Classic Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce
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Only a few things in life are as good as this silky Classic Cheesecake. Smooth, creamy and topped with a tangy raspberry sauce! A showstopper that is guaranteed to become your new favorite cheesecake recipe.
The only cheesecake recipe you will ever need!
Right on time for Mother’s Day!
I unfortunately won’t be celebrating Mother’s Day this year. My mom is back in Brazil and neither of us could afford to fly to be together this time. *Major sad face*
So I decided to make a homage to her – my best friend and favorite woman in the whole world – by making her favorite dessert: classic cheesecake!
Every time she visits me in New York City, she has to get a slice of NY cheesecake. We usually go to Junior’s or The Cheesecake Factory so she can indulge in her slice of plain classic cheesecake.
That’s an obsession I never understood.
You see, I’m usually not a cheesecake person. Whenever someone offers me a slice, I expect it to be dense, overly sweet and rich. I’ll eat a few forks full just to be polite but will eventually set it somewhere and go explore some other desserts.
This classic cheesecake is the opposite of that. It is creamy like you wouldn’t believe it, light and not too sweet. In fact, the balance between sweetness and tanginess is what I love about this cake. Add the sourness of the raspberry sauce and my tastebuds are in heaven!
How to make perfect classic cheesecake
It took me a few attempts at making cheesecake to come up with THE one and to be comfortable sharing a few of “my secrets”. A huge thanks for my taste testers, aka coworkers, or I wouldn’t be able to eat all that food by myself.
1) The first secret is to add 1 cup of sour cream to the batter, which makes the classic cheesecake creamy and give it an extra tanginess that the cream cheese alone can’t achieve.
2) Adding a few tablespoons of starch (flour or corn starch both work!) will help prevent cracks. Also make sure you don’t overbake your cheesecake and cool it gradually (I let it sit in the oven, for about 1 hour, with the door slightly open!) as those are the main reasons for cracks.
3) Before I add the eggs, I mix the batter on medium-high speed for a long time, at least a couple of minutes more than what the recipe asks for. There’s nothing worse than a lump-y cheesecake, so it doesn’t hurt to go the extra mile. Give it an extra hand with a spatula, every now and then, to make sure that everything is being incorporated nicely.
4) Always bake your cheesecake in bain-marie (water bath). This technique creates a steamy environment where the cake will bake gently and evenly which prevents it from drying and ensures a smooth cheesecake.
To make a water bath, just set the springform pan (with the batter already in it!), wrapped in foil so water doesn’t get it, in a large baking pan. Then, fill it with boiling water – just enough to cover 2 inches of the springform pan – and bring it to the oven.
5) While you absolutely must chill the cheesecake overnight (so it can set), you should serve it at room temperature. I find that it is much creamier and velvety if you let it stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving.
6) I learned this recently, but from now on I’ll always store my cheesecake uncovered. This prevents the top of the cheesecake from getting mushy as condensation won’t build inside the container.
If you’ve followed all the steps above and your cheesecake still cracks, please don’t go tossing it on the trash. Just covered it with sauce, fruit or even whipped cream. No one will notice and it will still taste divine! :)
Oh, and please cover the whole cheesecake with fruit, if you’re doing it. I did buy – or asked my husband to buy – 3 pints of raspberries. But on his way home he decided to show off the good samaritan that he is and tried to catch a ball that was going to end up on the street and ended up dropping my raspberries, which caused some of them to be smashed. So excuse my lack of enough raspberries!
If your husband is clumsy like mine and you got a few mushy raspberries, powdered sugar will do the trick! ;-)
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Classic Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce
Yield:
10
Prep Time:
20 minutes
Cook Time:
55 minutes
Total Time:
1 hour 15 minutes
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 12 Honey Graham Cracker rectangles
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
For the cheesecake:
- 4 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Raspberry Sauce:
- 2 pints raspberry
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
Making the crust:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F with a rack in the middle-lower part of your oven.
- Grease a 9-inch springform pan with butter.
- Wrap the pan in foil, making sure the bottom is completely covered. Reserve.
- Crush the graham crackers in a food processor until finely crumbed.
- Mix the crumbs and the melted butter until it resembles wet sand. Transfer that mixture to the springform pan and press evenly onto the bottom.
- Bake the crust for 8 to 10 minutes or until it starts to brown slightly. Take it off from oven and let it cool.
Making the cheesecake:
- Beat the cream cheese, the sour cream, the sugar, the cornstarch, the salt, the lemon juice and the vanilla extract until creamy and without any lumps, about 5 minutes on medium speed. Make sure you give it some extra love with a spatula, so everything gets incorporated!
