White Chocolate Cheesecake Mini Cupcakes with Raspberry & Blueberry Whipped Cream

Happy Fourth of July!  What an excellent day!  I woke up this morning to a star-spangled Space Needle, and ended the day with grilled shish-kebabs and corn-on-the-cob for dinner.  Because I had no work today (yay!), I decided to revisit cheesecake cupcakes - this time, with some patriotic red (raspberry) and blue (blueberry) whipped cream.

The crane ruined my picture.  Sigh.

Once again, I decided to base my recipe off of the Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Cupcakes post at Annie's Eats.  This time, however, I decided to make mini cupcakes, and to make a white chocolate cheesecake instead of a raspberry swirl cheesecake (because I'm a little obsessed with white chocolate right now).  Since white chocolate is so mild, I also decided to give the "crust" layer a little more to do flavor-wise by adding some ground pecans.

Last time my friend and I tried these cupcakes, we had some trouble with the middle of the cupcakes caving in pretty drastically after they came out of the oven.  This time, I took a few steps to prevent this:

1. I made mini cupcakes, which means there is less "middle" to cave in.
2. I added a little flour to the cheesecake mixture, hoping that this would help the cupcake keep its structure.
3. Most importantly, I tried to beat the mixture as little as possible.  I suspect that the main reason it sunk before was that there was too much air in the mixture.  I used the paddle attachment on my KitchenAid instead of the whisk attachment in an attempt to keep air out.

I think I did a decent job of keeping the middles from falling in - they still sunk a little bit, but not so much that they looked weird and deformed (like they did last time).

These were very, very good.  I don't like eating large quantities of cheesecake because it is so rich.  These, however, were the perfect amount of cheesecake for me - just two bites per cupcake.  The fruit whipped cream was light and tangy - especially the raspberry which was everyone's favorite.  I also really liked the pecans in the crust - they added just a little taste of pecan goodness that complemented the fruit very well.  My entire family really liked them and once again, my husband ate way too many.

Happy birthday, America!  Have some cheesecake.

The crane is patriotic as well.  I suppose it's forgiven.

White Chocolate Mini Cheesecake Cupcakes

Adapted from Annie's Eats.  Makes 65 mini cupcakes.

Ingredients for Crust
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup ground pecans
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Ingredients for Cheesecake
4 oz. white chocolate
24 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 325°.  Line your mini cupcake pan with mini cupcake liners.
2. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, pecans, sugar, and melted butter in a small bowl and mix with a fork until blended (the mixture should look like damp sand).
3. Spoon one teaspoon of the mixture into each cupcake liner.  Press the mixture onto the bottom of the liner with something (the bottom of a shot glass worked pretty well for me).
4. Bake the crust for 5 minutes.  Remove and allow to cool.
5. Melt the white chocolate using a double broiler or in a bowl set in hot water.  Remove from heat when all the lumps are gone.  Let cool for 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, mix the cream cheese, sugar, flour, salt, and vanilla on low speed with the paddle attachment until smooth (a couple minutes).
7.  Add the cooled white chocolate and mix until combined.
8. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed until combined.  Be careful not to overmix.
9. Spoon one tablespoon of the cheesecake mixture into each cupcake liner.  The cupcakes don't expand too much, so you can fill these almost to the brim.
10. Bake until the filling is set (15-18 minutes).  Remove and chill for several hours.  Don't forget to add a whipped cream topping before serving!

Raspberry & Blueberry Whipped Cream

Ingredients
8 oz raspberries
8 oz blueberries
2 cups whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar

Method

1. Grind the raspberries and blueberries separately in a food processor.  Press through a strainer to remove the solid bits.  Set aside the puree.
2. Whip the cream and sugar in a medium bowl until stiff.
3. Scoop one half of the whipped cream into a second bowl.  In one bowl, beat in the raspberry puree.  In the other, beat in the blueberry puree.
4. Spoon some delicious whipped cream onto your cupcakes.  Top with fruit (if desired) and enjoy!