We were excited to spot this new product in Tesco last week – a cheese cake mix from Hale & Hearty, featuring vegan instructions and the Vegan Society logo. The ingredients are simple and healthy, and it’s also gluten free. Read on to find out what we thought of the cooking process and taste.

We followed the instructions on the back of the box, which you can see below. There are directions for both a vegan and non-vegan version of the cheese cake.

They’re pretty simple, and all you need in addition to the two mixes included (base and filling), is vegan butter, a lemon, and 750g of soya yoghurt – that’s one and a half of the big Alpro pots. We used plain rather than vanilla. A cake tin with a removable base is also useful.

Mixing up the melted butter and oats, then pressing into a cake tin is the first step.

Next you’ll need to combine the contents of the filling packet with your yoghurt and lemon juice. We added lemon zest on top of this for a more intense flavour. Pour the yoghurt mixture onto your base, and you’re done! Super quick and easy, and simple enough that children could join in.

The box advises baking for 50 – 60 minutes at 200 degrees celcius, but we checked on ours at 45 minutes and found that the edges were quite browned, so took it out to prevent burning. Don’t worry if it’s still quite liquid once baked, as it firms up a lot after the recommended two hours in the fridge.

Removal from the tin requires you to be quite careful – definitely don’t attempt this until your cheese cake is thoroughly chilled. A tin with a removable base is a big help here.

Verdict

The finished cheesecake tasted great. The topping had a very rich flavour, and we found the level of lemon to be perfect. The base was more similar to flapjack than the kind of crunchy biscuit base you might expect from a cheesecake – this is one area we think could be improved.

Overall, it had a great flavour, and we reckon you could serve it to a non-vegan without them telling the difference.

Having never made a vegan cheese cake before this was a really easy way to do so, and great inspiration for future experiments. Having the mix is handy if you’re in a rush, but we felt it was quite pricey for what is actually included:

Gluten free oats* (47%), raw cane sugar*, cornstarch*, cinnamon* *Organically grown and produced.

We’d definitely recommend this kit if it’s your first foray into vegan cheese cake making, but perhaps not if you’re a more seasoned baker.

If you’ve tried this kit, let us know what you thought!

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