Cheesecake Cupcakes

I first tasted these back when I was a kid when my cousin Gwen would make them. They are like a little piece of cheesecake heaven! Every time I make them and take them somewhere people just love them.

So here goes -

Ingredients:

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

1 cup white sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

graham cracker crumbs

2/3 cup sour cream

2/3 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream together the cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar. Then beat in one egg at a time. Add vanilla. Beat until extremely smooth:

You can make these either in regular muffin size pans or in mini-muffin pans. I actually prefer the mini-muffin pans because it is just the right size for a perfect little bite of cheesecake.

Grease the pans with a thick coating of shortening. Then pour a little bit of graham cracker crumbs into each muffin spot.

Shake the crumbs around in the pan so that they coat the bottom and edges of each muffin hole. Then shake the excess off into the trash. Or when using multiple pans, you can shake the excess off onto the next pan and save a few crumbs. I know, I am such a amazing conservationist :)

Fill the muffin tin 7/8ths of the way full for the mini muffins, but only about half way full for the regular size muffins. The reason being that you don’t want the cheesecake part to be too thick or it just won’t taste right.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 to 25 minutes for mini muffins or 25 to 30 minutes for regular size muffins. They should look all puffy like this when they are done and be ever so slightly golden brown on the top.

In a small bowl mix together the sour cream, 2/3 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. After you take the cheesecakes out of the oven, let them sit for about 5 minutes. During that time the center will sink down and create a little well in each of them. Spoon the sour cream mixture into each well.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 5 to 7 minutes to “set” the sour cream mixture. Let them cool in the pans then remove and refrigerate until ready to serve. If you want you could even add a little fruit on each one, but really they taste great plain. Another great thing about these is that they lend themselves well to holidays. You can add a little food coloring into the sour cream mixture to make them festive. Go orange for Halloween, or green for St. Patrick’s Day, or hot pink for Valentine’s day. Very fun!

Pair them with some chocolate dipped strawberries and you’ve got yourself a party!