Cheesecake is one of our favorite desserts at home. My last couple of birthday cakes have been cheesecakes. That alone should tell you how much I love it. But do you know whats even better than a cheesecake? Little mini cheesecakes, of course. Jokes aside, these are the perfect option for a party or even for the family. You can make them a day ahead of the party and keep them refrigerated. They are easy to serve and could serve to help portion control too. And they are super delicious as well. Now that’s a dessert that ticks all the boxes for me.
Easy Mini Cheesecakes with a Strawberry Topping
Makes 8 mini cheesecakes
For the base –
120g Digestive biscuits
30g butter
For the cheesecake –
250g cream cheese
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste)
100g double cream
2 eggs
A tiny pinch of salt
For the topping –
1/2 cup strawberry jam
Fresh strawberries
For the base –
Melt the butter and keep aside.
Blitz the biscuits in a food processor till you get a coarse crumb texture. Add the melted butter and blitz again to combine. This should now resemble wet sand.
For the filling –
Beat the cream cheese till its creamy.
Add the sugar and and mix till it is well combined.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Now add the lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla and salt and mix till combined.
Lastly, add the cream and mix till it has incorporated with the rest of the ingredients.
To assemble –
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Line a cupcake tray with paper cases.
Place about 1 tbsp. or so of the biscuit crumb in each case. Using the back of a spoon, pack it down and flatten it.
Top it with the cheesecake filling about 2/3 of the way.
Bake for 15-17 minutes or till the outside has set and the middle still has a little jiggle to it. (You may find some of them puff up a bit or develop a little crack. That is fine.)
Take it out of the oven and let it cool down completely.
Warm the jam over some medium heat, just to loosen it a bit. You don’t need to simmer or boil it. This took me about a minute.
Spoon a little jam over each of the mini cheesecakes.
Top with some fresh berries.
Refrigerate for 2-4 hours to set. You can leave it to set overnight as well.
Enjoy!!!
The best Baked Cheesecake ever
Let’s go back to where it all began, shall we! My husband and I were sitting one evening and watching the latest season of Masterchef Australia (one of my favourite food shows) and it happened to be a Masterclass episode. I’m so stoked they brought back the Masterclass episodes this year. I felt quite cheated out of them last year. Anyway, Matt Preston was making a baked cheesecake. We love cheesecake in our house. So we were very keen to check this masterclass out. Long story short, we loved the way his cheesecake turned out and decided that we would try it sometime soon.
Now I didn’t know how soon “soon” would actually be. I figured it would be a while before I got a chance to make one of them. Turned out, my husband had other plans. The following Saturday while I was at work (yes, unfortunately I do work some weekends), he actually went to the shops and picked out all the ingredients for the cake and had it prepped by the time I got home from work. We popped it in to bake and then in the fridge to set. After dinner that day we were both anxious to see how it turned out. It was HEAVENLY. Soft, creamy, beautifully flavoured with a fantastic crust. We we both very, very pleased with the way this cheesecake turned out and I can happily say that this will now be my go-to recipe for a baked Cheesecake. Thank you Matt Preston! and thank you Masterchef Australia!
Baked Cheesecake
For the base –
1 packet of Granita biscuits (250g pack) (if you can’t find Granita biscuits, you can use Digestive biscuits instead)
60g sugar
75 g butter, melted
For the filling –
750g cream cheese, at room temperature
230g or 1 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch of salt
300ml double cream
Preheat the oven to 175ºC.
Line a 23cm spring form cake tin with baking paper.
Double wrap the outside of the cake tin with extra wide aluminium foil. This is to make the tin water tight to ensure that water from the little water bath you will create for the cake, doesn’t seep into the cake.
For the base, blitz the biscuits in a food processor till you get crumbs. Add the sugar and blitz again for a couple of seconds till its mixes well. Add the unsalted butter and blitz again to combine.
At this stage, your base mix should resemble coarse wet sand.
Press the mix into the bottom of the prepared cake tin, spreading it out with the back of a large wooden spoon to even it out.
Bake for 10 minutes till lightly brown and set.
Remove the tin from the oven and set aside to cool. This base should be completely cooled before you add the filling.
For the filling, place the cream cheese in a stand mixer and using a padding attachment beat till smooth and creamy.
Add the sugar and beat till the sugar has completely dissolved.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition and make sure the egg is fully incorporated in the mix before adding the next one.
Add the lemon juice, vanilla extract and salt and mix until well combined.
Now add the cream and mix until well combined.
Pour the mix over the cooled base. Set the cake tin in the middle of a larger roasting tray or larger baking dish. You want to ensure your roasting tray / baking dish has high sides. Set this on the middle rack of the oven.
Carefully, fill the roasting tray with boiling water upto a 2 cm height and bake till the cake has set and the top is a little golden brown. This should take about 65 minutes.
Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside the oven to cool with the oven door closed.
Then take the cheesecake and leave to cool completely.
Cover it and pop it into the fridge to cool a little and set further.
