Easy Raspberry Mini Cheesecakes in muffin pans make a fun Valentine’s Day themed dessert for your special sweetheart or children. From-scratch cheesecake filling over a thick graham cracker crust, topped with homemade raspberry sauce.
Mini Cheesecakes for Valentine’s Day
Cheesecakes hold a special place in my heart. There’s something about the sweet, slightly savory, dense and creamy combination of this classic dessert. Speaking of hearts, these Raspberry Mini Cheesecakes would make a perfect treat for that special someone on Valentine’s Day.
These mini cheesecakes are ideal for sharing and baked in a muffin pan for single serve portions. It’s a unique twist on the classic 9-inch round style. Whether you’re treating yourself to a you-deserve-it dessert, bringing to a party, or sharing with a loved one, these make a fun and tasty treat.
Ingredients for Mini Cheesecakes with Raspberries
- Graham crackers, butter, and sugar: creates a delicious and easy to prepare the base for the mini cheesecakes
- Cream cheese: at room temperature
- Fresh raspberries: whole raspberries are used in the cheesecake batter and the rest are mashed to make the raspberry sauce topping.
- Eggs: a rising agent for the cheesecake muffins
- Sour cream: gives that tangy cheesecake flavor
- Vanilla: to naturally sweeten
- White chocolate chips: chocolate is a key ingredient for Valentine’s Day and pairs well with raspberries
- Sugar, water and lemon juice: to make the topping
How to make mini cheesecakes in a muffin pan
- Line a muffin pan with paper liners and lightly coat insides with olive oil spray.
- Stir together graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Stir in butter until moist. Divide mixture between paper liners, pressing bottoms to form an even layer. Bake 5 minutes, then cool pan on a wire rack.
- Divide batter between prepared muffin cups with a bit of white chocolate chips in the bottom, filling just below tops, and bake 22 minutes at 350° F.
- Cool pan on wire rack to room temp, then chill 4 hours or overnight.
How to prevent Cheesecake Muffins sticking to the muffin liners: Baked in muffin liners, these mini raspberry cheesecakes make for easy cleanup and storing. Use a cooking or olive oil spray to lightly coat the muffin liners. This helps them come out of the liners more cleanly. It’s a little secret I learned, as cheesecake often sticks to muffin liners.
Temp and baking time for mini cheesecakes
Bake in the oven at 350° F oven for 20-25 minutes. Every oven is different so watch carefully, make sure they are lightly browned on the top, and have slightly wobbly centers. I recommend not opening the oven door until they’ve had at least 18 minutes as they can sink quickly if you open the door too soon.
What if my cheesecake cracks or sink?
A good batter and proper baking temp and time should reduce this risk. However, it can be common for cheesecakes to sink or dip slightly in the middle, or crack on the top. If this happens a simple way to fix is to add toppings such as jam, frosting, glaze or fresh fruits to cover it up.
The great thing about these raspberry cheesecakes is that they are topped with a delicious sauce so if you’re serving these to guests they’ll never know!
Tips for making Mini Cheesecake Muffins
- Make sure to grease the muffin liners with spray to make the cheesecakes easy to remove
- Make sure to use room temperature cream cheese or your mixture could turn out lumpy
- Go for vanilla extract and avoid vanilla essence for best flavor
- Chill the cheesecakes for at least 4 hours before serving
- Top with raspberry sauce just before serving
- You can make the sauce ahead of time and store it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve
- The cheesecakes will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days
Although cheesecakes are often a simple mixture of cream cheese, sugar, egg and sometimes flour or sour cream, I find recipes can vary in texture and finished presentation. Getting them just right, without cracks or deflating, requires a lot of variables to perfectly align.
Variations of cheesecake flavors
Although these are Mini Raspberry Cheesecakes you could also use strawberries which would work really well and still look great for a Valentine’s Day dessert. In fact, you could use almost any berry for this recipe including blueberries and blackberries.
