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Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes

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These Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes are just what I need to welcome the coming of SPRING!

These are creamy and mini vanilla cheesecakes on a shortbread cookie crust topped with the most refreshing homemade strawberry sauce. These little cheesecakes are a taste of spring in the palm of your hand.

Mini Vanilla Cheesecake Cups Topped with Strawberry Sauce

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These mini cheesecakes are creamy, sweet, and sit on a buttery shortbread crust. And what really makes these cakes scream Spring is the slightly tart, and delightfully refreshing strawberry sauce that goes on top of them. The strawberry sauce instantly thaws you out from a long winter and has you running around your house in bare feet and a sundress.

This is my go-to cheesecake filling for all cheesecakes big and small. It’s the same filling I use for my Chocolate Chip Cheesecake and my Homemade Cherry Cheesecake. It’s a foolproof recipe that is creamy and extra delicious.

Besides the taste, the best part of these little cheesecake beauties is that they’re made in a muffin tin! No water bath or huge time commitment is required.

They’re the perfect little treat for Easter or after a long day of gardening and playing in the sun!

PS-if you want even smaller strawberry cheesecakes, try making my cheesecake bites recipe, and topping them with the homemade strawberry sauce.

How to make Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes:

Makes 12 Mini Cheesecakes

A close up of a mini cheesecake, topped with strawberry sauce. Mini cheesecakes and sliced strawberries in the background.

Ingredients you’ll need for the cheesecake crust

  • 1 cup of finely crushed shortbread cookies (or graham crackers)
  • 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
  • 3 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter

Ingredients for the cheesecake filling

  • 2- 8 oz packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 5 tablespoons of sour cream
  • 2/3 cup of granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature

Ingredients for the strawberry topping

  • 2 cups of whole strawberries, stems removed (fresh or frozen)
  • 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • a dash of kosher salt

To make the crust:

Cookie crumbs in a glass bowl and filling the bottoms of a muffin pan

Preheat the oven to 350º.

Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners and set aside–no need to grease the muffin pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the crushed cookies and the sugar. Mix a little to combine.

Pour the melted butter over the crumbs and stir until evenly moistened and the mixture clumps a little.

Divide the crumbs between the 12 muffin cups. It’ll be a little over a tablespoon for each muffin cup. Using your fingers, a spoon, or a little crust tamper, press down the crumbs into the muffin pan. Make sure the crust is compact and even.

Bake at 350º for 5-7 minutes until the crusts look lightly browned around the edges.

Remove the crusts from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 325º. Set the crusts aside while you make the cheesecake filling.

To make the cheesecake filling:

Baked mini cheesecakes in a muffin pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and fluffy. Add in the sour cream and mix well to combine.

Next, add in the sugar and beat until well incorporated.

Use a rubber spatula to give the sides and bottom of the bowl a good scrape. Make sure to scrape the stuff off your mixer paddle too!

Stir in the vanilla extract and the lemon juice. Give the cheesecake batter a quick taste to see if it needs more tang from the lemon, or if it needs a little more warmth from vanilla. 

Finally, add in your eggs one at time, allowing each egg to be almost mixed in completely before adding the next. 

Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and bottom to ensure everything is well combined. Give a final quick stir by hand.

Divide the batter between the mini cheesecake crusts. It’ll be about 1/4 cup per muffin cavity. These will be pretty full, but not too full that you can’t see the paper liners. If you’re muffin pan is a little on the shallow side, you may have some batter leftover.

Bake at 325º for 18-20 minutes until the cakes have puffed up like muffins, jiggle slightly, and have not browned. When the cheesecakes are done baking, turn off the oven and leave the oven door open a crack (you can use a wooden spoon or oven mitt to prop the door open) for 30 minutes. Leave the cakes inside the oven.

After the cakes have cooled down in the oven, remove and let them finish cooling completely before popping in the fridge. Allow them to chill in the fridge at the very minimum 5 hours, but preferably overnight.

The centers will sink–but that’s good! We need that for our strawberry sauce.

To make the strawberry topping for the mini cheesecakes

In a small sauce pot, combine the strawberries, sugar, lemon juice, and dash of salt.

Fresh strawberries and sugar in a pot, surrounded by lemons and fresh strawberries.

Over mediium to medium high heat, bring the strawberry mixture to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to bring the mixture to a simmer.

