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Lemon Cheesecake Cupcakes

Why haven’t I thought of this before? Individual servings of creamy and tangy lemon cheesecake. But most importantly, why haven’t I seen these before? Someone must have discovered cheesecake cupcakes decades ago, right? So, even though I have zillion cookbooks, flip through jillion food magazines and read gazillion food blogs, why don’t I remember seeing cheesecake cupcakes before?

Has the time come? Am I so over saturated with images of food that I don’t really see what I’m looking at anymore?

Or is it just about turning the right page (or clicking the right link) at the right time?

When I saw the individual cheesecakes recipe in delicious. magazine’s June 2009 issue, I didn’t just mark the page and continued reading. I opened the fridge door and checked if I had cream cheese. Luckily, I did. I also had fresh mulberries from my father’s garden. Perfect!

The beauty of this recipe is that you don’t need to go through the process of a water bath, which is quite scary especially for cheesecake virgins.

Believe me, it is very hard to screw up with this recipe. And even if you do, don’t forget: Combination of berries and powdered sugar is the best concealer known to the home baker.

I love it when I get to salvage leftovers from a previous baking adventure. Once in a while, I bake more cookies than I can eat.

OK, all the time. Since I am against trashing anything edible, I always freeze them and wait for a recipe to come by.

Mini Lemon Cheesecakes

Thanks to this lemon cheesecake cupcakes, there opened some space to be filled in my freezer. Maybe a batch of pomegranate frozen yogurt? Oh yeah.

LEMON CHEESECAKE CUPCAKES

Recipe adapted from delicious. magazine’s June 2009 issue

Makes 12 lemon cheesecake cupcakes

Ingredients

Cookie base:

  • 3+1/2 oz (100 gr) gingersnap (or shortbread) cookies
  • 2 oz (55 gr) ground almonds
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 3 tbsp butter, melted

Filling:

Important: For a creamy consistency, make sure that all the ingredients below are at room temperature.

  • 1 lb. cream cheese
  • 3+1/2 oz heavy cream (or sour cream)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 5 oz mulberries (or any kind of berry)
  • 2 tbsp powdered sugar

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 325F.
  2. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with muffin cases and set aside.
  3. Crush the cookies to fine crumbs and mix with ground almonds, sugar and melted butter.
  4. Press 1 heaped tablespoon of mixture into the base of each muffin case and place in the refrigerator to chill.
  5. Beat the cream cheese, heavy cream and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy.
  6. Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest, beating well after each addition.
  7. Rap the mixer bowl hard on your counter to knock out the air bubbles trapped inside the filling.
  8. Spoon the mixture over the cookie bases 3/4 full.
  9. Press three mulberries into the filling and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cheesecakes are puffed and starting to color.
  10. Cool, then chill until ready to eat.
  11. Decorate each cheesecake with more mulberries and dust with powdered sugar to serve.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. they look wonderful, Cenk! I make similar tiny cheesecakes flavored with orange zest & orange liquor on a chocolate cookie crust and freeze them for an ice cream-like dessert.
    btw, I’m already starting to see pomegranates in the markets around here – I can’t wait to see what you make with them this year!

    Reply

  7. Nicely done! I’ve found this is the best way to do cheesecakes as a whole one is messy to serve sometimes. 🙂 I use a small glass spice jar to press the crust into the cupcake papers!

    Reply

  8. i’ve made cheesecake a lot, but never tried cheesecake cupcake.
    it might sound a bit too much for breakfast, but i’d definitely hv 1 maybe 2 for my breakfast!

    Reply

  11. I’m surprised that you haven’t seen individual cheesecakes before. Paula Deen, Pampered Chef & others have recipes in cupcake & mini-muffin sizes. Try putting a whole vanilla wafer in the bottom for your crust – so easy! Happy baking.

    Reply

  13. I belong to that uncommon group who is not fond of cheese cakes. But I haven’t seen anything as pretty as these before. Love the cookie base & the berries.

    Reply

  14. These are beautiful and remind me of one of my favorite treats to bake when I was about 10…early 1980’s. I used Nilla wafers for the crust, made cheesecake base with almond extract and topped them with (Gasp!) canned cherry pie filling! They were so red and glossy and utterly beautiful-oh delicious too! I think my adult palatte would much prefer the taste of yours. Especially the mulberries.

    Reply

  15. Yes, individual cheesecakes were incredibly popular (at least in the US) in the late 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s. they were everywhere! I think the trend got so huge, then burnt itself out, and that’s why you don’t see them in your current crop of books, or in the blogosphere.
    But that doesn’t change the fact that they are tasty and practical (they were popular for a reason!) and I have never tried them with mulberries!

    Reply

  20. first time visitor here and will surely return……..we do a lot of brunches for lazy Sundays so individual anything is perfect and these jewels will be making a Sunday appearance soon……thanks

    Reply

  21. If only I had cream cheese in the fridge!! Individual cheesecakes certainly seem to be having a resurgence in Sydney cafes of late but I love your home baked variety – and especially your way with left over biscuits! Ginger and lemon, together at last!
    Georgia

    Reply

  26. I’m with Soma…I don’t usually like cheesecake at all–far too heavy for my taste. But I LOVE lemon and I LOVE berries, so I feel that despite my anti-cheesecake stance, these look lovely!

