Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcakes

What a week it’s been for us! For me, it was filled with catching up on classes and enjoying the time with my youngest daughter who was home for her Spring Break. The rest of the family went on with their normally scheduled activities and work.  I love when my daughter comes home for a weekend or her breaks as it gives us a chance to catch up more than our daily text messaging back and forth and phone calls.  This week was a bit more special than others as it was her Birthday Week – she turned 21! The question everyone kept asking me, including both of my girls, was “do you feel old now that both your daughters are over 21? ” As much as they really wanted me to admit it, NO! I do not feel old! I just feel honored to be their mother.

How does your family celebrate birthdays? Are there any traditions or rituals that take place?  In our home, the birthday person
gets to pick what they want for two meals and then the third can be eaten out at the restaurant of their choice or cooked at home.  When the girls were younger and in K-12 grades we would pull them out of school for lunch and take them where they choose.  They loved it as their friends were a bit jealous over this.  Breakfast of their choice was saved for the weekend close to their birthdays and ranged from chocolate chip pancakes or waffles to breakfast burritos  Everyone has their favorite dinner menu, even me.  One daughter always picked Kielbasa, broccoli, and baked potatoes while the other chose tacos.  My husband still asks for Sloppy Joes and tator tots while I always choose to go out! I’m no fool….I’d have to cook my favorite meal!

Of course no birthday is complete without the CAKE! Younger days for the girls usually meant a store-bought cake with their favorite theme at the time on it.  Sometimes they would ask for my yummy Cookie Cake which is the easiest thing to make EVER! Cupcakes were made often as well, like Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes and occasionally Birthday Cookies were chosen in place of cake.

So, the Birthday Girl couldn’t decide whether she wanted Red Velvet cake or cheesecake so she asked me to make them both. I thought she must have lost her mind since I was up to my neck in assignments for classes and didn’t even think I had time to make anything but not to disappoint her I had a plan.  Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcakes! Yes! We have a winner, she was down for that! Now, as I mentioned, I was short on time so instead of making my Red Velvet cupcakes from scratch like I would normally, I went for the boxed mix but the cheesecake middles were from scratch and turned out pretty darn great.  I made mini cheesecakes with graham cracker crusts that I froze till firm and then baked them up in the middle of the cupcakes. The filling will only make 12 mini cheesecakes and as you already guessed, the cupcake batter makes 20-22 cupcakes so you can either double the filling recipe or do as I do – make the rest of the cupcakes with no filling for those that may not like cheesecake. Frost them with cream cheese frosting (using canned is ok if you are short on time.)

What a great surprise to bite into a cupcake to find CHEESECAKE! This recipe is easy despite that sometimes cheesecake can be tricky to make.  I am not a huge fan of it but a few others in the family are so I do my best and this time was a success. Oh, and totally apologizing for not having pictures of the cupcake process and the frosting – I simply forgot to take them.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 box, Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake mix (or Red Velvet cupcakes batter)

For the graham cracker crust:

3 sheets of graham crackers, crushed into crumbs (total to equal 1/2 cup)
1 1/2 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp sugar

For the cream cheese frosting:

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, milk and vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until smooth.

Enjoy!