Once again, I recently turned to The Hello Kitty Baking Book written by Michele Chen Chock published by Quirk Books for inspiration.
I learned from the Hello Kitty Mini Chocolate Cupcakes recipe to use cupcake liners. I had these adorable pink heart ones that were perfect! I think Ms. Hello Kitty would be proud.
The original recipe makes 24 cupcakes which is a lot so I divided the recipe in half (although not the eggs, whoops!).
Preheat oven to 350F. Line 2 6-cup muffin tins with 12 cupcake liners. Set kettle on to boil, around 6 cups of water. Get out a deep baking sheet or roasting pan.
The Crust
You will need 1/2 cup ground chocolate graham crackers (I used Oreo crumbs) and 1 tbsp melted butter.
Combine chocolate crumbs with melted butter. Add about 2 tsp to bottom of each cupcake tin, pressing down evenly with the back of a spoon.
Bake for 5 minutes. Cool.
The Filling
You will need: 1 1/2 8-oz packages of room temperature cream cheese, 3/4 cups sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, pinch of salt and 1 1/2 large eggs at room temperature (I used 3, oops!).
Lower oven to 325F. With a mixer, whisk the cream cheese on medium high for a couple of minutes. Scrape down sides and whisk until fluffy.
Add sugar, vanilla and salt.
Continue to mix well for a few minutes until creamy. Make sure to keep stopping to scrape down the bowl.
Whisk in the 1 and a half eggs (NOT 3! My bad!) a little at a time, making sure everything is well incorporated.
Pour 1/4 cup of filling mixture over each crust in cupcake tin. Tap tin on the counter to help air bubbles rise.
I thought I was so smart adding the hot water first but nope! Water got into some of the cupcake tins!
Place cupcakes tin on the baking sheet or pan and add enough hot water to submerge cupcake tin about halfway.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until cheesecakes are set and just barely jiggly in the middle.
Remove cupcake tins from waterbath and cool on a cooling rack.
You will need: 1/2 cup strawberry jam. I used raspberry because it is Reg’s favourite.
Warm jam in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until it gets runny.
If using a jam with seeds, make sure to strain out the seeds.
Once jam has cooled a bit spoon over each cheesecake.
Refrigerate cupcake tin and let cheesecakes set for at least 3 hours.
Foodie Conclusion
I totally screwed up by adding three eggs but you know what? It did not matter. Even with water getting into some of the cupcake tins, these were outstandingly delicious! A totally forgiving cheesecake recipe. How rare!
You were supposed to make a template to sprinkle a Hello Kitty smile on top with icing sugar but I went out and bought this cute little kitty plate instead for the Hello Kitty touch. I do wish the book came with an actual template and not just an image of Hello Kitty for me to copy and cut out myself. I am sure there are people like me who would not go to that extra effort and would have appreciate a template being included in the book.
That said, I had no cracked tops. The recipe, despite having various steps, was easy to follow and the quality of the baking was outstanding.
I do not know who needs 24 mini cheesecakes but if you do, double the recipe and go for it. It is worth it! Although I would recommend making them in two batches in the oven.
I give this recipe five out of five wooden spoons. Well done Ms. Kitty! Well done.
Those look so good! I’m not a big cheesecake eater but recently I had a piece of eggnog cheesecake. Tough to get the whole thing down. Too cloying, you know what I mean?
That’s why Reg insists on having cheesecake with tea, it helps! It is very rich and decadent, it’s true. I like it but Reg is CRAZY for it.
Looks yummy. Can’t wait until one of my daughter in law makes me a goodie out of Ms Kitty baking book.
Coffee is on
Oh that is smart, to get your daughter in low to make them! 😉
Looks like a fun day in your kitchen.
It was!