Three-layer blueberry cheesecake (Ombre Cheesecake, no-bake)

Festive, colorful... and very easy to make! This three-color cheesecake enchants anyone who sees it... and anyone who tastes it will definitely have seconds. This is a blueberry cheesecake, a no-bake cake that uses gelatin to set in the fridge.

This is what they call an Ombre Cheesecake, a cake that plays with a gradient of colors. To make it, you only need to follow a few easy guidelines. There are several ways to make this kind of cake, but instead of using artificial colorings (something I find hard to do because I believe more in everything that is 100% natural), in this cake we do it the easiest way, playing with the concentration of fruit in each of the stages.

I encourage you to view the recipe, and you'll be surprised how, in a 100% natural way, without colorings and without using the oven, you get a delicious and very beautiful cheesecake.

IMPORTANT! You can also make it red using strawberries, cherries, or raspberries! The method is the same, and this way you can make beautiful and delicious cakes taking advantage of each fruit's best season. Shall we look at the recipe?

18cm Kaiser nonstick removable pan

Ingredients

For the base:

• Approx. 12 chocolate butter cookies (like Oreo)*
• 80 g melted butter
• 1 and 1/2 tbsp sugar

You can also use plain Digestive cookies as-is, or crush Digestive cookies with a few tablespoons of cocoa to give them a chocolatey touch.

For the cheesecake

• 9 sheets of gelatin
• 600 g cream cheese (like Philadelphia or quark)
• 300 g mascarpone cheese
• 100 ml heavy cream (35% fat)
• 180 g icing sugar
• 2 packets of vanilla sugar
• Approx. 500 g blueberries
• Juice of 1 lemon

For decoration:

• Dark chocolate glaze
• Blueberries

Preparation

Prepare the cookie base:

1. Melt the butter.
2. Using a chopper or food processor, crush the cookies, and add the melted butter and sugar.
3. When you have a homogeneous dough, transfer it to the18cm Kaiser nonstick removable pan and press with a spoon or spatula to compact it.
4. Place the pan in the fridge so the base solidifies.

Prepare the filling:

1. Put the gelatin sheets in a deep plate with water and let them soak (ideally you'd do this in separate plates, but that's impractical, so it's enough to stir them or separate them from time to time).
2. Using a whisk or theKitchenAid stand mixer, place the cream in a bowl and whip it (it must be very cold). Once you have firm whipped cream, cover it and keep it in the fridge.
3. In the KitchenAid bowl and using the whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese, mascarpone, icing sugar, vanilla sugar, and lemon juice until creamy. Set aside.
4. Place the blueberries in a tall container and puree with an immersion blender.
5. Weigh the amount of blueberry purée you have, and split it into two bowls: in one bowl put 1/3 of the purée, and in the other bowl the rest, 2/3 of the purée.
6. Now, when you start preparing the different "layers", go from darkest to lightest. To do this, weigh the cream cheese mixture you had set aside, and divide it into 3 equal parts (three portions of batter with the same weight). Place them in three separate bowls.
7. Do the same with the whipped cream you have in the fridge: weigh it, and distribute 1/3 of the cream into each of the 3 portions of cream cheese you separated.
8. Of those 3 bowls with cream and cheese, one should NOT have blueberry purée added (this will be the top, white layer); to another bowl, add the 1/3 of blueberry purée you reserved, and to the third bowl add the 2/3 of purée (this will be the darkest cake layer).
9. Take the bowl with the largest amount of blueberries, add 3 sheets of hydrated gelatin, and mix until fully incorporated. Remove the pan from the fridge and pour the mixture in. Use a spatula to smooth the mixture and cover it, then chill in the fridge for at least two hours.
10. Meanwhile, keep the other two bowls covered in the fridge so they don't dry out,
11. After 2 hours, take the cream and cheese mixture that has 1/3 of the purée, add 3 sheets of gelatin and mix until integrated. Remove the pan from the fridge, pour this mixture over the first layer (which should already be set) and return to the fridge.
12. After another 2 hours, take the bowl containing the cream and cream cheese without blueberries and mix it with the remaining 3 sheets of gelatin. Remove the pan from the fridge and pour the mixture on top (use an offset spatula to level and create straight sides, since it will rise above the pan). Let rest in the fridge.

Cake presentation

Once the three-layer cheesecake is assembled, keep it in the fridge overnight or at least for 4 hours.

Remove from the fridge and prepare fondant chocolate to pour over the top. Add some fresh blueberries across the surface (they pair perfectly with the chocolate), and you can dust a little icing sugar or place some edible flowers on top.

Notes

• Optionally, on top of the cookie base and before adding the cheesecake filling, you can make a layer of blueberry or strawberry jam; it will be juicier and adds a special sweetness. You can also cover the base with melted chocolate.
• Personally, I prefer the color intensity to go from the base upward (dark to light), but you can try reversing it if you want, applying the filling without blueberries first at the bottom, and the more intense color on top.
• To obtain a tall cake, use a smaller pan, 18 cm. But you can make a lower, more manageable cake with a 22 or 24 cm pan. The layers will be thinner, but you'll see it still looks beautiful and delicious.
• If you can't find fresh blueberries, check the frozen section; you'll likely find them there in bags at large supermarkets.

Also, if you prefer to make a three-layer cake with strawberries or raspberries, you can follow the same formula!

Will you give it a try? What do you say — will you make it with blueberries or with strawberries or raspberries?

I hope you enjoy it!