- Mix the eggs, one at a time, over low speed, just until blended. The mixture should be creamy and silky.
- Pour the batter over the cooled crust.
- Set the springform pan - still wrapped in foil - in a baking dish. Fill it with enough boiling water to cover 2 inches of the bottom of the pan. Bring the whole set to the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes or until the outside looks slightly puffed but the center is still jiggly.
- Once cheesecake is done, turn off the oven but keep the cheesecake in there, cooling for at least one hour with the oven door slightly open.
- After one hour, transfer cheesecake to a wire rack and let it cool completely before transferring it to the fridge.
- Chill the cheesecake overnight, uncovered.
- Before serving, let the cheesecake stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
- Unmold the cake, transfer to a serving dish and top it with the sauce.
Making the Raspberry Sauce:
- Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and cook for about 10 minutes or until the raspberries are broken down. If desired, pass the sauce through a strainer to remove seeds.
- Let it cool and serve over your cheesecake. If desired, decorate the top of the cheesecake with some fresh raspberries.
77 Comments on “Classic Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce”
I love raspberries and what could be better than pairing them with cheesecake. Looks wonderful.
Thank you so much, Ali! :D
i just want to say this cheesecake was phenomenal. I just made it for thanksgiving and everyone loved it! is their anyway to make it chocolate? or to incorporate fruit swirls?Thank you so much for this great recipe!!
My friend, the only thing I had to say is: this is definitely a piece of art ;-) Enjoy your week!
Thank you, dear! :D It could’ve looked better but I had to work with what I had. lol
Wow, you know the way to my husband’s heart! He will eat anything, but his favorite thing ever is cheesecake! Love the raspberry topping too :)
Thanks, Sabrina! You definitely need to make this cheesecake for him!
Oh I can never resist cheesecake! This looks absolutely gorgeous, Olivia! I am in love with that raspberry sauce on top. I think my mom would love me even more if I made this for Mother’s Day! :)
lol I’m sure she loves you just fine with all the amazing things you cook!
Wow! Simply stunning cheesecake Olivia! :) Your mom would love this, I mean who wouldn’t? Gorgeous recipe darling! Pinned!
Thank you so much, Manali! :D
Love this cheesecake, Olivia! Looks super creamy and those berries are a beautiful addition!
Thanks, Jess! <3
What a gorgeous cheesecake! I think you have a perfect amount of raspberries. I’m sorry you can’t spend Mother’s Day with your mom, but this cheesecake should be a nice distraction!
The cheesecake is long gone, but I’m sure I’ll have something yummy for Sunday! lol :)
I am not a huge fan of overly dense and sweet Cheesecake either, so yours sounds and looks absolutely delicious! Photos have me drooling, then when you started to describe it my belly immediately chimed in with growling sounds. :) definitely going to be trying this! Thanks for sharing♡ On a side note: I’m sorry you won’t be able to celebrate mother’s day with your mom, but it’s heart warming you made this for her… and chose to share it with us! Cheers ♡
Awww! Thank you for the kind words, Cheyanne! <3
Wow, this looks so good! You know that I love anything with fresh berries and that sauce served over the top of the cheesecake is perfect. I’ll have one slice, please!
The sauce gives it an extra tanginess that I love! :) Thanks, Ashley!
Great cheesecake baking tips. This is about my dream dessert! Right now I can’t get enough raspberries!
Me too! I love raspberries! :D
I too prefer creamier and not so sweet cheesecake over dense, overly sweet ones. I love berry cheesecakes and this one looks absolutely scrumptious!
Thank you so much, Thao!
Olivia, Wow! Very beautiful looking cake! Perfect for Mother’s Day! I can have it any day of the week :)
I can have it any day of the week too, Savita! In fact, the whole cheesecake is gone already! lol
This cheesecake looks creamy and delicious. I love it!
Thank you, Katy! :)
Looks gorgeous Olivia! Can’t wait to try it! Great combination!
Thanks so much, mira!
This is my favourite cheesecake: with raspberries…the perfect dish to have on mother’s day!
Love cheesecake, and this raspberry sauce looks amazing!! Pinned! :)
Has anyone of the raving reviewers actually made this? The ingredients list calls for 1 cup of sour cream. There is no further reference to sour cream in the instructions. Do you proofread your recipes?
I’m still going to try it, but it is very common for internet recipes to have such problems. It’s unfortunate that the more-or-less standard rules for recipe writing found in good cookbooks are ignored.
If you fix this, and my cheesecake comes out good in spite of the error, I’ll consider improving the rating.
