One of my most popular desserts ever, these No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake Mousse Cups look elegant, but are actually easy to make, freezer-friendly and make the might light and refreshing dessert!
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Update: 5.24.21: I am incredibly honored that over the years since this was originally posted, it has been an enormous hit with fans and followers all over the world! While the original recipe is perfect as is, I have updated the post with some FAQ and tips
People often ask me where my recipe ideas come from. And I never know what to answer- no, I really can’t answer. Because I simply don’t know.
Okay, sometimes I know. I mean, the Butterscotch Bundt Cake that I published in my column in Ami magazine was a dream I had during my commute home from work one day. Okay, so I can’t exactly tell you where the dream came from, but it’s something. And some recipes are carefully researched and created to fit a theme, holiday or inspiration.
But this recipe came to my head, completely formed, in a split second. I was talking to my sister-in-law about dessert I would bring for a party she was making. She mentioned a yellow color scheme, so naturally my mind went to lemon. And then, because there’s a cheesecake holiday coming up, my mind went to cheesecake. And in a tenth of a second, this entire recipe appeared, fully formed, in my head.
Good news is, it was as delicious in real life as it seemed in my head. And better news, it’s super easy, no bake, and looks really pretty. Can you possibly ask for anything else?
FAQ about No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake Mousse Cups
Scroll past the FAQ for the recipe itself!
Can I freeze these cups?
Yes, you absolutely can (I have a batch in my freezer as I type this!). They can be served frozen (it will have an ice cream like texture), partially frozen, or you can fully defrost and serve cold, for more of a creamy texture.
They can be stored in the fridge for a few days, but if you want to make them more ahead of time, you should freeze them.
Can I make this in a large graham cracker pie crust instead of individual cups?
Yes, you can. Note, however, that the only way to slice it into neat portions is to freeze it. At it’s non-frozen consistency, it can only be scooped, not sliced.
You can also make this mixture in a large trifle bowl, instead of individual cups.
Can I make this in a different fruit flavor, instead of lemon?
Yes, I have done it many times! You’ll want to sub a different flavor of fruit pie filling (homemade or from a can), in place of the lemon pie filling. I’ve done it with strawberry, blueberry, cherry, apple and others. It’s important to note, however, that while lemon pie filling is smooth and creamy, most fruit fillings are not.
What I like to do is open the can or container of pie filling and stick an immersion blender right in! Blend until completely smooth and creamy, then proceed with the recipe.
Another note is that while lemon pie filling is sweet, it’s slightly tangy and often less sweet than other fillings. To compensate for the additional sweetness of the other flavors, I omit some or all of the powdered sugar in the recipe. My reccomendation is to make it with no sugar, then taste and add it at the end if you feel it’s necessary. (Simply stir it in with a rubber spatula.)
Do you have any serving suggestions to make this even prettier and/or more delicious?
I sure do! Here are some of my favorite serving suggestions:
- Top the lemon mousse with a layer of strawberry sauce. You can use a store-bought sauce of your choice, but my preference is to use the homemade strawberry sauce from this recipe, which is very easy to make.
- Instead of strawberry sauce, you can top the No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake Mousse Cups with a dollop of whipped cream and some slices of fresh strawberries.
- Instead of using graham cracker crumbs, you can play around with crunchy elements to use instead, such as vanilla cookie crumbs, lemon wafer rolls (I like to stick them into the top for a cool visual element!), vanilla or lemon cake crumbs, etc. You can have fun and go crazy, just make sure that the flavor of the crumbs works well with lemon!
- Make a layered dessert by making another flavor of mousse per my instructions above. My choice for this would be strawberry. Use a tall cup, and pipe or spoon alternating layers of the two flavors of mousse into it. It’s a great way to make this extra elegant!
Can I use homemade lemon curd instead of lemon pie filling?
Yes, you certainly can. It’s obviously more work, but well worth the effort! You can also use lime or grapefruit curd instead of the lemon.
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- 1 cup heavy whipping cream or non-dairy whip topping
- 1 cup lemon pie filling
- 12 ounces unwhipped cream cheese (or tofutti cream cheese)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- a few drops yellow food coloring, optional
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ cup graham cracker crumbs
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 Tablespoons melted butter or margarine
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the cream until stiff.
- Remove from the mixer and set aside. (No need to wash the bowl before continuing.) Add the lemon pie filling and cream cheese to the mixer and beat until smooth. Add the vanilla extract, food coloring (if using) and powdered sugar and beat until combined.
- Using a rubber spatula, add the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, slowly (do it in batches), until its fully incorporated. Set aside.
- To make the crumbs, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter or margarine.
- Place a small amount of the crumbs on the bottom of a cup. Pipe the mousse over the crumbs to fill the cup, then add more crumbs on top.
