This vegan cheesecake is the best ever! It’s rich and creamy and topped with a salted caramel fudge sauce. So much like the ‘real thing’ you will hardly believe it.
I am so excited to share this recipe for vegan cheesecake with you. It is so good, sensational really.
Topped with a salted caramel fudge sauce and some sprinkled sea salt it is the perfect contrast of salty and sweet with creamy and smooth.
So, this vegan cheesecake is definitely not my first go when it comes to making vegan cheesecakes. From the first time I made a vegan cheesecake (in around 2009) I fell totally in love, because honestly it’s better than the ‘real thing’.
The only caveat? It’s a little pricey. The ingredients, while quite simple, can get a little expensive.
So it’s probably not what you’re going to make every other week but it’s rich as heck so that’s another reason you’re probably not going to make it every other week.
Of course if you love a good cheesecake then also check out our delicious baked cheesecake recipe!
How To Make No-Bake Vegan Cheesecake
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Spray an 8-inch round springform pan with non-stick spray and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Add macadamia nuts, pitted dates and dessicated coconut to a food processor and process into a sticky dough.
- Place into the prepared springform pan and press down firmly into a pie crust. Place into the freezer to set while you work on the filling.
- Add soaked cashew nuts to a blender jug along with water, maple syrup, melted coconut oil, lemon juice and vanilla and blend until very smooth.
- Pour this out over the top of the crust in the springform pan and smooth down with the back of a spoon. Place into the freezer to set (around 4-6 hours).
- When the cheesecake has set completely, remove it from the springform pan and place onto a cake stand while you prepare your salted caramel topping.
- For the topping, mix together melted coconut butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract and sea salt.
- Spread it out over the top of your cheesecake, add a few sprinkles of sea salt over the top and a few macadamia nuts to decorate and you have the perfect cheesecake.
- Let the cheesecake thaw on the countertop for around 30 minutes or so before serving.
The Caramel Fudge Topping
I was at first going to make a vegan dulce de leche for the topping, but at the last minute, had a change of heart.
I was thinking, why cook a topping when you’ve got this whole no-bake thing going on, why go and stand over a hot stove just for the sauce?
So I decided on a salted caramel fudge topping made from melted coconut butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract and sea salt and it turned out to be the perfect topping.
Recipe Tips
Soak your cashews. It’s important to soak your cashews for this recipe. Ideally, soak them overnight. Place them in a bowl, pour over water, cover and leave them to soak overnight. Then drain and rinse before using.
The reason it’s important to soak them first is that you use a ton of cashews for this cheesecake filling, once all your filling ingredients are in the blender jug your blender will be almost ⅔rds or even ¾ of the way full. It would be very tough for a blender to handle that much volume unless it’s an easy blend. So make it as easy as possible with soaked cashews.
If you happen to forget to soak them, then all is not lost. Place the cashews in a bowl, pour over boiling hot water from the kettle and leave them to soak for at least an hour for this recipe. Soaking in hot water reduces the time needed. But any less than an hour will not be adequate because of the volume of cashews that you need to blend.
Be patient. The hands on time for this recipe is actually really short, a bit of processing, a bit of blending, a bit of stirring, really it’s too easy! The time consuming part is waiting for it to set, which takes quite a few hours in the freezer, and you need it to set completely before you remove it from the spring form pan. So you need a bit of patience with this pie, but otherwise it’s really easy and fun.
Vegan Cheesecake Q&A
Walnuts work extremely well for the crust too. Walnuts or macadamias are my usual favorites for a nut/date crust, but nut/date crusts are actually really flexible and forgiving, you can try other nuts or a combination of nuts and it will usually work well.
Yes you can! I like it because it creates delicious flavor and texture but I have definitely made pie crusts without coconut, you can simply leave it out or add more nuts to compensate.
Coconut butter is really the key ingredient in this caramel sauce. And just to be clear it’s nothing like any other nut butter and it’s also nothing like vegan butter. So you can’t switch it for either of those. If you can’t get coconut butter, you could switch the topping to something else completely, or you could make your own coconut butter from dessicated coconut (also known as finely shredded coconut or sweetened coconut flakes).
Storing and Freezing
Keep your cheesecake stored in the coldest part of your refrigerator and serve it cold straight from the fridge. It must set in the freezer but thereafter can be stored in the coldest part of your fridge for around 5-7 days.
