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This lemon cheesecake is smooth and creamy with a crunchy graham cracker crust and delicious lemon flavor. Then it’s topped with raspberry sauce for the perfect flavor combo.
Lemon is always so light and refreshing, and this cheesecake is just that! If you enjoy this recipe, you’ll like a simple frozen version—lemon icebox pie.
Best Lemon Cheesecake
Hi there! It’s Fiona from Just So Tasty and today I’m stopping in to share this lemon cheesecake with raspberry sauce. It’s smooth and creamy with a delicious lemon flavor and a crunchy graham cracker crust.
It’s one of the best cheesecake recipes I’ve ever tried, so I’m really excited to share the recipe with you.
Now, it’s no secret that I love cheesecake. I’ve shared my favorite no bake cheesecake and chocolate cheesecake recipes here on Lil Luna already – but I wanted to make a cheesecake that’s perfect for spring. And that’s exactly where the idea for this lemon cheesecake recipe came from.
The lemon flavor is bright and sunshine-y without being too tart. I find that the lemon flavor really offsets the richness of the cheesecake. Then the raspberry sauce is the perfect topping. It’s sweet, juicy, and bursting with berry goodness.
Cheesecake tips
Making cheesecake at home is actually a lot easier than you might think. But I’m including lots of tips to help you out 🙂
For this recipe, we’re using lemon zest and lemon juice for the delicious lemon flavor. I used 1.5 tablespoons of lemon zest and 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice – but if you prefer a stronger lemon flavor, you could use up to 1/3 cup lemon juice.
You’ll likely need 2-3 lemons, depending on the size. I don’t recommend using lemon juice from a bottle however, because it can make your cheesecake too tart.
This lemon cheesecake recipe is baked using a water bath. This creates a steamy environment which helps make the cheesecake extra smooth and creamy without trying out while it bakes. Here’s how you make the water bath:
- Wrap the outside of the springform pan in aluminium foil so that the bottom and sides are covered. You’ll do this before making the cheesecake crust. You can see above in the photo of the crust how I’ve wrapped the pan in aluminium foil.
- Before baking – place the cheesecake pan in a larger pan – such as a large roasting pan.
- Then pour about 1/2 to 1 inch of boiling water into the roasting pan.
- Place the whole thing in the oven to bake.
The cheesecake will take about 50-60 minutes to bake and still have a little wobble in the middle when you take it out of the oven, but the top shouldn’t look shiny anymore.
raspberry sauce for Cheesecake
We’re serving the lemon cheesecake with a raspberry sauce. You can use either fresh or frozen berries for this recipe. The berries get boiled in a saucepan over low-medium heat along with water, a little sugar, cornstarch and lemon zest.
If you want to remove the seeds, place the fresh or frozen raspberries in a fine-mesh sieve. Mash the fruit with the back of a spoon to remove all the juice from the fruit.
I would suggest making the sauce ahead of time so that it will be chilled by the time the cheesecake is ready to serve. You should allow the cheesecake to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving. Pour the sauce on directly after this period has passed.
Serving and storing
You can garnish your cheesecake with a few extra things besides the raspberry sauce if you like! I opted for whipped cream, fresh raspberries, lemon zest, and little lemon slices.
To get a clean cut as you slice your cheesecake, you can use cheese wire, dental floss, or a heated knife.
Before storing it, you must allow it to cool completely. If the cheesecake is even slightly warm it will turn soggy and form condensation.
If you want to freeze cheesecake, place it on a baking pan and freeze it until firm. Then remove it from the freezer and wrap it in foil and put it in a ziploc bag before putting it back in the freezer.
To thaw a frozen cheesecake whole, leave it wrapped in the fridge overnight. If you’re doing individual slices you can use the defrost button on the microwave.
For more cheesecake recipes, check out:
- Chocolate Cheesecake
- No Bake Cheesecake
- Mini Cherry Cheesecake Cookie Cups
- Strawberry Nutella Cheesecake
- Turtle Cheesecake
- White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
- Banana Pudding Cheesecake
Lemon Cheesecake recipe
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
- 1 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs (requires about 8-12 crackers)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
Lemon Cheesecake
- 24 oz cream cheese
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 1/3 cup lemon juice , freshly squeezed
- 1/3 cup sour cream
Raspberry Sauce
- 8 oz raspberries , fresh or frozen
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest , optional
Instructions
Make the Cheesecake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Wrap the outside of a 9-inch springform pan with aluminium foil, ensuring that the bottom and sides are covered tightly. Lightly grease the inside with non-stick cooking spray.
- To make the crust mix together the graham crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Then press into the bottom of the pan and place in the freezer.