- Serve chilled.
Enjoy!
If you liked this recipe, you’ll also love:
Shortcut Cannoli with Chocolate Mousse Filling
Peanut Butter Mousse with chocolate pretzel crumbs
Tools needed for this recipe:
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Thanks for stopping by friends! Hope you love these gorgeous little treats. Have a great Shavuot and come back after for some yummy healthy recipes. -Miriam
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Reblogged this on Food Incorporated.
I love your creativity.
how many mousse cuos do these make
I made these tonight , only made 10. What size cups did you use to make 30? And should I add more pie filling or some lemon zest to make it more lemony? Thanks.
I plan to use lemon curd instead of pie filling , it has much more flavor
Who cares where the ideas come from when they’re this good! Beautiful photos, Miriam, of a beautiful dessert! These are just as lovely to look at as I’m sure they are to eat. My husband would love these since his favourite dessert flavour is lemon.
Beautifully delicious! On my list to try! 🙂
i will need to make it:) it looks amazing
Wow! These look great. Would love to try them.
I made something like this once. Only instead of lemon pie filling, I used vanilla pudding and freshly squeezed lemon juice. And I used lemon pound cake on the bottom, and dried some of the cake to crumble on top.
Oh, and I but them in some fancy tall schnapps cups.
But your pic is waaaaay better than mine…
Could these be piped into mini tart shells?
You bet! Yum. 🙂
What a beautiful dessert! I love these bite-size desserts.
My dad adores lemon desserts! I think I’ll try making this tomorrow morning so he’ll have something scrumptious when he comes home from work. By the way, your creativity is astounding. I would never be able to whip something up like that without guidelines.
These look absolutely delicious! I love anything lemony… add in creamy and I’m beyond ecstatic!
Love what you did with them!!!!!
Some of my best ideas come to me while driving!
The no bake is perfect for warm weather desserts and the lemon mousse looks creamy and delicious! It looks so fancy in the glasses. 🙂
How would it taste if I prepare the mixture for second day shavuos and assemble right before I serve. Would it taste the same ?
Should be fine!
Can these be made in advance
Sure! They freeze nicely!
So pretty! Absolutely love the square stem dishes. Could you tell me where I could purchase them? Thanks.
They sell them at my local grocery store- not sure where online they carry them!
PS they’re disposable 😉
A fun treat to make with my 4 year old!!! Thanks for sharing.
yum! i already made cheesecake though 😛
Wow!!! This looks delicious! I’ve been looking for a good/different dairy dessert and I love the fact that it has lemon too. Can’t wait to try this! Have a great chag!
perfect for dessert! I should try this one..thanks
How many cups would this make?
It looks really good and seems like its not that hard to make
Thanks for sharing.
I froze this and it make delicious creamy mini ice cream trifles.
Thanks!
Great idea!
I’m about to make it so I am going to let you know how it goes……..
Hi i hate this it is,so stupid I burned them iin the oven because it did not show how long to cook them!!!!!!
Me too! It calls for no bake, but then again, it says to heat the oven at 333 degrees. WHY! Idk u tell me!
Hi,
Approximately how many lemon mousse cheesecakes do you get from each recipe? Thanks!
About 3 dozen, but it will depends on the size of your cup.
Enjoy!
Thanks!!!
Is powdered sugar regular sugar or confectionary sugar?
How long will these last in the fridge? I want to make them ahead of time for a party. Thanks!
If you make them ahead of time, you’re best off freezing them!
Can these be frozen completely assembled? And do you think they would be ok in the freezer for a few weeks? Thanks.
Sure
Hello,
These really look and sound lovely, but where I come from we don’t get lemon pie filling. What is it precisely (I take it it’s some ready-made formula/mix for a cake) and can it be replaced with some assembled ingredients?
Thanks for taking time to answer!
You can sub homemade lemon curd instead.
What is lemonn pie filling….is it canned or lemon meringue filling by bakers choice which comes in a box?
Is the lemon pie filling from a can?
Yes!
I just made these – the flavor was absolutely amazing. I’m in the UK and used lemon curd instead of lemon pie filling since that was all that was available. I have a question – the texture of my filling was VERY liquidy. I thought it would set after chilling them all day but it remained the same. The taste was spot on – no complaints there, but is it intended to be so liquidy (like the consistency of a cake batter or even an uncooked cheesecake batter), or is it supposed to be a bit more firm and aerated like a mousse?
Any tips would be useful!
omg! these look absolutly delicous… a must to try…. i luv anything lemon so make that dairy…. i think ill eat it all by myself…
just a quick comment. it would be helpful if it has a print button like your other recipes have….
I’m working on adding the print button to the old recipes…it’s a lot work though so it’s not happening overnight!
