Red White and Blue Mini Cheesecakes

Mini cheesecakes make a fantastic dessert for their simplicity, quick cooking time, and individual portion size. They can be decorated differently, for added fun to holidays and parties. These red, white and blue mini cheesecakes are the perfect dessert for Memorial Day and 4th of July barbecues.

They take only 10 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to cook. You can also cook them in the Instant Pot in just 7 minutes, if you'd prefer that method. The cheesecakes work great with a patriotic bundt cake or sprinkle-filled cupcakes, also red white and blue!

Cheesecake Filling Ingredients

• cream cheese
• white sugar
• vanilla extract
• eggs
• lemon juice
• red food coloring
• blue food coloring

Crust Ingredients

• crushed Oreo cookies
• white sugar
• melted butter

You'll also need whipped cream, patriotic sprinkles, and maraschino cherries (plus any other toppings you'd like).

Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Add a small cake or bread pan filled with 1 inch of water to the bottom of oven. Line a standard size muffin tin with cupcake liners (12 total) and spray them with a little cooking oil.
2. Make the cheesecake filling using an electric hand or stand mixer. Beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed with a dough hook until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the white sugar and continue beating until smooth. Add lemon juice and vanilla extract and beat for 1 more minute. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs until stiff peaks form. Pour into the batter and beat on low speed until they are just incorporated into the batter.
3. Divide cheesecake batter evenly in 3 bowls. Add a few drops of blue food coloring to one bowl and mix. Add a few drops of red food coloring to another bowl of batter and mix. Continue to add food coloring until the batter is the shade that you'd like.
4. Crush the Oreos using a food processor. Transfer Oreo crumbs to a mixing bowl and stir in melted butter and sugar. Mix well.
5. Add one generous spoonful of buttered Oreo crumbs to each cupcake liner, pressing down with your fingers. Pour cheesecake batter over the Oreo crumbs, filling each liner nearly to the top. You should have enough batter to make 4 red cheesecakes, 4 blue cheesecakes and 4 white cheesecakes.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. When done, turn off the heat to the oven, leaving the pan inside and cracking open the door. Let the cheesecakes rest for 30 minutes inside the warm oven to prevent the centers from sinking.
7. Remove the pan from the oven and chill for 1-2 hours before decorating and serving.Top the blue cakes with whipped cream and red sprinkles, the red cakes with whipped cream and blue sprinkles, and the white cakes with cherries and patriotic sprinkles (or in any fashion that you'd like).

Recipe Tips

1. Make sure the cream cheese is very, very soft so it does not stay clumpy when mixed. If not soft enough, microwave it in 10 second increments.
2. Use slightly warmed or room temperature eggs. I leave mine on the counter for hours prior to making the cheesecake or microwave them for about 20 seconds if I forget to do that. Adding cold eggs will cause the soft cream cheese to harden a bit and become clumpy.
3. Lightly beat eggs before adding to the batter. This will help incorporate them quicker into the batter.
4. Add the eggs last and do not overly beat them. Eggs hold air inside batter and over-mixing can contribute to a cracked cheesecake.
5. Use a water bath inside the oven. Put a pan of water on the rack underneath the cheesecakes. Cheesecake loves humidity and the steam from the water helps make a crack-free cake. 
6. Use the convection setting on the oven if you have one. The convection setting circulates the air evenly around the oven. Cooking your cheesecake on the convection setting will help prevent cracking.
7. Spray the muffin liners with cooking oil. Spraying the liners will prevent the cheesecake from sticking to the wrapper. Mini cheesecake is different than a cupcake, and it can be finicky when removing from liners even if they are meant to be "stick free".
8. Cool the mini cheesecakes in the oven. Once they are done baking, turn off the oven and open the door. Leave inside for 30 minutes. Letting the cheesecakes come to room temperature slowly with an even heat distribution prevents the centers from dropping.