Emelia Jackson’s no-bake cheesecake is a certified crowd-pleaser – and simpler than you think

She was the MasterChef contestant who conquered choux, but Emelia Jackson jokes that her baking is now “devolving”.

While Jackson remains a stickler for the details (she is currently deep in the weeds with the fickle Genoise sponge), her third cookbook, You Had Me at Cake, prioritises the staples over the complex, while still including more ambitious bakes for the superfans.

“It was challenging to rein myself in and create a book that would appeal to everyone,” she says of the process. The result is a pivot towards the classics –think cafe-worthy banana cake and a simple apple cake – refined with a technical rigour that makes them foolproof for the novice baker.

Case in point: the no-bake cheesecake recipe she shares below, which swaps temperamental gelatine for molten white chocolate to create a luscious mouthfeel with no risk of lumps. Then there are the mini lemon thyme polenta cakes – a zesty, slightly textured twist on the classic pound cake elevated by a hit of fresh botanicals.

Back home in Melbourne after a week-long book-signing tour to Newcastle and Sydney, Jackson has given herself a “day off”. Well, that’s how she describes a day in the kitchen, batch-cooking meals to stock the freezer while she works on book number four: a step-by-step baking manual that she promises will finally include some savoury bakes.

Until then, these two crowd-pleasers are the perfect place to start your own baking deep-dive.

– Roslyn Grundy

Strawberry passionfruit cheesecake

The base of this cake is a no-bake cheesecake, which I love for a number of reasons.

1. The addition of white chocolate guarantees you get a beautiful set.
2. You can lighten it by stirring whipped cream through the batter before setting, giving a little aeration, a little lift, and a beautiful, lighter mouthfeel.

I’ve served this with passionfruit and strawberries for a beautiful summer vibe, but in autumn, try it with slow-roasted quinces, fresh figs or bruleed mandarin slices.

INGREDIENTS

2 × 250g punnets strawberries, quartered, to serve

Base

• 150g gingernut biscuits (or your favourite)
• 80g unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake filling

• 500g cream cheese, at room temperature
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• 300g white chocolate, melted
  and cooled
• 500ml thickened cream, cold
• 3-4 passionfruit

METHOD

1. Line the base of a 20cm spring-form cake tin with baking paper.
2. For the base, using a food processor (or a rolling pin), crush the biscuits into fine crumbs. Mix with the melted butter until combined, then press firmly into the base of the tin. Chill in the fridge while you make the filling.
3. Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest until smooth. Add the melted and cooled white chocolate and mix until smooth and well combined.

Makes 1 x 20cm cake

Mini lemon thyme polenta cakes

These little cakes are a riff on the classic pound cake – a pound of this, a pound of that – which is why you’ll find very rounded amounts in the ingredients list. I’ve used lemon thyme to flavour these beauties, but rosemary would be a great substitute (or you could omit the herbs altogether if that’s not your jam).

INGREDIENTS

• oil spray, for greasing
• 250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 200g caster sugar
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 150g polenta
• 190g plain flour
• 2½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp lemon thyme leaves, picked
• grated zest of 2 lemons
• lemon thyme flowers, to garnish
• rind of 1 lemon, peeled into thin strips, to garnish

Lemon glaze

• 150g icing sugar
• juice of 1 lemon

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180C fan-forced (200C conventional). Spray an 8-cavity round 5.5cm silicone mould with oil.
2. Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and caster sugar for 3-4 minutes or until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly between each addition.
3. Add the polenta, plain flour and baking powder and mix until just combined before adding in the lemon thyme and lemon zest and mixing to combine.
4. Pour the batter into the moulds, filling them three-quarters full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the cakes are lightly golden brown and spring back when pressed lightly.
5. Allow the cakes to cool in their moulds for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
6. For the lemon glaze, place the icing sugar in a mixing bowl and add just enough lemon juice to create a thick glaze; you want roughly the same consistency as thickened cream.
7. Place a tablespoon of the glaze over the top of each cake and let it run slowly down the sides before topping with lemon thyme flowers and a twist of peel to garnish.
8. Let the cakes sit for 30 minutes to allow the glaze to crystallise before serving.

Makes 18

This is an edited extract from You Had Me at Cake by Emelia Jackson. Published by Murdoch Books. Photographs by Armelle Habib. RRP $39.99.