For the love of cheesecake!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were invited to Victor's cousin's house for dinner. We are very fortunate that they invited us because our oven is still not fixed! We had volunteered to bring some dessert and since the tabletop convection oven can handle cupcakes, I made some mini cheesecakes. My mom got this recipe from my aunt who made these for many a family gathering. They are always popular not matter what the event...A few things I have learned over the years about this recipe:

• Do not substitute low fat cream cheese for regular cream cheese. The texture is not the same.
• Try to use foil cupcake liners if you have them as the cake is really moist and bleeds through the paper liners (but if you only have paper, bake them and then add a second liner before serving).
• In my opinion, topping with cherry pie filling is the most eye catching and compliments the cakes perfectly.

Cakes

3- 8 oz packages of cream cheese (1 1/2 cups) softened

5 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Topping

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Jelly/Jam or pie filling of your choice

Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. Line cupcake tin with liners.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese while gradually adding sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth. Pour into the cupcake liners.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

While cakes are cooking, mix together the sour cream, sugar and vanilla for the topping.

After the cakes are done, let them sit in the cupcake tin until they sink in the center (approx. 5 minutes). Add 1 tsp sour cream mixture and 1 tsp of jelly or pie filling to top.

Bake for 5 minutes more.

After cakes are cool, store in refridgerator until serving time.

Make 24 mini cakes.