Simmer the strawberries uncovered for about 20-25 minutes, stirring every once and a while. The strawberries will break down, the juices will thicken (and coat a spoon), and the syrup will be a deep red color. 

Break up any strawberry pieces that are too large and pour the sauce into a container. Allow to cool completely and store in the fridge. The sauce will thicken more as it chills. 

Finished Strawberry Sauce on a spoon.

How to serve your mini strawberry cheesecakes

When ready to serve, pop a cheesecake out of the muffin pan and carefully remove the paper liner.

FYI the liner comes off a little cleaner when the cakes are fresh from the fridge!

Top the center of each cake with a little strawberry sauce…and maybe some whipped cream if you have some…and enjoy! You’ll have some strawberry sauce leftover, but you can use it on pancakes, waffles, muffins, or toast!

Leftover cheesecakes should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

How to tell when your mini cheesecakes are done

For the mini cheesecake cups, you’ll know they’re done when they’ve puffed up like muffins, jiggle when you gently shake the pan and haven’t really browned. At that poing, turn off the oven and crack open the door.

If the center of the cakes looks slightly wet, that’s perfectly fine, as long as the edges have puffed up. The cakes are going to continue to cook as they sit cooling in the oven. They’ll be fully cooked by the time they come out.

By leaving the cakes in the oven to cool slightly, we’re allowing their temperature to come down at a more gentle pace. If we removed the cakes from the oven immediately, the drastic temperature change may cause cracks and leave the cakes underbaked.

Mini Cheesecake Cups on a plate With Strawberry Sauce

How Long Will Mini Cheesecakes Keep?

These mini cheesecake cups definitely taste their best on day two or three after baking. They’ll last for up to five days in the fridge!

Can Mini Cheesecakes Be Frozen?

Yes! They freeze really, really well. To freeze, bake cakes in the muffin tin and allow them to cool overnight in the fridge. Once the mini cheesecake cups have set, store in a freezer safe airtight container. Do not top with the strawberry sauce until ready to serve. That can be frozen seperately.

You don’t need to remove the paper liners before freezing either.

The day before you’re ready to serve, remove the cheesecakes and the strawberry sauce (if applicable) from the freezer and allow them to thaw in the fridge. Once thawed, top your cheesecakes with the strawberry sauce and enjoy!

How to make these mini strawberry cheesecakes gluten free:

This is really easy to do! The cheesecake filling recipe and the strawberry sauce are naturally gluten free, so all you have to do is swap out the shortbread cookies for your favorite gluten free cookies. I also have a recipe for gluten free almond flour shortbread cookies that would work great! Make the cheesecake crust recipe as stated above with your gluten free cookies and you’re ready to roll!

Mini Strawberry Cheesecake Cups on a plate topped with strawberry sauce and surrounded by sliced fresh strawberries.

Tips for the best mini cheesecakes

  • Use full fat products.  Don’t use light sour cream or low-fat cream cheese. These products contain a lot of water and that water evaporates while baking, drying your cake out faster.
  • Avoid overbeating your eggs.  I read somewhere that overmixing your eggs can lead to cracks, so I usually add eggs after all the other ingredients are in the mix. Also, this allows you to taste the batter before adding the eggs and adjust your flavorings without the worry of eating raw eggs!
  • Let the cake sit in the oven as the temp drops. This ensures there won’t be a temperature shock to the cake. This will also help the sides and center of the cake cool down together, letting the cheesecake easily pull away from the side of the pan. Immediately removing the cake from the hot oven would result in uneven cooling and lots of tug of war between the center and sides of the cake. Thus leading to cracks.
  • Do not overbake the cake. Overbaking the cake will dry it out and that leads to cracks. So it’s important to turn off the oven when they look slightly underdone. Don’t worry, the cheesecake won’t be jiggly once it’s completely cooled and set.

If you still get cracks on your mini cheesecake cups, don’t sweat it! No one will see them after you top them with the strawberry sauce!

Other Cheesecake Recipes You Might Like:

Perfect Cheesecake Bars

Mini Egg Cheesecakes

No Bake Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

No Bake Biscoff Cookie Cheesecake

Pumpkin Cheesecake Fluff Dip

Tools You May Need

Mini Crust Tamper

12 Cup Muffin Tin

Mini Vanilla Cheesecake Cups Topped with Strawberry Sauce

Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes

Yield: 12 Mini Cheesecake Cups
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 27 minutes
Additional Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 27 minutes

Mini vanilla cheesecake cups on a shortbread cookie crust topped with a sweet and refreshing strawberry sauce!

