This creamy Raspberry Custard Cheesecake includes extra egg yolks for a richer custard style texture and tart and sweet raspberry swirl. Baked on a buttery graham cracker crust, this homemade cheesecake is perfect for any special occasion, holiday gathering, or weekend bake.

Table of Contents

Ingredients and substitutions for Raspberry Custard Cheesecake
- Graham crackers: Graham cracker crumbs are the perfect base with their whole wheat flavor. If you are unable to obtain graham crackers, a great substitute in equal measure would be digestive biscuits.
- Almonds: Crushing or finely chopping peeled almonds gives our base a complimentary flavor to the cheesecake. You could additionally replace the vanilla extract with almond extract for a stronger flavor throughout.
- Sugar: The best sugar here is superfine or caster which helps dissolve into the cream cheese during whipping. You could half and half the sugar with light brown sugar or raw sugar alongside the caster sugar as it is not recommended to completely substitute in another due to the flavor it would give the cheesecake instead of simply adding sweetness.
- Cream cheese: The core of our creamy cheesecake is room temperature full fat cream cheese, which results in giving us a light cheesecake that is easy to mix until smooth and full of that beloved cheesecake flavor.
- Eggs: As well as adding structure to the cake, the eggs will bind everything together so are essential.
- Heavy Cream: Fluffy and lightly whipped heavy cream helps bind the cream cheese and eggs and create a lighter texture.
- Mascarpone: Mascarpone has almost double the fat versus cream cheese so this helps give our cheesecake it's rich, but still light texture. If you cannot source mascarpone, simply replace with cream cheese in equal measure
- Raspberries: Fresh were used here as they lose less moisture than frozen would. Though you could use defrosted frozen raspberries that have been able to drain so it doesn’t make your cake watery.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make Raspberry Custard Cheesecake:
Step 1: Prepared springform pan: Wrap aluminum foil in multiple layers around the outside to prepare your springform tin.
Step 2: Stir and press: Stir the crushed biscuit base ingredients together and press evenly and firmly into your cake tin.
Step 3: Bake your base: We want that base lightly golden.
Step 4: Beat the cream cheese and mascarpone: No lumps welcome here before adding in your sugar a little at a time.
Step 5: Vanilla in the cake: The salt and vanilla extract are added in until combined.
Step 6: Eggs before cream: Crack one egg and beat until combined, repeat! Pour the heavy cream and mix.
Step 7: Roasting tray: Set your cake tin inside a large and deep roasting tray.
Step 8: Pour: Half the mixture into your cake tin top with half the raspberries before repeating with the remaining cheesecake and berries.
Step 9: Create the water bath: Place into your oven and pour boiled water into the larger tray.
Step 10: Bake: Bake until the top is golden and only slightly jiggly in the center.
Step 11: Cool: In the oven with the door ajar for 1 hour and then refrigerate for several hours.
Step 12: Serve: Slice and serve. Dig in!
Other raspberry desserts you'll enjoy
Raspberry Custard Cheesecake
Ingredients
Base
- 180 grams / 1 ½ cups graham crackers finely crushed
- 54 grams / ½ cup flaked almonds lightly toasted and crushed
- 14 grams / 1 tablespoon superfine/caster sugar
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 70 grams / 5 tablespoons butter melted
Filling
- 600 grams / 1.3 pounds cream cheese room temperature
- 250 grams / ½ pound mascarpone room temperature
- 250 grams / 1 ¼ cups superfine/caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 165 grams / 3 large eggs room temperature
- 18 grams / 2 large egg yolks room temperature
- 94 grams / ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 184 grams / 1 ½ cups fresh raspberries
Instructions
Base
- Prepare your tin with greaseproof paper on the base and pack aluminum foil around the outside of the cake tin as carefully as possible. Layer in three to four layers to ensure the water cannot get in.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/355F.
- Combine the graham cracker crumbs, slivered almonds, sugar, salt and butter together and press into the base of the cake tin evenly.
- Place in the oven for 10 minutes or until brown.
- Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Meanwhile, lower the oven to 160°C/325F.
Filling
- Add all the cream cheese and mascarpone in a bowl and whip until smooth, approximately 4 minutes.
- Toss in the sugar ¼ cup at a time and whip until smooth, approximately 30 seconds. Repeat until all the sugar is whipped and dissolved into the cream cheese.
- Add in the vanilla and salt and whip for 1 further minute.
- Add 1 egg and beat until well combined and repeat with the remaining egg and egg yolks.
- Toss in the cream and whip for a further 4 minutes, until the mixture is smooth and increased in volume.
- Pour ½ into the prepared cake tin and lightly tear ½ the raspberries apart, scattering over the top. Pour the remaining mixture into the cake tin and top with the remaining raspberries, swirling lightly in the tin.
- Place the cake tin in the center of a deep roasting pan and carefully place in the oven.
- Pour boiling water into the roasting pan half way up the outside of the cake tin.
- Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until lightly golden and only slightly jiggly in the center.
- Turn the oven off and leave the oven door slightly ajar for 2 hours.
- Remove and place in the fridge for a minimum 4 hours.
- Keep refrigerated until ready to slice and serve.
- Serve up.
Notes
- Almonds: Crushing or finely chopping peeled almonds gives our base a complimentary flavor to the cheesecake. You could additionally replace the vanilla extract with almond extract for a stronger flavor throughout.
- Cake tin: This cake was baked in a 20cm or 8 inch cake tin.
Wrap your cake tin: If you are using a springform cake tin, preparing it by triple wrapping with aluminum foil is essential to avoid the water getting into your cake tin and ruining your cheesecake. - Fruit sub: You could easily sub in blackberries, strawberries red currents or even roughly chopped apricots instead of raspberries to this custard cheesecake.
- How this is a custard cheesecake: What makes this a custard cheesecake versus a regular baked cheesecake is the addition of egg yolks which in regular custard is what adds the depth of flavor and creaminess and likewise does the same in this recipe.
Nutrition
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Made it and loved it?
If you have made this recipe, it would mean so much to leave a review below to help more people find this.
Tom
This is my first successful attempt at making cheesecake and I'm very pleased with the result. The one thing I did notice was that I would have preferred the consistency to be slightly firmer. I think that`s because I popped out the spring form pan and placed the cake to cool by itself in fridge. Next time, will keep the whole piece in tact while chilling and remove the mold just before serving.
Sylvie
Hi Tom, so glad to hear your first try at cheesecake went well. The mascarpone makes the cheesecake slightly creamier which does result in a different consistency overall than cheesecakes you might have eaten before, but hope it tastes great and you enjoy it. Feel free to share a photo on social media as I would love to see your version. Thanks for stopping by, Sylvie