Hi Robert! I’m so sorry for the delayed response. I apologize for the mistake. Thank you for bringing it to my attention! :) I hope your cheesecake came out delicious despite the mistake. Have a wonderful week! ♥
Follow-up to an earlier post–
Sorry if I sounded harsh before, that was not my intent. I am frustrated when I read a lot of comments from people who have not tried a recipe. I have tried yours, adding the sour cream and otherwise following the recipe exactly. It was the best cheesecake I have made so far! I am somewhat new to cheesecakes, but this one is a keeper. One thing I would suggest: do not wrap the pan in foil until after baking the crust. I use a glass-bottom pan, and like to see the crust from below. Also, there is less risk of perforating the foil in handling if you wait. Changing to 5 stars from my previous 3.
Ho trovato grandi difficoltà a seguire la tua ricetta non solo per la panna acida non è la prima volta che seguo ricette no italiane ma..bo 350* in forno per 55 minuti???? ma che forni avete in America 250*in forno ventilato per 20 Min. e quasi si bruciava troppo….e bo per dare altri come ti aspetto di assaggiarla:)
This is my second run at this yummy cheesecake and my hubby loved it. I’m making another right now for my work christmas potluck it won’t last. This is one of the best I’ve made so far. Merry Christmas. olivia
Thanks so much for the feedback! So glad your husband loves it!
Hi,
After the hour of leaving the cheesecake in the oven, there were big cracks in the cheesecake. I added enough corn starch and I put the pan in a water pan. How else could I have prevented cracks?
Did you cool it VERY slowly? I often let mine sit in the oven until the even it totally cool inside the oven then I let it cool a bit more on the counter before I chill it. I often find cakes of this consistency need a boiling water bath even though other cheesecake recipes say water temp doesn’t matter. Do you live at a higher altitude. I also found using room temp ingredients and putting the cake in the oven while it preheats and then start timing baking time. Most times it is simply due to coming out of cooling oven too soon or opening the oven door while baking as it is very fussy when it comes to temp changes. Good luck-hope you have had success in the past two years lol
I made this for my husband’s birthday yesterday and it was an absolute hit! I used lime juice instead of lemon juice because I was out of lemon, and it was still awesome! Thanks for the recipe- will be using it again!
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe!
Hi, I only have a 10″ spring form pan. What would you suggest for this size ?
I made this yesterday and it turned out really well. It was really fluffy and creamy, not too dense. I didn’t use a water bath, because I didn’t have a pan big enough, but I put a bowl of hot water in the oven beside it.
That’s a clever trick, Elizabeth! I’m glad you enjoyed it! :)
I made this cake exactly as written, other than inadvertently adding the eggs with the other ingredients, so I shortened the total time that I beat the batter at medium speed. Also, we started eating it before I had a chance to make the raspberry sauce, and it was so good, I never got around to it! The cake fulfills the promise….its texture and taste were perfect. This will become a permanent fixture of my recipe collection.
Do you use salted or unsalted butter? And is it 2 or 3 pints of raspberries?
Thank you for this amazing recipe. It was my New Years resolution to bake a cheeese cake, since I have never made one before. Based on your story and the link to your mom, my mom’s surprise birthday party was the perfect opportunity to attempt this.
It worked out perfectly and was a hit! It looked and tasted fantastic. Thank you very much.
Catherine from Cape Town, South Africa
Hi Catherine, that’s so sweet. I hope your mom enjoyed it like mine does! :) Love, Olivia
Love the cheesecake with the raspberries sauce … WOW it turned out perfect with no cracks, I followed exactly as per your instructions and had no problems. the perfect dessert for Christmas. Thank you
I made this recipe for Christmas. Big hit! No cracks. Perfect texture, Not too sweet, Not too much of that omelet/egg flavor you sometimes get with cheesecakes. Only thing was that water got into the springform as I did Not use heavy duty aluminum foil. But after letting it sit on a kitchen towel overnight in the fridge it was still good! Couldn’t really tell actually. Definitely a keeper! Thanks for the great recipe!
I made this for my husband’s birthday and he loved it. Now it’s the only cheesecake he wants me to make. And it was a big hit at my in-laws too.
So glad he loved it! Thanks for letting me know! ❤️
This looks so yummy! I’m working on making it right now for a Valentine’s Day dessert tomorrow :) If I put the raspberry topping on tomorrow just before we eat, will it hold up well over the next couple days? Or should I just cut slices and add a little bit of topping to each piece we eat rather than covering the whole cake at once?
Can I use digestive biscuits instead of graham crackers
The cheesecake with the raspberries sauce was such a hit at christmas and for my son’s birthday I will be making it for Easter. This cheesecake was moist and soooo good, I never have any left overs .
