Cheater Cherry Cheesecake is a favorite of my husband’s. He requests it for both his birthday and for Father’s day which are only 2 weeks apart but I don’t mind making it twice that close together as it is simple to make. The recipe is also no bake which is fabulous since Father’s day and his birthday both land in June and the days can often be so hot I don’t want to turn on the oven.

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First you start with the crust. I like to mix it right in the bottom of my 9 by 12 pan so that I don’t have to dirty another dish. I buy my graham crumbs already to go but I did once substitute graham crackers freshly crushed in my food processor and they worked just fine too.

Once the crust is made I move on to the filling. It really doesn’t take long to whip together. You start with the Dream Whip topping. I have often wondered if I could substitute heavy whipping creme instead of the dream whip to make the recipe a little less processed but my husband protested when I suggested it to him so I haven’t yet tried it (one of these days though when he isn’t looking 🙂 )

After the dream whip you mix in the icing sugar (powdered sugar) followed by the creme cheese. I have used both full fat and low fat cream cheese with no difference in taste or texture.

I spread the drop the filling onto the crust one lump at a time and then use the spatula to spread it out evenly over the crust. It gets less crust crumbs in it that way.

Once the filling is spread there is just one step left, the topping. I use 2 cans of cherry pie filling so that the whole cheese cake gets a generous amount of topping. I use the same method for the topping as I do for the filling to make sure that the cheesecake gets an even amount of topping on every square inch and to reduce the amount of filling getting mixed in with the topping