You can also store it in the freezer, in which case you will need to let it thaw at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving. If you store it in the freezer then it will of course last much longer than if it is stored in the fridge.
More Delicious No-Bake Vegan Desserts
- Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Vegan Chocolate Tart
- Vegan Banoffee Pie
- Vegan Peanut Butter Pie
- Vegan Chocolate Pie
- Vegan Key Lime Pie
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Cheesecake
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 1 cup Macadamia Nuts (150g)
- ½ cup Pitted Medjool Dates (88g) Packed*
- 1 cup Dessicated Coconut (80g) Finely Shredded Coconut*
For the Cheesecake Filling:
- 3 cups Raw Cashews (450g) soaked overnight, drained and rinsed*
- ¾ cup Water (180ml)
- ¾ cup Maple Syrup (180ml)
- ½ cup Coconut Oil (120ml) Melted
- ¼ cup Lemon Juice (60ml) Freshly Squeezed
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
For the Salted Caramel Fudge Sauce:
- ½ cup Coconut Butter (120ml) Melted*
- ½ cup Maple Syrup (120ml)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ tsp Sea Salt
For Decorating:
- Sea Salt
- Macadamia Nuts
Instructions
- Spray an 8 inch round springform pan with non-stick spray and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Add the macadamia nuts, pitted dates and dried dessicated coconut to the food processor and process until it starts to form into a sticky dough. It will start off crumbly, keep going until it starts to clump together in sticky clumps. Transfer to the springform pan and smooth it down into a pie crust. Use the back of a spoon to press it down into a neat flat layer. Place into the freezer to set.
- Take your soaked and rinsed cashew nuts and place them into the blender jug. Add the water, maple syrup, melted coconut oil, lemon juice and vanilla extract and then blend everything together until very smooth. Stop and give your blender a break as needed as this is a lot of volume to blend up. Pour this over the macadamia crust and smooth down with the back of a spoon. Return to the freezer to set completely – about 4-6 hours.
- When the cheesecake has completely set, remove it from the springform pan and put it onto a cake stand to do your topping.
- Add the melted coconut butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract and sea salt into a bowl and stir it together into a caramel sauce. Spread this out over the top of the cheesecake, working quickly, as the sauce thickens and sets quite fast when in contact with the cold cheesecake.
- Decorate the cheesecake with sprinkles of sea salt and some macadamia nuts.
- Allow the cheesecake to thaw at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving.
- Once the cheesecake is thawed, keep it stored in the refrigerator or freezer*.
Video
Notes
- Walnuts work great as an alternative to macadamias for the crust.
- Half a cup of medjool dates (packed) is approximately 10 pitted medjool dates.
- Dessicated coconut is also called finely shredded coconut or finely shredded coconut flakes. It’s dried coconut that is shredded very finely.
- If you forget to soak the cashews overnight, then you can take a shortcut. Place the cashews into a bowl and pour over boiling hot water from the kettle. Leave them to soak for 1 hour. Soaking in hot water reduces the time needed for soaking. It is still more ideal to soak them overnight for this recipe though.
- The topping must be made with coconut butter and not coconut oil. If you can’t easily find coconut butter you can also make your own. It’s super easy and fun to make.
- Prep time does not include time spent setting in the freezer.
- If you know when you’re going to be serving this cheesecake, you can keep it in the freezer until you need to serve it and then let it thaw at room temperature and serve. From then on, if stored in the refrigerator, the texture can become a little softer, so you might prefer to let it firm up in the freezer again before serving.
- This recipe was first published in March 2018.
Erica says
Hi I do not have a food processor, can I use a blender for making the crust?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Erica, I don’t think so, but I guess it depends on your blender, but even a powerful one usually wouldn’t manage all that well with the density of the crust ingredients.
Victoria Savill says
This looks amazing but I can’t eat citrus fruits. Is there something I could sub for the lemon juice?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Victoria, the lemon juice just adds to the ‘cheesy’ flavor, and I’m not sure what could replace that, maybe apple cider vinegar, but that could also be a giant fail! I’m not sure. Maybe the best thing would be to just replace it with water because that will keep the ingredient balance correct, you would lose a little of the cheesiness, but I still think it would be delicious.