Thanks for the recipe
I’m so glad it was a hit, Maribel! It is a favorite here too. :)
Olivia, I just made this for my friend’s birthday and I just received a message from her. She said this cheesecake was out of this world and it was the best cheesecake she ever had! I’m bummed I didn’t get to try it, but happy she enjoyed. I’ll have to make it for myself now!
Thank you so much for the feedback, Leesa! You should make one for yourself, for sure. It is delicious! :)
I have made this 4 times now, and it turns out perfect every time. This is the best cheesecake I have ever had. I use my Mom’s recipe for Pistachio crust, and it is so delicious together. I like this better than the cheesecake I have had at any restaurant. It freezes well too and tastes just as perfect when thawed. I had never found a recipe I liked enough to make again. This one is perfect, and I will make it many more times in the future.
Hi Patti! That makes me so happy. The pistachio crust sounds amazing! I need to try it.
Well this recipe work without doing the water bath?
I have done it without the water bath and yes it does work
I made this for my daughter birthday it turned out perfect no cracks or brown too . It was first one I made . it’s almost gone 2 days later. I have to make another soon . I don’t care for cheese cake but Angel loves it but this one was amazing . The only difference was I added a tablespoon of sugar which she said the crust was even amazing.. she is very picky..
I’m so glad it was a hit! And what a honor to have my recipe be a part of your daughter’s birthday.
I’m trying to make a keto version of this. I’m going to use swerve in the place of the sugar and just completely omit the cornstarch. I’m not using the crust either. Are there any steps I need to leave out since there will be no crust?
Hi Olivia,
I’m going to make this cheesecake this weekend for some friends. As I’m living in Europe, with different sized packets of cream cheese, I’d be very grateful if you could confirm whether I need 4 packets of cream cheese, totalling 8oz, or 4 x 8oz packets of cream cheese.
Many thanks,
Hi Lorna, I’m so sorry for the late reply. It is 4 x 8oz packets of cream cheese. Hope that helps!
Wow!!! I made this but was forced to make a couple of minor changes. I used gluten free for the crust as my wife has celiac and I have an intolerance to wheat altogether. Raspberries were not avail so I used cherries. Turned out awesome!!! Thanks for the tips and awesome recipe.
I have to make a dessert for a dinner tonight and this said it only takes 20 minutes to prep and 2 hours to make and I thought perfect! It wasn’t until I put it in the oven and realized it had to chill overnight. I’m not sure what I’m going to do since I have to serve it tonight. This should be included in the original details since it doesn’t take 2 hours to make it takes way longer!
Fantastic recipe! The cheesecake turned out beautifully!!!! I have made quite a few in my day…and this is top notch! Thank you
Ho trovato grandi difficoltà a seguire la tua ricetta non solo per la panna acida non è la prima volta che seguo ricette no italiane ma..bo 350* in forno per 55 minuti???? ma che forni avete in America 250*in forno ventilato per 20 Min. e quasi si bruciava troppo….e bo per dare altri come ti aspetto di assaggiarla:)
Hi Alice, unfortunately my Italian is not that good, so I only understood part of your message. I think you got Fahrenheit and Celsius confused. The recipe asks for a 350 F temperature. That would be 180 in celsius!
As for the sour cream, there are a few tutorials online on how to make it! I recommend you search on Google! :)
I hope that helps. Let me know if there’s anything else I can answer.
Do you think this could be made into mini cheesecakes? I was thinking of using my cupcake pan to achieve it but since it’s obviously not spring form, I wasn’t sure how it would effect the texture. What are your thoughts?
Hi Lynzi,
I think it would work. But if using a cupcake pan, I’d use liners so it’s easier to remove them after they bake.
Let me know how they come out! :)
Hi Olivia!
I’m a huge fan of this recipe and make it often. Been trying in different size pans and one issue I basically have in all of them is the center of the cheesecake sinking after ready. I’ve been reading a lot online to see possible solutions but some say to beat less time, others talk about the water bath, which I already do. Any other considerations as to why this could be happening? And how to fix it?
Thank you!
Carol
Love this cheesecake recipe. I have now made it 3 times, comes out perfect every time even if some water gets into the crust I find that it dries out by the time the cake is set at room temp & chilled overnight. The topping is EVERYTHING with the cheesecake. Thank you for the delicious recipe :)
I had the issue with the water in the crust until I googled and found a hack.. you can take slow cooker liners or even oven bags and wrap it around the bottom of the cheesecake pan tightly.. works like a charm! Hope this helps!!