Mini Cherry Cheesecakes

April 23: National Cherry Cheesecake Day

College is not just a place to learn for a career but also about cooking.  Islander first learned how to make mini cherry cheesecakes from someone in one of her classes. Then she shared the recipe with her roommate, Monica C., and they baked them together in the dorm kitchen. They were a luxurious and delicious dessert compared to the cheap cardboard-tasting pizza and five-packs-for-a-dollar instant noodles they often ate as students. Islander continues to make mini cherry cheesecakes for college kids as part of her involvement in campus ministry. These snack-sized sweets are our featured blog recipe post for National Cherry Cheesecake Day.

Recipe

(Adapted from Cooks.com)

Ingredients

• 3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar (granulated white)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• box of vanilla wafers
• can of cherry pie filling, drained

Directions

Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers and place one vanilla wafer in each cup.  Beat the cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Pour the batter 2/3 full in each cup. Bake the mini cheesecakes in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven, let stand for 10 minutes in the muffin tins. Then transfer the mini cheesecakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

Drain the cherry pie filling in a colander. Place three cherries in the middle of the “well” of the mini-cheesecakes. Chill for at least half an hour before serving. Yield: About two dozen.

Notes

• Change the cherry pie topping to blueberry and serve these cheesecake cups on May 26, National Blueberry Cheesecake Day.
• Search our blog for more posts on cheesecake recipes.