Love crunchy ginger biscuits and zesty orange? Then you’ll love this gingerbread orange no-bake cheesecake! This simple no-bake cheesecake has a buttery ginger cookie base and a smooth orange cheesecake filling.
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✏️ Recipe creation
I wanted to make an easy cheesecake that was delicious both as a holiday dessert and perfect for any celebration or dinner party. This tasty festive cheesecake is simple to make, and you can make it days in advance.
This gingerbread orange cheesecake has a beautiful gingersnap cookie crust that is full of flavour and beautifully buttery. The cheesecake filling has both orange and vanilla flavours to add a nice smooth and zesty taste.
You can also add fresh orange zest for an extra kick – it really brings out the slightly tangy taste of the cream cheese!
Around Christmas and the holidays, I also love to decorate this cheesecake with little gingerbread men and fluffy swirls of whipped cream.
🥘 Ingredients
This ginger orange cheesecake recipe calls for the following ingredients:
1. Base:
- Ginger cookies: e.g. gingersnap or gingernut cookies / biscuits
- Butter: use unsalted for a low-salt and sweeter base.
2. Cheesecake Filling:
- Cream cheese: must be full-fat cream cheese (I like Philadelphia for its low water content too). Use room temperature for ease of mixing.
- Powdered icing sugar: sieve your confectioners’ sugar for a smooth filling.
- Orange extract
- Vanilla extract: use extract over essence for a purer flavour.
- Orange zest (optional): finely grated for the best texture.
- Heavy cream (e.g. double cream): use cold cream straight from the fridge for whipping success.
See the recipe card for quantities.
Top tip: For accuracy, it’s best to weigh your ingredients rather than using cups.
♻️ Substitutions / Variations
I love making this gingerbread orange cheesecake for a Christmas day dessert, but it’s also great year-round! The crust is made of ginger cookies such as ginger snaps or ginger nuts, which you can buy at most grocery stores any time of year. During the holidays, you can also swap the ginger cookies for gingerbread in the crust. It’s a great way to use up leftover gingerbread!
Instead of ginger cookies, you can use graham crackers or digestive biscuits for the cheesecake base. You can also add ⅛ teaspoon of ground ginger to keep the ginger flavour though.
You can swap the powdered confectioners’ sugar for finely granulated white sugar (e.g. caster sugar).
If you don't have orange zest, you can exclude this but it's much tastier with it!
To make your gingerbread orange cheesecake gluten-free, you can swap the ginger cookies or gingerbread in the base for a gluten-free variety of your choice.
📖 Method
Base
- Place the cookies into a food processor or blender and whizz until you get small crumbs. Or you can put the cookies in a freezer bag and bash them till you get crumbs. Tip these into a mixing bowl.
- Melt the butter in a microwave and pour this over the crushed cookies. Mix these together until combined.
- Press the mix into a lined tin (see tips), using the back of a spoon or measuring cup to help firmly press down. Put this in the fridge or freezer while making the cheesecake filling.
Cheesecake filling
- In a bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth and fluffy, then sieve in the icing sugar and add the vanilla, orange extract and the orange zest, stirring until just smooth.
- Whip the cream for several minutes, using an electric mixer or stand mixer, until it forms soft peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mix until just combined.
- Spread the filling evenly over the biscuit base, then cover the tin with cling film and refrigerate for at least 2hrs or overnight. After this has set and is firm to touch, you can decorate your cheesecake then enjoy!
💭 Top tips
- Using a springform tin (or loose-bottom tin) is easier to get your cheesecake out after.
- Check out these springform pan lining tips to see how best to line your cheesecake tin.
- Instead of a food processor, you can crush your ginger cookies by placing them into a plastic food bag and bashing them with a rolling pin.
- To help your cheesecake set, whip cold cream to soft peaks and fold it into your orange cheesecake filling mixture gently.
- To help prevent a soggy base, check whether your ginger cookie base layer is completely cool before you add the cheesecake filling. If not, pop it back into the fridge or freezer for another 10mins until it’s cold.
- Where possible, make your ginger orange cheesecake the day before serving. This way you can let the cheesecake set overnight to be sure it’s nice and firm.
- I like to take my no-bake cheesecake out of the fridge roughly 30mins before serving, bringing it to room temperature. This helps to give you a soft but still crisp base and really gives your gingerbread cheesecake that melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- For Christmas, I like to decorate my festive cheesecake with gingerbread men (store-bought or homemade). Outside the holidays, I like to decorate my ginger orange no-bake cheesecake with mandarin slices or whipped cream and crumbled ginger cookies.
❔ Recipe FAQs
Your ginger orange no-bake cheesecake should last for up 4 days stored in an airtight container or wrapped in cling film. Keep in the fridge.
Yes! You can freeze your gingerbread orange cheesecake wrapped in two layers of cling film and a layer of foil for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge and enjoy!
Yes, you can use a 9-inch pan instead of the 8-inch pan this recipe uses. Your layers will be thinner but still tasty. Alternatively, scale up by ¼ for a larger cheesecake.
🧁 Other goodies
Love a festive cheesecake? Check out these tasty Christmas cheesecake ideas:
- White chocolate orange no-bake cheesecake
- Zesty chocolate orange no-bake cheesecake
- Bailey’s Irish cream chocolate no-bake cheesecake
- White mocha baked cheesecake
For more festive sweet treats, take a look at my boozy spiced orange rum brownie cookies – delicious fresh from the oven or great as a gift!
If you're after easy no-bake festive desserts, check out this list of the 80+ best no-bake Christmas dessert recipes!
Other Related Recipes:
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📋 Recipe
Gingerbread Orange No-Bake Cheesecake
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Ingredients
Base:
- 1 ¾ cups (200 g) ginger biscuits / cookies (e.g. ginger nuts, ginger snaps)
- ⅓ cups (75 g) unsalted butter
Cheesecake Filling:
- 2 ¼ cups (500 g) full-fat cream cheese
- 1 cups (120 g) powdered icing sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoon orange extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 orange’s zest
- 1 ¼ cups (300 ml) heavy cream (e.g. double cream)
- gingerbread men (optional, to decorate)
Instructions
Base:
- Place the cookies into a food processor or blender and whizz until you get small crumbs. Or you can put the cookies in a freezer bag and bash them till you get crumbs. Tip these into a mixing bowl.
- Melt the butter in a microwave and pour this over the crushed cookies. Mix these together until combined.
- Press the mix into a lined tin (see tips), using the back of a spoon or measuring cup to help firmly press down. Put this in the fridge or freezer while making the cheesecake filling.
Cheesecake Filling:
- In a bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth and fluffy, then sieve in the icing sugar and add the vanilla, orange extract and the orange zest, stirring until just smooth.
- Whip the cream for several minutes, using an electric mixer or stand mixer, until it forms soft peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mix until just combined.
- Spread the filling evenly over the biscuit base, then cover the tin with cling film and refrigerate for at least 2hrs or overnight. After this has set and is firm to touch, you can decorate your cheesecake then enjoy!
Notes
- Use full-fat cream cheese and let it come to room temperature before use.
- Use cold heavy cream so it whips easier.
- Decorate your ginger orange cheesecake with swirls of whipped cream and gingerbread men.
- You can swap the ginger cookies for graham crackers or digestive biscuits for your cheesecake base. You can also add ⅛ teaspoon of ground ginger to keep the ginger flavour though.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate based on an online nutritional calculator, actual values may vary.
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