Karen Wright: A showstopping strawberry and lemon no-bake cheesecake

Karen Wright writes: Last weekend I was booked at Trentham Gardens near Stoke-on-Trent for The Great British Food Festivals.

My biggest dilemma is always deciding what to make on stage.

There are several factors to consider – holding the audience’s attention, the practicality of making a dish with limited facilities and achieving the wow factor.

I think people like to see something with a bit of pizzazz.

I also like to make things that look difficult to do but are actually easy enough for anyone to try.

With the weather forecast set to be warm, I decided that my first demo would not involve an oven at all!

I plumped for a delicious no-bake cheesecake.

For the base I used a food processor to whizz up 300g of dark chocolate digestive biscuits.

I poured in 140g of melted butter and then pressed the mixture into the bottom of a 20cm loose bottomed tin. I lined the tin with some acetate strip which I bought online.

For the filling I whisked together 500g of full fat cream cheese, 130g icing sugar and 300ml double cream.

When it was very thick, I stirred through a couple of tablespoons of lemon curd. I made my own on stage but shop bought is fine.

I sliced some strawberries lengthways and placed them all around the side of the tin and then covered everything with the filling.

For the topping I cooked 300g strawberries in a pan with 150g sugar.

When the strawberries were very soft I sieved everything into a jug resulting in 250ml of clear strawberry juice.

I returned this to the pan and brought it back to the boil.

I then added one tablespoon of arrowroot and a half teaspoon of agar-agar which had been mixed to a slurry with a little cold water. This instantly thickens the liquid.

I removed it from the heat and allowed it to become quite cool before pouring it on the top of the filling.

Chill yours in the fridge overnight – I obviously had to take one I’d made earlier with me.