Serve with fresh berries if desired. But even by itself, the cake is so good you’ll be glad you baked it.
Blackcurrant Cheesecake
This cheesecake was requested for, by my brother. He had a friends birthday to attend and the birthday boy is a big fan of cheesecake, hence the request. This recipe is one I hadn’t tried before, so I literally had my fingers crossed while this was coming together. I actually made a second tiny cheesecake, so that we could taste it too.
The cheesecake was a complete hit. We at home loved it too, so I know for sure they weren’t just trying to be nice when they complemented it. I heard that at the party there was quite a scramble for it. There were a couple of pieces set aside to take to someone, but apparently a couple of the boys were found in the kitchen gobbling them down. All that was left were crumbs. Its always so nice to hear that. That’s what keeps me baking.
I followed the recipe I found on Easy Meal Planning for the cheesecake. I didn’t however, have the time to make the sauce for the topping. This cheesecake was originally supposed to be a Blueberry Cheesecake, but my brother who was supposed to pick up a tin for this specific purpose, picked up a tin of Blackcurrant pie filling instead. So we decided to use it anyway. Waste not! Want Not!
This cheesecake had to travel about an hour to its destination, so all I did was use the dull side of a knife to loosed the edges of the cheesecake after it had cooled completely. Then I placed a glass on the table and the cheesecake tin over it just to demould it completely. I simply picked the ring up again and then added the topping. I wrapped it all up nice and securely at the base and covered the top with some al-foil. It reached safe and sound.
Blackcurrant Cheesecake
Yields 1-8″ and a tiny 4″ one or 1 – 9″ cake
For the base
250g digestive biscuits, crushed
60g butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
You can either use the food processor and lightly crush the biscuits till it resembled coarse bread crumbs or you can use a rolling pin. I used the food processor to save time.
Tip the biscuit crumbs in a mixing bowl and add the melted butter. Stir till it is incorporated well and starts to look like wet sand.
Press this mixture into the bottom of a loose bottomed cake tin (you could also use a spring form pan if you have one) and let it come up the sides as well. How high you let it come depends on how you like your cheesecake crust. Avoid making the crust too thick where the base meets the sides.
Bake for 7-10 minutes till it has lightly browned.
While this is happening, you can start mixing your filling.
For the filling
250g cream cheese
450g cottage cheese
200g light brown sugar
6 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp. lemon zest
Make sure the cream cheese and the cottage cheese is near room temperature and not chilled to get a nice, creamy texture.
Blitz the cottage cheese in a blender with some milk / cream till smooth and creamy. Do not over beat.
Beat together the cottage cheese, the cream cheese, sour cream and the sugar. Add the egg yolks and continue to beat. Add the zest and the vanilla essence and beat till it has been incorporated well into the mix.
Beat the egg whites till they hold soft peaks. Fold the beaten whites into the cream cheese mix.
Pour the mix into the baked biscuit shell.
Wrap a large piece of heavy duty aluminium foil around the base of the tin and up the sides. Place the tin in a roasting tray. Carefully, pour boiling water in the roasting pan till it reaches halfway up the side of the cake pan.
Carefully place the roasting pan in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes or till a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out just clean.
Remove the foil from around the tin and let the cheesecake cool completely.
Now you can demould the cake and add the topping. I used a tin of black-currant pie filling/cheesecake topping.
(Note that the original recipe calls for 450g cream cheese and 250g cottage cheese. I had just about 250g cream cheese and the local store was out of cream cheese so I used the quantities above and still ended up with a cheesecake that had beautiful texture.)
The Lightest and Creamiest Japanese Cheesecake
I’d read in a few places that this cheesecake is finicky and a lot can go wrong, but after making it, what I can say is that if you follow the instructions carefully, you will be treated to the most amazing cheesecake you’ve had in a while and that too, made right in your kitchen. I do hope you try this out. It would be such a shame to miss out on making this. And when you do, I;d love to know how it goes.
Please excuse the picture quality, my camera was dead and I knew if I waited to charge it, there’d be nothing left to capture. So I just used my phone instead!
Japanese Cheesecake
Recipe from: Diana’s Desserts
140g superfine sugar
6 eggs, separated
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100 ml milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
60g all purpose flour
20g cornflour
1/4 tsp salt
Line an 8″ round cake pan (bottom and sides) with some lightly greased parchment paper. (I just lined the bottom of the pan and it worked fine too.)
Melt the cream cheese, butter and milk in a double boiler.
Cool this mix down.
Fold in the flour, cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.
Whisk the egg whites with the cream of tartar till it is foamy. Add the sugar and continue to whisk till soft peaks form.
Add the cream cheese mix to the egg white mix and mix well.
Pour the mix into the prepared cake pan and bake it in a water bath at 160ºC for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until set and golden brown.
Note: I halved the recipe and used a 6″ round cake pan.
This recipe is linked to –
Sweet Tooth Friday
Sweets for a Saturday
A Themed Bakers Sunday
Not Baaad
Mangia Mondays
Homespun Bakeshop