Mini Red Velvet Cheesecakes

My friend, Bethany, really likes red velvet cheesecake.  I have made one before, but this was for the baby shower and I was doing a mini theme.  This time I made a totally baked version based on Dorothy’s (not my cousin Dorothy) Crazy for Crust blog.  She has some really cool stuff on her website  – you should check it out.

In the meantime, I may warn you that the top of the cupcake will look funny.  I was scared at first, but after covering it up with the frosting, you can’t see the different cake and cheesecake parts showing through.  All you see from the side is the pretty layers!

Mini Red Velvet Cheesecakes
yield 15 (double for a larger crowd)

Cake:
1 and 1/4 cups AP flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 Tb. cocoa
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 Tb. vinegar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 oz. red food coloring (or 1/4 tsp. red gel food paste, I find this method harder though)

Cheesecake:
8 oz. cream cheese, room temp
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg, room temperature

Frosting:
4 oz. cream cheese, soft
1/4 cup butter, soft
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line standard muffin tin with paper liners.  Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and baking soda.
2.  With electric mixer on medium, or by hand, mix together the eggs, oil, buttermilk, and vinegar until well incorporated.  Then, mix in vanilla and red food color.
3.  With mixer on low, or simply add by hand the wet mixture to the dry flour mixture and mix until just combined.
4.  Dollop 2 Tb. of the red velvet cake mixture into 15 cupcake liners.  A medium cookie scoop works well here.
5.  In another bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add in the sugar and vanilla on low until incorporated.  Again, on low speed at the egg until mixed thoroughly.  Slow is key with cheesecake.
6.  Dollop 1 Tb. of the cheesecake mixture on top of the cake mixture.  A small cookie scoop works well here.
7.  Bake for 15-18 minutes.  Mine were more towards 18 minutes.  Some may sink while they cool.
8.  Cool on a wire rack and remove from the tins about 10 minutes after taking them out of the oven.
9.  To make the frosting: Beat together the cream cheese and butter on medium speed.  On low, slowly add the powdered sugar.  Then, add the vanilla and whip on medium high for a minute.
10.  Frost cooled cupcakes

**For these cupcakes, I used pink food gel to tint the frosting.  I used a Wilton 1M tip and bag to pipe onto the top of the cupcake.  For the letter “B”, I melted some leftover white chocolate coating and put it in my Wilton candy bottle and drew lots and lots of B’s onto my silicone cookie mat.