Mini Salted Caramel Cheesecake - Creamy and Decadent

I love making these mini salted caramel cheesecakes. And I particularly love eating them with my homemade salted caramel sauce.

The creamy cheese filling mixed with the sweet and salty caramel topping and whipped cream is a wonderfully delicious combination for a cheesecake. And the fact that these are in miniature sizes just makes it super easy to serve them.

Making these classic mini salted caramel cheesecake cupcakes is easy. No special cutters or pans required. You bake them in plain white cupcake casings and once done and chilled, you peel off the casings and discard them, leaving just perfectly sized mini caramel cheesecakes.

These mini salted caramel cheesecake are made with a plain digestive cookie crust and filled with creamy vanilla flavored cheesecake batter. Each mini cheesecake is topped with homemade salted caramel sauce and whipped cream and garnished with dried rosebuds.

This classic mini salted caramel cheesecake recipe yields 12 mini cheesecakes. The final number you get will depend on the size of your cupcake casing. My casings measured 5cm diameter at the bottom and 7cm diameter at the top. The height was 3.5cm. If yours are larger or smaller, the final number of these mini cheesecakes you get will differ accordingly.

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How to Make

Ingredients

Crust

• Digestive cookies (or any other plain vanilla cookies)
• Granulated sugar
• Melted butter

Filling

• Cream cheese
• Whipping cream
• Granulated Sugar
• All-purpose flour
• Egg
• Vanilla Essence

Topping

• Salted Caramel
• Whipped cream
• Dried Rose Buds (food grade)

Making the cheesecake crust

1. Crush the cookies to a fine crumb. You can do this by placing your cookies in a ziplock bag and using a rolling pin to crush them (by rolling on them or lightly hitting them) or by processing the cookies in a food processor. Add granulated sugar to the crumbs and mix well.
2. Next, add melted butter and mix until the crumbs are well moistened.
3. Drop one tablespoon of the crumbs into each cheesecake cupcake casing.
4. Press the cookie crumbs down firmly into each cupcake casing. Do this with a small rolling pin (the ends), or with a spoon. Set the prepared crust aside.

Making the cheesecake filling

1. In a medium-sized bowl, whip the cream cheese until soft and creamy (about 30 to 60 seconds the most). Scrape the sides of the bowl constantly.
2. Combine the granulated sugar, salt, and flour in a small bowl.
3. Add it into the creamed cream cheese. Beat for about 20 seconds.
4. Add egg and vanilla essence and beat again for another 20 seconds, scraping the bowl at every 10 seconds interval. 
5. Tiny specks of cheese in the batter at this point is fine. Do not over mix to avoid air bubbles in the batter. Fold in the cream with a spatula.
6. Spoon the mini cheesecake batter into the prepared crust in cupcake casings. Fill each casing until they are almost full.

Baking and decorating the cheesecake

1. Bake the mini salted caramel cheesecake at 150 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. Once done, let them rest in the oven for about 10 minutes before removing them. Let them cool to room temperature before chilling them for at least 4  hours (overnight is preferred) before peeling the cupcake casings off. 
2. When peeling the casings, start by pulling the sides first before removing the bottom.
3. In a small piping bag, fill salted caramel sauce and cut a tiny hole at the tip. Pipe the salted caramel sauce onto each of the mini salted caramel cheesecake, letting it drip on the sides.
4. Whip the cream until stiff peaks form and fill it into a separate piping bag fitted with a large star piping tip (I used tip number 865). Pipe a large whipped cream star on each salted caramel topped cheesecake.
5. Garnish the cheesecakes with 3 dried rosebuds in the center.
6. Keep the miniature cheesecakes chilled all the time. The cheesecakes can last in the fridge for a good 4 to 5 days. The salted caramel sauce and whipped cream are best put on the cheesecakes just before serving.

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Notes

Reduced baking temperature

• Similar to all my other cheesecakes recipes, these mini salted caramel cheesecake should be baked at a slightly reduced temperature than normal cakes.
• The rule of thumb is to reduce the temperature by at least 10 percent of your normal cake baking temperature. I always bake normal cakes at 160 to 170 degrees Celsius and cheesecakes are therefore baked at 150 degrees. Keeping the baking temperature low helps avoid cracks in my cheesecakes.

Do not overmix the batter

• When cheesecake batter is overmixed, it tends to incorporate too many air bubbles. These air bubbles will create an unsightly bubbly surface on your cheesecake. It will not affect the taste but your cakes will not have a smooth top.
• To avoid the bubbles, keep to the time I have indicated in each of the steps of making these mini salted caramel cheesecake.

Use the lowest rack in the oven

• This is another tip to avoid cheesecakes from cracking, be it full-sized cheesecakes or mini cheesecakes.
• Placing the cakes in the lowest rack helps avoid the tops from being too near to heat and also prevents the tops from over-browning.

Use a water bath

• Lack of moisture in the oven is another factor that causes cheesecakes to crack. To keep the moisture high, cheesecakes are often baked in a water bath or bain-marie.
• A water bath is a baking technique where a dish of water is placed in the oven while baking a cheesecake. The heat will cause the water to turn into steam and this steam keeps the interior of the oven moist.
• For these mini salted caramel cheesecakes, simply place a small dish of water on the oven floor and bake the cakes as usual.

Disable the 'fan' function in the oven

• If you find your cheesecakes cracking, the fan function in your oven could be factor contributing to it.
• To be on the safe side, disable the fan function when baking cheesecakes.

Do not overbake the cheesecakes

• Over baking cheesecakes can make their texture rubbery and sometimes the tops to crack.
• Keep to the baking time indicated in the recipe. To test if these mini salted caramel cheesecakes are done, press the sides. If they are firm, the cakes are done. Ideally, the sides should be firm but the center still wobbly.

Baking the miniature salted caramel cheesecakes into a large cake

• If you wish to make a full large cheesecake instead of mini salted caramel cheesecakes, the recipe measurement above can be prepared in a 7 inches round cake tin. Bake the cake for 55 to 60 minutes.
• For 9 inches round cheesecake, double the recipe above and bake for about 65 to 70 minutes until the sides are firm and the center still wobbly.

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Like this easy cheesecake recipe? Here are my other posts you might want to check out

• Salted Caramel Recipe - Quick and Easy
• Easy Cheesecake Recipe - A Simple Baked Cheesecake
• Mini Christmas Cheesecake - Pretty Festive Treats
• Classic New York Cheesecake - An Old Fashioned Cheesecake
• Ultimate Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Oreo Crust
• Pineapple Cheesecake with Coconut - Easy Homemade Recipe

Recipe (Printable)

Here is the full printable version of my mini salted caramel cheesecake recipe. And while you are at it, don’t forget to read up my recipe notes just above. These notes will help you make the best miniature cheesecakes every single time!

And that’s my easy mini salted caramel cheesecake recipe for you.

Happy baking 🙂