Nigella Lawson's unbaked cherry cheesecake is easy to make and delicious to taste.

This recipe has overturned a lifetime's prejudice – which is good, but unsettling. I had always been a committed believer that the only true cheesecake was the proper, baked cheesecake, but now I'm not so sure. This improper, unbaked cheesecake, feature of many a seventies' dessert trolley, has entirely won me over. It's light, it has tang, and it is rapturously good. The fact that it is speedily easy to make is more reason for general hilarity and joy.

Even in the spirit of retro-accuracy, please do not be tempted to open a jar of cherry pie filling over the cake. I use some French cherry concoction that seems to be pretty universally available and has no added sugar, but anything labelled "conserve" as opposed to "jam" should be safe.

And, if you feel like it, when cherries are in season, strew the top with a couple of handfuls of beautiful fruit.

Ingredients

• 125g digestive biscuits
• 75g soft butter
• 300g cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 60g icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 250ml double cream
• 1 x 284g jar St Dalfour Rhapsodie de Fruit Black Cherry Spread

Directions

1 Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until beginning to turn to crumbs, then add the butter and whiz again to make the mixture clump.

2 Press this mixture into a 20cm springform tin; press a little up the sides to form a slight ridge.
    
3 Beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth.
    
4 Lightly whip the double cream, and then fold it into the cream cheese mixture.
    
5 Spoon the cheesecake filling on top of the biscuit base and smooth with a spatula. Put it in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight.
    
6 When you are ready to serve the cheesecake, unmould it and spread the black cherry over the top.