Berry Topping for Cheesecake

Conversation last night with my niece about what dessert her boyfriend wants for his birthday:
Her - how hard is it to make cheesecake?
Me - (showed her a Food Network recipe) look at this recipe, it isn't too hard.
Her - what? 5 hours to make it? Uh, no...
Me - I can make it for you?
Her - No, he actually wants me to just buy a plain cheesecake and make the topping. He would like me to purchase the raspberries and reduce them in sugar. LMAO. He must think I'm fricken Betty Crocker.
Me - (after laughing at her...) well making topping is way easier than making cheesecake. How about you buy the cheesecake and I make the topping?
Her - deal.

So here is what I did for the topping...well, toppings because I also thought blueberry would be nice so I decided to make both :). These are beyond simple - for the raspberry I put 1.5 pints (that's 3 of those little clamshell containers) in a saucepan with 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, cook over medium heat on the stovetop for approx 10 minutes. It was looking very thin so I mixed together 2 teaspoons of cornstarch with enough water to make it pourable, and drizzled a little in with the raspberries (note: I had a little left over and put some in the blueberries too...) to help thicken it up a bit. I then added another half pint of berries for a minute or so hoping they would stay chunkier but they all broke down and became sauce - delicious delicious sauce. I haven't strained it yet, waiting to hear from her if she thinks he wants it seedless or as is - I prefer it with seeds. If he wants the seeds removed I will pour it thru a fine mesh strainer to remove them.

For the blueberry topping I put 1 pint in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons sugar and the zest and juice of one lemon, cook over medium for about 5 minutes.

I zested the lemon right into the pot...

...then cut in half and squeeze cut side up so the
seeds don't fall into the pan. You can put your
other hand under the lemon to catch any falling
seeds if you aren't holding a camera in the other
hand trying to take a picture of how to do this!

Both of these are so good and so easy - mmmm I'm glad I made them, licking the spoons was such a treat!

finished product. I'm not a huge cheesecake lover, but I am a
berry sauce fiend so I'm really looking forward to dessert now!

PS: I just realize I blogged about the same niece 3 days in a row! Rolo cupcakes, pallet garden, and now berry sauce :). We obviously share a lot of the same interests!