Ingredients

Cheesecake Crust

  • 1 cup finely crushed shortbread cookies
  • 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
  • 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake Filling

  • 2- 8 oz packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 5 tablespoons of sour cream
  • 2/3 cup of granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature

Strawberry Sauce

  • 2 cups of whole strawberries, stems removed (fresh or frozen)
  • 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • a dash of kosher salt

Instructions

    To make the crust:

    1. Preheat the oven to 350º. 
    2. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners and set aside--no need to grease the muffin pan.
    3. In a medium bowl, combine the crushed cookies and the sugar. Mix a little to combine. 
    4. Pour the melted butter over the crumbs and stir until evenly moistened and the mixture clumps a little.
    5. Divide the crumbs between the 12 muffin cups. It'll be a little over a tablespoon for each muffin cup. Using your fingers, a spoon, or a little crust tamper, press down the crumbs into the muffin pan. Make sure the crust is compact and even.
    6. Bake at 350º for 5-7 minutes until the crusts look lightly browned around the edges.
    7. Remove the crusts from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 325º.
    8. Set the crusts aside while you make the cheesecake filling.

    To make the cheesecake filling:

    1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and fluffy.
    2. Add in the sour cream and mix well to combine.
    3. Next, add in the sugar and beat until well incorporated.
    4. Use a rubber spatula to give the sides and bottom of the bowl a good scrape. Make sure to scrape the stuff off your mixer paddle too!
    5. Stir in the vanilla extract and the lemon juice. Give the cheesecake batter a quick taste to see if it needs more tang from the lemon, or if it needs a little more warmth from vanilla. 
    6. Finally, add in your eggs one at time, allowing each egg to be almost mixed in completely before adding the next. 
    7. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and bottom to ensure everything is well combined. Give a final quick stir by hand.
    8. Divide the batter between the mini cheesecake crusts. It'll be about 1/4 cup per muffin cavity. These will be pretty full, but not too full that you can't see the paper liners. If your muffin pan is a little on the shallow side, you may have some batter leftover.
    9. Bake at 325º for 18-20 minutes until the cakes have puffed up like muffins, jiggle slightly, and have not browned.
    10. When the cheesecakes are done baking, turn off the oven and leave the oven door open a crack (you can use a wooden spoon or oven mitt to prop the door open) for 30 minutes. Leave the cakes inside the oven.
    11. After the cakes have cooled down in the oven, remove and let them finish cooling completely before popping them in the fridge. Allow the cakes to chill in the fridge for a minimum of 5 hours, but preferably overnight.
    12. The centers will sink--but that's good! We need that for our strawberry sauce.

    To make the strawberry topping for the mini cheesecakes:

    1. In a small sauce pot, combine the strawberries, sugar, lemon juice, and dash of salt.
    2. Over medium to medium high heat, bring the strawberry mixture to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to bring the mixture to a simmer. Simmer the strawberries uncovered for about 20-25 minutes, stirring every once and a while. The strawberries will break down, the juices will thicken (and coat a spoon), and the syrup will be a deep red color. 
    3. Break up any strawberry pieces that are too large and pour the sauce into a container. Allow to cool completely and store in the fridge. The sauce will thicken more as it chills. 

    To Serve:


    Remove the cheesecakes from the fridge and carefully remove the paper liners. Top the center of each cake with a little strawberry sauce and serve.

    Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

    Nutrition Information:
    Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
    Amount Per Serving: Calories: 343Total Fat: 23gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 80mgSodium: 213mgCarbohydrates: 31gFiber: 1gSugar: 21gProtein: 5g

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    4 Comments

    1. Wow, a perfect springtime treat! Love that these are mini. It’ll help curb how many sweets I eat… but then again, I might just eat more of them. Lol. Definitely on my list of things to make for Easter.

      1. Yes! They freeze really well. Just make sure to wrap the cakes tight so no freezer burn gets to them. When you’re ready to serve, let them thaw in the fridge for a few hours or even the night before and enjoy!

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