Betty says
I am looking forward to trying this recipe soon. Its for thanksgiving but I wanted to make it in advance. So, once the filling freezes, can I then just pour the caramel sauce on top the frozen cake and put it back into the freezer til Thanksgiving? Or do you recommend to add the sauce on the day of the holiday?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Betty, you can add the sauce as soon as the filling has set and then freeze it. Thaw everything on the countertop when you’re ready to serve. 🙂
Sharon Huta says
Hi Alison,
I’ll be making this over the weekend for a good friend. I’ve laid in all my ingredients but have a quick question…….I purchased unsweetened dessicated coconut but when shopping I also saw sweetened dessicated coconut. Which did you use? If you used sweetened what should I do to compensate? TIA and can’t wait to try this.
Alison Andrews says
H Sharon, I also used unsweetened but even if you used sweetened in this case it shouldn’t make any big difference. All the best! 🙂
Sharon Huta says
Thanks so much. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Sharon H says
This turned out so fantastic! I made two and it was late when the filling was set so I just poured the caramel sauce over the top while still in the spring-form pan and smoothed it out. Then I put it all back in the freezer until morning before removing the pan….wow it was perfect.
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing and the great review Sharon. 🙂
Mora says
Can you replace macadamia nuts with another nut? I can’t get them easily here.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Mora, yes, you can replace them with walnuts, that also works great for the crust.
Brenda Hariharan says
Can I use a 9.5 spring form pan?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Brenda, I’m sure that will be fine yes! 🙂
michelle LaFayette says
What else for a sweetener could I use I do not like maple syrup.
Alison Andrews says
Any syrup that you do like should work fine. 🙂
Angie says
Hi Alison! I would love to make this recipe for my sister, but she can’t eat cashews. Could I make it with macadamias? If yes, how many cups? The macadamias need to be soak in water too? Thanks in advanced!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Angie, I’m not sure if the macadamias would have the same texture, you could try it, but cashews are quite unique in texture. If you try it then use the same amount of macadamias as you would have used for cashews. 🙂
Marilyn. says
I’m wondering if this could be made into cups using a muffin tin? How long would it bake for?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Marilyn, yes you could definitely do that. No baking required in this recipe.
Rebecca says
Can I substitute the water for almond milk?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Rebecca, that should work fine! 🙂
Rosie says
I didn’t put any water in the filling, and it blended up fine (I don’t have an expensive blender). I assume this will keep it firmer, which I would prefer to relying on freezing it.
Alison Andrews says
Cool! Let us know how it works out! 🙂
salome says
Your recipe looks sooo delicious I want to do it but I am wondering if I can replace the maple syrup in the caramel sauce topping with melted panela? what do you think? Thank you so much, I m excited to make the recipe.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Salome, I’m really not sure, that would have to be an experiment! It might work and let us know how it turns out if you do try it like that. 🙂
Salome says
Thank you so much for the answer, I decided to get some organic honey from the region, so going to try it that way, because here I cannot get proper maple sirup, its corn sirup sugar water 😛 .
For the coconut butter I only have fresh coconuts, I live in Mexico, the shredded ones are always covered in tons of sugar, and unfortunately I have no dehydrator either, that I could make it from scratch. I
was thinking I could make a super creamy coconut milk, let it cool and sit in the fridge until it separates, so it creates a thick solid creamy buttery layer on top and I guess this could be called coconut butter, if I just scoop that solid part out and use it for the caramel sauce. I give it a try 🙂
Kelly says
Can this be left out at room temperature? Or will it collapse? I was thinking of making into cheesecake bites for a party but I worry it may melt everywhere if out of fridge. What do you think? Thanks!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Kelly, yes, if they’re out of the fridge they are going to get very soft and melty. The only way it would work is if you kept them in the fridge until the last minute and then served them right from the fridge. But if they are sitting out for any length of time, they will get soft and melty, so maybe not ideal for that.
Sabrina says
Absolutely delightful. It went down a storm with my large family of Carnivores too!
Really easy and straightforward recipe to follow, give it a try you won’t be disappointed.
Thank you for the recipe Alison x
Alison Andrews says
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for the wonderful review. 🙂
Nancy says
Hi, I made this recipe and it tasted very good, my husband really likes it.
Alison Andrews says
So glad it worked out! Thanks for updating us! 🙂