Graham crackers work really well for the base but you could use other cookies such as ginger snaps, digestive biscuits or even Oreos if you want a chocolate hit.
Pro Tip: To make these mini cheesecakes gluten-free swap the Graham crackers for gluten-free cookies or chopped nuts.
More cheesecake recipes you may like:
- No-Bake Mini Caramel Apple Pie Cheesecakes
- Strawberry Hazelnut No-Bake Cheesecake
- Fudgy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Mini Cheesecake Cupcake
Leave a comment below and star rating if you made this recipe or want to share your thoughts.
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Raspberry Mini Cheesecake Muffins
Ingredients
Raspberry Mini Cheesecakes
- Cooking spray, or oil
- 1 ½ cups finely crushed graham crackers, (9 sheet pack)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar, + ⅔ cup
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, room temp
- ⅓ cup fresh raspberries
- 2 large eggs, room temp
- ⅔ cup sour cream
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- ½ cup white chocolate baking chips
Raspberry Sauce
- 10 ounces fresh rapsberries
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ⅛ cup water
- 1 lemon, juiced
Instructions
Mini Cheesecakes Muffins
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Line an 18-count muffin pan with paper liners. Lightly coat insides with cooking spray. If you don't have spray, lightly brush insides with oil. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, stir together graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Stir in butter until moist. Divide mixture between paper liners, pressing bottoms to form an even layer. Bake 5 minutes, cool pan on a wire rack.
- Meanwhile: With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese on medium until smooth. Add in sugar until combined, then raspberries until incorporated. Scrape sides of the bowl.
- Add eggs one at a time on low, mixing completely after each egg. Scrape sides and beat in sour cream and vanilla until combined.
- Sprinkle some white chocolate chips on the bottom of each prepared muffin cup. Divide batter between cups, filling just below tops, and bake 20-24 minutes. Tops should be lightly browned and centers slightly wobbly.
- Cool pan on wire rack to room temp, then chill 4 hours or overnight. Centers may dip a bit during cooling.
Raspberry Sauce
- Stir together all sauce ingredients in a pan over medium heat. Bring to a low bowl, stir well and mash raspberries. Simmer 10 minutes to thicken.
- Bring to room temp then chill. Fill centers with raspberry sauce and fresh raspberries. Serve immediately or store in the fridge.
Notes
- To make these gluten-free: Substitute chopped nuts such as pecans or almonds for graham cracker crumbs
- Make sure to grease the muffin liners with spray to make the cheesecakes easy to remove
- Make sure to use room temperature cream cheese or your mixture could turn out lumpy
- Go for vanilla extract and avoid vanilla essence for best flavor
- Chill the cheesecakes for at least 4 hours before to set before serving and topping
- You can make the sauce ahead of time and store it in the fridge until you're ready to serve
- The cheesecakes will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days
So cute and just in time for Valentine’s Day!
Thanks Eden!
These are sooo cute! And the absolutely perfect size. Now, to only have one… or two… 😉
Yes that’s the difficult part. Thanks Tracy!
I am a HUGE fan of allllll the cheesecake! Your mini muffins are reminding me of how my mom used to make use little cheesecakes growing up – she always did strawberry, but I am loving this raspberry version!
I wish I had these growing up but glad they’re familiar to you! I bet they’d be great with strawberries as well.
I enjoy mini cakes and best when are cheesecake and include my favorite fruit like raspberries looks so good!
I agree, mini cheesecakes are great for sharing. Thanks Adriana.
This looks like the perfect treat for my hubby who loves cheesecake. I know I would score major best wife points for this one. Love all your tips and tricks.
My husband and I are BIG cheesecake fans, but since it’s just the two of us now that my daughter has grown up and flown the coop, a whole cheesecake is way too much. Your mini cheesecakes are the ultimate solution — and your tip to cover any sinkholes or cracks with jam is genius — because that ALWAYS happens to me.