The fact that you don’t need to turn on the oven to make this delicious, sweet delicacy should be sufficient motivation. In addition to the flavor and light texture of the mousse, I believe your guests will like the classic stars and stripes pattern that the fresh blueberries and strawberries provide. the USA, USA, USA
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 9×11-inch pan |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups finely crushed graham cracker crumbs
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 cup cream cheese at room temperature
- 1 cup mascarpone cheese at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 1 ¼ cups cold heavy whipping cream
- 20 large fresh strawberries, hulled and halved lengthwise, or as needed
- 24 large fresh blueberries, or as needed
Instructions
- Combine graham cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar, cocoa powder, and melted butter in a bowl until mixture is thoroughly combined and crumbly.
- Transfer crust mixture to a 9×11-inch baking dish. Press crust into bottom of dish until smooth and even. Cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.
- Mix cream cheese and mascarpone cheese in a bowl until thoroughly combined. Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract into mixture.
- Whisk 1/3 cup sugar into whipping cream in a separate metal or glass bowl until the cream is fluffy and forms soft peaks. Add whipped cream to the cream cheese mixture and gently whisk until filling is soft, fluffy, and well combined.
- Spoon filling on top of the graham cracker crust, spreading and smoothing the top. Tap the pan gently on a work surface several times to settle the crust and filling. Cover pan tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled and set, at least 3 hours.
- Starting at the bottom long edge of the cake, arrange strawberry halves in a horizontal line with the pointed bottoms of the strawberry halves pointing to the right. Start a second stripe of strawberry halves at the top right of the cake, arranging strawberries with the bottoms pointing right in a line stretching about 2/3 of the length of the cake.
- Continue to make strawberry stripes, starting about 3/4 inch up from the bottom stripe and laying down 3 more stripes stretching the full length of the cake. Make 1 more line of strawberries beneath the short stripe to leave a square space for the blue field of stars.
- Lay a line of blueberries with the blossom ends pointing up in the upper left square space. Continue to lay down blueberries in lines, berries touching the previous line, until the square is filled with blueberries. Cut cake into squares to serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 381 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 22 g |
| Cholesterol | 94 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 19 g |
| Sodium | 182 mg |
| Sugars | 15 g |
| Fat | 32 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This was the perfect Fourth of July treat! Thank you chef John. The kids loved helping put the fruit on. I’ve loved not heating my kitchen up one bit! Made it exactly as stated except did not have any mascarpone so used only cream cheese. Delicious…Everyone loved it!
Sounds great recipe
So good. Chef John never lets me down. Was easy to make. Lighter than the usual cheesecake, but very decadent nonetheless. Will be making this again. I did this for my July 4th party and it was a hit!
I made this using just the lemon juice. I think the amount of lemon is simply a matter of personal taste. I made individual 3 inch pies. It was incredible. Texture was so light and creamy with the use of Mascarpone. It set up very well and held the set extremely well. I will make this again. Thanks Chef John!
Super easy recipe! My family loved the light texture and taste! I will definitely make it again!
I made this and stayed true to the recipe with the exception of adding more lemon juice/zest. Still, it didn’t have much of a taste. The crust was amazing though. Wonder how it would turn out if I added some lemon flavored instant pudding mix…
Easy to make and everyone raved about it!
A little time consuming, couldn’t find the mascopone cheese had to use whipped cream! I sugar coated the blueberries cause they were a little tart!
I made this twice over the memorial Day weekend. It was a hit! It was asked for the recipe and both events it was gone in about 60 seconds.
This recipe has the potential to be good. If you like only tasting cream cheese and graham crackers stick to the original recipe. If you want a truly decadent dessert, add more sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest. I used powdered sugar to ensure the texture was smooth and velvety.
Our favorite 4th of July recipe! Light and delicious. Make it you won’t regret it.
First cheese cake to ever work for me
I made a sweet chocolate cake, which I frosted the whole cake with this cheesecake recipe… It worked perfectly, even for piping nicely… It was easy and yummy…
very light, easy dessert!
Loved it!
Very light and tasty! This was a perfect dessert after a good meal. I thought lemon flavor was light….not overpowering. The entire cheesecake is gone!
Love it. I made this for the 4th of July. Instead of mixing regular graham crackers with coco powder I used chocolate graham crackers. Otherwise I followed the rest of the instructions. It was delicious but could have been a tad bit sweeter.
It was good. I used a 9×13 pan instead and it worked well. It could’ve used a little bit more sugar and the whipped cream and cheese mixture didn’t fully combine.
We liked this dessert. After reading others’ reviews, I used used cream cheese only, left out the lemon, and increased the vanilla a little bit. Put fruit on at the last minute, using firm raspberries instead of strawberries. It wasn’t overly sweet which was fine with us
It was great !
Yes – I didn’t want the berries so sour, so I made 4 T. strawberry jelly (or another one like raspberry jelly), 2 T. water & put in microwave 30 seconds. Use to brush over the top of the berries (it was really sour by July in FL) & it makes it better & helps the berries stay on the cake. Looked really great on that! I was not expected that this “cake” would be better than I thought – the cream layer was just needed something – the lemon zest & juice didn’t seem to flavor it all. And the crust would have been better as a regular graham cracker crumb – butter, sugar, etc. After all that I said this, it was a pretty wood flag cake & if I changed a little bit of the recipe, I’d like it better! Then again…I USED to be a good cook – lately, watch me burn water!!!!!