Are you ready for the upcoming Christmas festivities? Stretch trousers (pants) at the ready? Only a few more sleeps and you are probably knee deep in planning, food prep, present wrapping etc. but just in case you are still on the fence about your dessert centrepiece, here I come with a recipe that may upstage your current dessert favourite – I certainly hope so!

This ‘oh-so-creamy’ baked vegan cheesecake will steal your and your guests’s hearts, I promise. And the bonus is it is really uncomplicated to make and does not require any pastry chef skills so even if you are an inexperienced baker, you’ll nail it, I promise.

This baked vegan cheesecake is infused with all Xmas flavours you can dream of. It has pecans and a dash of cinnamon in the oat crust that’s reminiscent of oat cookies and as easy to work with as play-doh. It is a job you could safely outsource to a minor. The cheesecake mixture is infused with the flavours of ginger, orange, vanilla and a kiss of white chocolate. Then comes a sour component, which complements the creamy cheesecake so well. Firstly, I dabbed the surface with little pools of cranberries (I used shop-bought cranberry sauce) and once the cheesecake set, I adorned the top with juicy stewed cranberries too. The result is gorgeous. A creamy, citrus and ginger-infused interior punctuated with tangy fruit and nutty bits of crust.

In case you are missing some of the key ingredients, let me tell you how flexible this recipe is.

PECANS: Pecans add a festive touch to the crust, but don’t worry if you don’t have them in your cupboard. You can replace them with pretty much any (maybe apart from pine nuts or peanuts) nut you like. My second preference would be almonds. On that note you can also use almond flour too, which is handy cos, provided you use finely cut oats, means that you can do the entire crust in a bowl without having to take your food processor out at all. If you have a nut allergy, simply use oat flour instead.

CINNAMON: It is simply one of these spices that reminds me of Christmas, but you could totally use something different if you prefer. Ginger (although there is a lot of ginger in this dessert already so I would give it a miss, I think), gingerbread spices, cardamom (you may want to use far less as it’s very potent).

STEM GINGER and STEM GINGER SYRUP: Here in the UK, stem ginger, which is essentially chunks of ginger preserved in sugar syrup is a baking aisle classic. I used both the ginger and the syrup to flavour and sweeten this cake as the efficiency of it appealed to me, but you can safely replace stem ginger with finely grated ginger root (be sure to taste the mixture as you add it) and instead of the syrup, you can use any neutral tasting liquid sweetener – bear in mind that maple syrup will make the cake darker – or icing sugar even. If you use icing sugar, be sure to add more plant milk to compensate.

CANDIED ORANGE PEEL: Again, this is a UK staple and it’s simply finely diced orange peel preserved in sugar. My mum used to make her own every winter and add it to cheesecakes and I really liked the flavour it added. You can safely skip it if it’s not available.

CACAO BUTTER: I used it for both a hint of a white chocolate taste (it’s the fat extracted from cacao bean and a key ingredient of any chocolate), but also for a richer, more luxurious texture. You can replace it with vegan white chocolate, but dial down the sugar if you do. You could also replace it with refined (ideally or else you may be able to detect a coconut taste) coconut oil or a vegan block (I like Naturli). This cheesecake is creamy and indulgent, you could halve the amount of this ingredient if you are after something lighter.

SILKEN TOFU: You could replace it with coconut cream at a push, but I would not recommend as you will end up with coconut tasting cheesecake and that’s not what this cheesecake is about. Be assured that this cheesecake does not taste of tofu at all. It is simply there to provide structure.

TAPIOCA STARCH: Could be replaced with arrowroot powder or cornstarch at a push.

WATER BATH: Baked cheesecakes (vegan or not) are delicate entities prone to cracking. One way to prevent this is to bake it at a fairly low temperature (which is what I did), but what also helps is baking it in a water bath – see photo below and instructions. It’s a bit of a faff and not necessary, but it greatly minimises the risk of it cracking.

I hope I anticipated all the questions you may possibly have and that you will enjoy this cheesecake if you do decide to give it a go.