Strawberry and Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcake

Laura: I visited my friend Justine in Berkeley last weekend!  She had been eyeing cheesecake cupcakes as a baking project for a while, so we made them.  And then decided to jointly post about them!

Strawberry and Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Justine: I had my baking idol in town so it was time to learn how to make your baked goods gorgeous and delicious. Of course, I’m a bit lazier than Laura, so my criteria also includes “easy to make.” Luckily, this recipe fit all three: gorgeous, delicious, and surprisingly simple.

Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcake

Laura: I had never made cheesecake before, mostly because it seemed hard and I can never eat more than a couple bites of cheesecake at a time.  So, these were pretty perfect.

Justine: Note, “more than a few bites at a time” does not apply to Laura’s husband, who ate five.

Laura: Yes, he did.  I’m surprised he didn’t get sick.  We did have some trouble with these - the cupcakes sunk in on the top after they cooled down a bit - I’m not entirely sure why.  We covered them with whipped cream to cover it up (shhh!).

Justine: I suspect the cream cheese mixture was too fluffy when we baked it. Whipping up four blocks of cream cheese until smooth wasn’t easy; we started with an old hand mixer, but it couldn’t do the job (the beaters got stuck), and we switched to my standing mixer. The cream cheese became quite fluffy, to the point where it held its shape when we poured it into the muffin tray. Other cheesecake cupcake photos we’ve seen had a more liquidy consistency. Anyway, my hypothesis is that the excess fluffiness led to the sinking, but I’m not sure if we whipped for too long or not long enough.

Laura: Oh well, they were still tasty.  Did your lab mates like them?

Justine: Yep! And my advisor, too! Always good to get extra brownie (or cheesecake) points from your professor...

Laura: We decided to alter this recipe from Annie’s Eats a little.  Instead of raspberries, we used strawberries and blueberries.  We also had the idea to pour the cheesecake mixture over some fruit.  

Justine: Well, really we stole that idea from cakes we saw at Berkeley Bowl.

Laura: True. But it made for some pretty cupcakes.  Yay!  We should do this again next time you’re in Seattle!

Justine: Heck yes. On to the recipe? And the drool-inducing photos?

Laura:  Yes.

Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcake

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcake

Strawberry/Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes
We followed Annie's Eats Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Cupcakes recipe. Our only alteration was to use strawberries and blueberries instead of raspberries, so I won't re-post it. This recipe was pretty simple, and very tasty. As noted, we had trouble with the cupcakes collapsing while they cooled.

Whipped Cream
Useful for covering up sunken cupcakes!

Ingredients
2 cups whipping cream
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method
Combine whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl and beat on high until stiff.

Building Strawberry and Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 325˚ F.
2. Follow Annie's Eats instructions to bake the bottom "crust" for the cupcakes.
3. Before filling with the cream cheese mixture, place some fresh fruit against the sides of the cupcake.
4. Fill with the cream cheese mixture. Drop a couple spots of fruit puree on top of the cream cheese mixture and swirl with a toothpick or skewer.
5. Bake until the filling is set, about 22 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking.
6. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and let cool to room temperature.  Transfer to the refrigerator and let chill for at least 4 hours.
7. Before serving, prepare the whipped cream.  Pipe the whipped cream onto each cupcake using a large piping tip (or just a hole cut in a ziploc bag).
8. Top with fresh fruit and serve to your professor!

Nom!