped egg whites into the cheese batter and spoon it on a par-baked or non-baked bottom crust. In the other version you fold the whipped egg whites into a batter that contains not only the cheese but also the flour.

In other words, in one version you fold the whipped whites into the cheese filling, and in the other you fold it into the batter of the entire cake. In the second version there is no crust whatever.