    Reply

  29. Oh these look just perfect Cenk! I can never have a whole big slice of cheesecake and these cupcakes (with the fresh berries!) are calling my name!

    Reply

  31. I don’t know if I did it right exactly (I’m pretty amateur in the kitchen, but I’m working on it!) but I had twice as much filling as I did crust… I was able to make almost 2 dozen with the filling this recipe calls for… any tips?

    Reply

  34. My mom used to make cheesecake cupcakes when I was little. I think it was in some Pillsbury cookbook in the early eighties. This makes me nostalgic just looking at it… I’ll have to make these for sure!

    Reply

  35. oh my goodness, these were bliss. I made them with crumbled scotch finger biscuits and fresh raspberries. The berries swirled beautifully into the cheesecake and made them look and taste so divine that no one guessed how simple they were to make! Perfect for impressing company at short notice.

    Reply

  37. Hi Cenk
    Just found your blog and looks amazing. Delicious recipies and mouthwatering photos. One question, what would you use as a substitute for the heavy cream in this recipe, for Turkey? I guess we just have the regular “krema” that is quite runny..

    Reply

  38. i cannot wait to try these! these look amazing!!just a question, you use a cupcake tin right? because in the directions it says muffin tin..and those are tiny! and also, when you press the berries into the individual cupcakes, will they automatically swirl into the cheesecake mix or will they be whole berries still by the time theyre done baking? thanks for this recipe!!

    Reply

    • Mia – Actually, I’ve used a muffin tin. Maybe they look small in the photos, but they were baked in a standard 12-cup muffin tin. The berries I’ve used were very soft so they did swirl into the cheesecake mix. Hope you like the recipe.

      Reply

  39. okay, thanks! also, do you know of any way to prevent freshly cut fruit from leaking onto the cupcake? i’ve tried to put cut up strawberries on top of cupcakes/frosting before, but they’ve always ended up leaking and making the frosting runny or the cake soggy. I know it might help if i leave the entire strawberry on top without cutting it, but is there any way to prevent a cut-up piece from leaking? i’ve tried powdered sugar, but it doesnt work..

    Reply

    • Mia – You might want to try glazing them with a transparent jelly. That creates a beautiful shine and a protective crust of some sort so that the fruit doesn’t wilt too quickly and stain the frosting. Hope this helps.

      Reply

  40. Made these as the base for a blueberry-themed dessert night. I guess I Canadianized the recipe a bit: added tons of wild blueberries from Northern Ontario and a few blackberries for good measure. And used some of my homemade maple-syrup cookies as the base.

    Here’s a picture:

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6791773&l=cd852b9e69&id=594406001

    So yummy. Thanks so much for the recipe. Will make again very soon (I just bought blackberries at the farmer’s market, so very soon indeed!)

    Reply

  41. Sorry–I forgot to add that I had too much filling for 12-standard sized cupcakes. I added a bit more cream and a drizzle of honey to the extra filling and churned it in my ice cream maker. That tasted divine.

    Reply

  42. The small, wild blueberries are a little more expensive than the cultivated ones (which are very cheap at this time of year) here, but so worth it. If you’re ever visiting Quebec or Ontario, come in August so you can indulge 🙂

    Reply

  45. Hi. I’d like to make these for my daughter’s class tomorrow, but I can’t find muffin tins anywhere. Just cupcake. So how would I amend this? Please help. I’ve been eyeing this recipe for MONTHS!! Very excited. Thank you.

    Reply

    • Leisa – What’s the size of your tins? If they are smaller, adjust baking time accordingly. The minute they start to color, take them out of the oven.

      Reply

  46. I finally made these…and they tasted AMAZING! just one thing, is the cookie base supposed to be dense? they felt very dense and kind of oily..is there anything i may have done wrong or something i can change?

    Reply

    • Mia – You might want to reduce the butter by half (or a bit more – until the crumbs come together), but since the batter is quite wet, the only way to get a somewhat-dry cookie base would only be possible by pre-baking them before you pour the batter. Maybe 10 minutes of pre-baking followed by another 25-30 minutes with the batter? Hope this works.

      Reply

  47. I’m just baking the second batch of these. The first one was done like an hour ago, but I’ve have a question. When the recipe says that the cupcakes are ready when starts to puff and take color, it means that is when they bounce back?

    I also used cinnamon cookies instead of gingersnaps because its kinda hard to find them in México, and added 1 tpsp of honey instead of sugar for the cookie base. I can’t wait to see how they taste!

    ps. I just LOVE your blog! this is the first recipe I made and I’m planning to bake the Devil’s Food Cake for my boyfriend’s birthday. Also your photos are gorgeous. Greets from Mexico City 🙂

    Reply

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