- In a large bowl beat together the cream cheese and sugar until very soft.
- Then beat the eggs in one at a time. Then mix in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and sour cream with the mixer on low.
- Remove the crust from the freezer and place inside a large roasting pan. Pour the cheesecake batter into the springform pan on top of the crust. Then pour about 1/2 inch of water into the roasting pan.
- Place the whole thing in the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes or until the top is no longer shiny and there's a little wobble in the center of the cheesecake.
- Cool at room temperature for 30 minutes, then cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Raspberry Sauce
- In a small saucepan combine all the ingredients. Heat over medium-low heat while stirring.
- Allow to gently boil while stirring for 5-10 minutes as it begins to thicken. (If using frozen berries this may take longer).
- Optionally decorate the cheesecake with whipped cream, lemon slices, and lemon zest and serve with raspberry sauce.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This Cheesecake is super Moist and very Lemony. It is my favorite!
It’s one of my favorites, too! Thank you for sharing what you thought!
This recipe was fantastic. I like a good pucker from the lemon, so I honestly didn’t measure that and probably use more than Most people would. I added THE zest and juice from 3 lemons and it was delicious! It was also BEAUTIFUL-no cracks and a perfect CREAMy texture!
Sounds perfect!! Glad you liked it! Thank you for sharing what you did 🙂
Turned OUT beautifully. I cooked mine in a 8×2 inch baking pan sitting in a 10 inch pan. The cheesecake came out amazing and was beautifully tall and browned on top. First and best cheesecake i have ever made
Yay!! Thank you for trying it!!
This was my first time making a flavored cheesecake. I usually make plain. I Really like lemon, so i thought this would be good. Its not terrible, but it needs some tweaking. Its just too tart. I did drizzle with whitE chocolate and it Balanced the tartness. Next time i plan to use 1 tbsp of lemon zest and 2 tbsp of lemon juice. The rAspberry sauce is perfect.
Thank you for giving it a try 🙂
1. Can I use premade crust for this recipe? If so, is a water bath still optimal?
2. Can I use a heavy 2” high skillet for water bath?
3. Can I bake at 325 for 65-70 minutes? Lower temp to reduce chance of cake cracking?
You still need the water bath. That helps with the cheesecake part of it. It helps make it creamy. Yes, you should be able to use the 2 in skillet. I haven’t tried making it at a lower temp, so that part, I’m not sure. I would think it would be ok 🙂
Thanks very much! I cooked at 350 and in a water bath. Success- No cracks! Hoping it tastes as good as it looks ????
Yay!! I am so glad to hear that! Thank you for letting me know!
I was curious why the graham cracker crust is frozen instead of pre-baking the crust and cooling prior to filling with the cream cheese filling.
Thanks!
This is not my recipe, but I am sure you could do it that way. With graham cracker crusts, you don’t have to bake it, but you for sure could. Hope that helps 🙂
I am not a fan of cheesecake and for awhile I would not eat cheesecake until I had Cheesecake Factory’s Mango and Key Lime Cheesecake. Usually when I eat cheesecake I have to drown it in graham cracker crumbs because of the texture. I tend to like my foods more on the solid side. Even though one of the reasons why I like the Mango and Key Lime was because of the texture but I discovered that I didn’t have to have all those textures as long as my cheesecake wasn’t sweet. So Lemon and Raspberry sounds delicious to me. I may even add those few more lemons to make mine a little more tart. I’m going to have to keep this recipe in mind. I might have to pin this or bookmark it somewhere for future reference.
I would love to know what you think of it, if you try it 🙂 The more graham crackers, the better!
Oh, I’ll definitely let you know! I’m going to try to keep a list of recipes to try later. I want to try some of them maybe sometime during the holidays! I know that’s a long ways from now. lol. But after I try it, I’ll definitely write back to let you know how it worked out! I’m going to be looking at more of your recipes so it won’t be hard for me to remember where to get the recipe. Anyway, have a nice day Kristyn and Happy cooking! 🙂
Thanks so much!! I am glad you will 🙂 Happy Cooking to you!
Hi, thanks for resending the recipe again. Hope you get this reply as the ads keep covering up the part that I am supposed to reply on. Don’t know why it seems everytime I try to print out a recipe from an outstanding recipe that I see on my laptop the ads take over. They should all be expunged.
Thanks again for resending it to me, can’t wait to try it, it looks so good.
You are so welcome! Let me know what you think!
This looks so amazing! Totally adding this to my list of things to try (as soon as possible!)
Thank you! Let me know what you think 🙂
Can this be pinned?
From the post, yes you can. You should be able to, when you are over a picture or the recipe box. Hope that helps!