cupcakes Archives - Lean Lena

Hey my foodies! How was your weekend?

Mine was an emotional roller-coaster, but I don’t want to go there right now – more on that on Wednesday!

I hope you enjoyed yours and are ready for some tasty stuff!

As always, it’s Tasty Tuesday Linkup time!

Don’t forget to check out other link up participants and there’s only one rule to the linkup – link back or grab the link up badge from the sidebar. Let’s spread the word so we can have more participants next week!

My tasty find this week – Cheesecake Cupcakes.

Do you love cheesecake? Is it hard to stop before you finish the whole piece once you have it on your plate? You bet it is (for me)! These cheesecake cupcakes are going to save your calorie budget 🙂 They are bite size, and I made some healthy substitutions to the ingredients on the original recipe (which was shared by a co-worker of mine). So here you go – paradise on earth – cheesecake cupcakes!

You will need (for 12 cupcakes):

For the crust:

1 cup Graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup very ripe avocado (who needs butter when you have avocado?)

For the filling:

1 block Philadelphia cream cheese

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 can condensed milk

1/4 can evaporated milk

Strawberries and fresh mint leaves (to garnish), or

1 can of crushed pineapple and 1/4 cup condensed milk (to top)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350° F

Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners

Mix Graham cracker crumbs with avocado until well combined

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake liners (about 2 tsp per liner), and press down with the spoon to make crust:

Bake crust for 10 minutes at 350°F.

While the crust is in the oven, prep the filling by combining all the ingredients for the filling and mixing until smooth and creamy.

Pour filling into the cups over the prebaked crusts when they are ready. Normally you’d fill the cups until they are 2/3 full (for regular cupcakes). However, cheesecake normally rises pretty well, but falls back when you take it out of the oven. So, I filled mine almost all the way to the top:

Bake for 25 minutes at 350°F.

They should look like this when they’re done and just out of the oven (cracked on top).

Slice the strawberries, and put on top of the cupcakes while they’re still hot, garnish with fresh mint leaves if you like. Another tipping idea: mix crashed pineapple and some condensed milk and spread on top: