Nearly No-Bake Cheesecake with a Pumpkin Pie Tucked Inside!

This delicious piecake, or PIECAKEN, as I call it, was whipped together in 20 minutes.  You might ask: How can that be?  PIECAKENs normally take hours to make, with hundreds of steps and ingredients!  But no, of course it can take only 20 minutes when you don't need to bake it, and when you buy a store-bought pie. Oops.  Did I really say that out loud? 

That's right folks, the pie was store-bought for this week's creation, but only because I needed to make a super quick dessert, for a sort-of-short-notice kind of dinner party. So I bought the pumpkin pie.  I figured it would be the last of the season and might as well enjoy it now, because it will be 8 months or so until Pumpkin Pie Season is back in full swing. And with some shortbread cookies and an easy, no-bake cheesecake recipe the whole thing came together quickly.

This is delicious. Want to make one? Here is what I did:

1. So I quickly crushed some shortbread cookies (about 2 cups of store bought, or find a recipe here), and mixed them with 1/4 cup of melted butter and 1/4 cup of evenly mixed organic coconut sugar and organic cane sugar, then pressed the mixture into a parchment-lined 8" springform pan. I baked this in a preheated 350 degree oven for 12 minutes, then I let cool on a rack, and finally placed it in the fridge to fully cool.

2. I warmed 2 packaged of cream cheese (250g each, packaging removed) in the microwave for 30 seconds until room temperature.  While doing that I whipped 1.5 cups of whipping cream in my stand mixer until stiff. I transferred the shipping cream to another bowl, and then placed the warmed cream cheese in the stand mixer bowl that I used to whip the whip cream.  I whipped it for about 10 seconds, stopped the mixer, stirred in the bottom bits of cream cheese with a long spatula, and whipped it again for about 15 seconds. 

3. Then I added 2/3 cups of sugar slowly, while whipping on low and stirring with the spatula (stop the mixer to stir if necessary). Then I whipped it on high for about 20 seconds.  Stopped the mixer and stirred again and whipped again until just combined and lightly fluffy.

4. I then added 1 tsp of real vanilla extract and beat until combined (10 seconds), then added in half the whipped cream and whipped on low until combined. I stirred the bottom in and beat again for a few seconds.  Then I took the whole bowl out and slowly folded in the rest of the whipped cream.

5. Next, I placed half the mixture onto my cooked and cooled crust.  Then I took off the pie plate (carefully) and placed the pie, right-side-up, onto the crust and cream cheese mixture.  Next I topped the whole thing off with the rest of the cream cheese mixture.  I used a flower cut-out to sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon and coconut sugar on the top of the cake and let set in the fridge for an hour.  Once ready to serve, I simply cut around the edges with a knife, just inside the sides of the springform pan.  I carefully transferred to a serving plate (although you don't have to) and voila! A PIECAKEN was born.

For a homemade pumpkin pie recipe, click here.

What kind of quick PIECAKEN recipe can you whip up?  Feel free to share in the comments below or tweet me @ultimatelychoc with a picture of your creation!