I just made these and they’re awesome! What do you think about using other flavored pie filling? Like strawberry?
That works nicely.
I couldn’t find lemon pie filling so bought lemon curd, will that work? Thanks 🙂
Wow they look great I can’t get pie filling in australia so will try lemon curd, I will make them into round glass teacups thanks for sharing your recipes
Cheers
Rosie
Hi-what kind of tip did you use to pipe these? They look delicious!
Wilton 1M
Made these for an event the other night and they looked gorgeous and everyone loved them!!! I used 2 oz mousse cups and this recipe filled exactly 40 cups. I did need about double of the graham cracker part though… Thank you!!
OMG these are so easy to make and are absolutely delicious
i make them last night for my baby shower which is today and they look amazing, and they taste great i’m not very fan of key lime pie but my husband is and he want me to do something like this. everything is very clear and easy to make i’m not the greatest cooker and they came out great!!! one comment to make the recipe is for about 10 to 12 of those little champage plastic glass the you can find in the dollar store so just doble or triple the ingridients if you want to make more! good luck !
I made these a while ago and they were a hit. thinking of making for shavous, but my oldest said that he didn’t like the crumbs on the bottom. do you have any suggestions for something else that would do instead?
So this recipe was super easy of course and since i am making your strawberry cheesecake trifles i decided to pour this into 2 graham cracker crusts. No way to slice that of course so i froze the pies…. And it is DELICOUS!!!! Tastes like a perfect lemon freeze dessert… No my question is do i prepare a blueberry sauce or just top with crumbs or both? I love the combination of blueberrie and lemon. Thanks for a WINNER of a recipe!!!
How much is 12 oz in toffuti cc? The ones I have is 8oz each
1 1/2 packages.
do you think this would go with blueberry pie filling instead? want to make it for a purple color scheme?
Sure – blend it first to get a smooth texture.
Hi we do not get lime pie filling in India.is there any other alternative to it.
This recipe is fantastic! instead of lemon pie filling I used Lemon curd in a jar (Dickinsons brand). It was SOOOOOO good. I piped the filling into 2 oz glasses and was able to get about 20 desserts. Just delicious and refreshing!!
These were amazing! We had similar ones at a recent wedding, and I decided I must try them. Then i saw this in your cookbook and knew this was the right recipe to try! I made them as a parve dessert for a meat meal on Shavuos. They were a hit! It made 15 desserts – in 4 oz cups.
Enjoy!
What is the equivalent of 1 cup of lemon pie filling? I have one box of the lemon flavor My-T-Fine. Its 2 and 3/4 oz. Will that work?
I’m not familiar with the produce you’re talking about. If you cant get the canned stuff, you can use lemon curd.
I made the filling and served it in white chocolate cups …topped with a little crumble and a candied lemon slice.. it really was a show stopper … I also made lemon shortbread cookies… served on black dishes…
I think we eat with our eyes first … and it looked fabulous…!
hi! my friend recommended this recipe.
would it work in a graham cracker pie crust? and can i make it on thursday and serve it saturday?
Can I make these today, Wednesday refrigerate, pipe into cups tomorrow, Thursday, refrigerate and serve on Shabbos day?
You can keep these (fully assembled) in the fridge for a few days, or longer than that for in the freezer.
Hi, if I dont use the food coloring will the mousse look white or more yellowish? (Im making for a party and need it to be white). Thank you
If I made these dAiry what substitutes would I use?
Hi,
I can’t wait to try this recipe. I was wondering if I can use Bakers Choice Lemon cream instead of the lemon pie filling.
thank you
Sure
Just made these. They are awesome!!! Love this recipe!! I got 12.
I made your recipe today for our Neighborhood Gal Pal Afternoon Card Game Get-Together.
I got 8 six ounce dessert cups (adorable little disposable cups and spoons from Dollar Tree BTW) and 3 half pint Mason Jars.
I doubled the amount of “crumbs”.
I made up my own homemade Meyer Lemon Curd and parked that in the `fridge a few days ago.
For the Mason Jars, I did 2 layers of Mousse and crumbs, along with a sprinkle of crumbs atop all desserts.
For service tomorrow with the Girlies, I’ll top each dessert cup with some Whipped Cream for fun.
The three Mason Jars are going to the neighbor who can not attend.
I tasted the “filling” and it was wonderful, I’ll report back later as to what the group thought.
ALOHA!
This has been one of my go to spring and summer recipes for years and one of my friends requires this for her birthday every year. Instead of graham crackers I have been using Vanilla Wafers, though I find that when using them its better to eat them same day as the wafers do get soggier quicker.
I will have to experiment with flavors but the lemon is just so classic. Thank you for sharing this so many years ago.