This month my cupcake calendar came up with a more unusual type of cupcake, one which I’d never thought of doing before. The idea was to make little cheesecakes in cupcake cases – an actually very simple idea, but not something I’ve seen before. I didn’t follow the recipe in terms of ingredients much, I just used a basic baked cheesecake mixture that I’ve done before, but made it in cupcake cases instead of a large cake tin.
I wasn’t sure how they would turn out, but in the end they worked pretty well. A few had issues coming out of the tin – I think the key was to make sure no mixture spilled over the side when I poured it in or during the baking as the mixture rose slightly, because this left a sticky residue between paper and tin. The taste was delicious, just like any other baked cheesecake. These would be handy to serve at a buffet or party where there are lots of different choices and you’d like to try a little bit of a few things – no more trying to cut a small slither of a big cheesecake and it ending up disheveled!
Here’s the recipe…
Ingredients
- 200g digestive biscuits
- 125g margarine
- 200g soft cheese (Philadelphia-style)
- 100ml soured cream
- 100g sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- blueberries to decorate
Method
- Put cupcake cases into a 12-hole muffin tin and pre-heat the oven to 160ºC (fan).
- Put the digestives in a large bowl and crush them into crumbs using the end of a rolling pin.
- Melt the margarine in a smaller bowl in the microwave and add to the biscuit crumbs.
- Mix until well combined and stiff, then spoon into the cake cases and press down with your fingers to make the base.
- Mix the soft cheese, soured cream and sugar together, then beat in the eggs and vanilla essence.
- Pour the mixture into the paper cases on top of the biscuit base.
- Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until just golden on top.
- Turn the oven off and leave the cakes to cool in there until they are cool enough to remove without oven gloves.
- Remove the cakes from the tin.
- Decorate each cake with a few blueberries or other fruit.
- Store in the fridge until eaten.