No-Bake Cheesecake

 As you may know, my little brother is quite the baker. He loves helping me in the kitchen and cries himself to sleep when he can't help me out, which is why I usually start baking after he's knocked out. As wonderful as he is, I work a bit slower with him. We can only bake together when I have a lot of time on my hands.

But one day this week, I randomly remembered a no-bake cheesecake recipe that my aunt gave me eons ago. I think I was 11-ish?

Anyways, here's the recipe, with pictures! :)

No-Bake Cheesecake

1-  8 oz package cream cheese (room temperature)
1-  8 oz tub Cool Whip (room temperature)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ready made graham cracker crust
1 cup fruit topping
   (Need: 1/2 bag frozen fruit + 2 Tablespoons cornstarch + sugar)
Fresh fruit (optional)

Blend cool whip and sugar together on low speed until the sugar dissolves.  Add cream cheese and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy.  Pour into graham cracker crust and spread evenly. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

At this point, it should look something like this.

While it's chilling, you can make the fruit topping. 

First, thaw out a bag of frozen fruit. Then, squish up all the fruits before opening the bag. Pour half of this into a small sauce pot. Then dissolve 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch with a bit of water, mix with the fruit, and add sugar to taste. Last, bring the mixture to a boil for 2-3 minutes or until thickened.

Make sure the fruit topping cools completely before moving on. 

It's really not a thick layer.

Now you can eat as is or garnish with fresh fruit.

Even though this was a berry medley, my brother insisted that we add bananas. So I let him. As long as he cut the bananas himself, I said.

And he did.

I sliced the strawberries and we arranged the fruit in a circular pattern, alternating bananas and strawberries.

Then we put it in the fridge for later, using the convenient plastic cover to protect our creation.

Then "later" came along... 

 and...

OM  NOM NOM.

Delicious.

You can have lots of fun with this recipe by changing up the extract and topping. Though the inside is not as firm as a baked cheesecake, you still get a nice, creamy, easy dessert. It's so easy, a kid could do it. In fact, my 8-year-old brother did all the work this time... minus the strawberry slicing, of course.

Enjoy!