These caramel cheesecake cupcakes strike the perfect balance between sweet and tangy. They are made with a lavender caramel sauce swirl, a lemon cream cheese and goat cheese filling and a lavender graham cracker crust. The recipe makes eight mini cheesecake cupcakes that are easily baked inside cupcake liners in muffin tin wells.
If you like to bake with lavender, you might also enjoy these lemon lavender sandwich cookies.
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About the recipe:
The subtle lavender flavor in these lemon cheesecake cupcakes comes both from the caramel sauce and the graham cracker crust. I used a lavender-infused cream to make the caramel and baked dried lavender directly into the crusts. The lavender works great with the slightly tangy, lemon-flavored filling.
Goat cheese gives these easy mini cheesecakes extra tang and creates a smooth and creamy, New York-style cheesecake texture. Because this dessert is quite rich, individual cupcakes make the perfect portion size.
The caramel swirl not only adds flavor, it also makes for a beautiful finish. If you’re a swirling novice, fear not, it’s very easy to do this: simply spoon a bit of caramel sauce onto the cheesecake batter and drag it through with a bamboo skewer or a toothpick (see the photo in step number 13 below).
For more mini cake recipes check out these Mini Chocolate Cupcakes and these Mini Lemon Bundt Cakes.
How to make the caramel sauce:
A few tips for making caramel:
Making a homemade caramel sauce is not necessarily difficult but there are a few important things you must keep in mind:
- Use a heavy-bottomed saucepan to cook the caramel in. If you use anything with a thin bottom, you run the risk of burning the caramel.
- Make sure that the saucepan you’re using is absolutely clean. If you have any dust or other dirt in the saucepan when you start, your sugar might crystallize instead of turning into an amber-colored syrup.
- Don’t stir the boiling sugar/water mix. Sticking a spoon into the hot mix can cause the sugar to crystallize, so it’s best not to do that. If the mix starts to turn color unevenly, you can carefully swirl the saucepan, but don’t stir.
The lavender flavor:
In order to get lavender flavor into the caramel sauce, you want to infuse the cream with lavender:
- Add heavy cream and dried culinary lavender to a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat off, cover and let the mix steep.
- Strain the cream through a fine mesh sieve. Use a small spoon to press the last bit of cream through the sieve.
Making the caramel sauce:
- Add water to a heavy-bottomed, clean saucepan. Add granulated sugar into the center and make sure that no sugar gets onto the sides of the pan.
- Turn on the heat and without any stirring of any sort, let the sugar mix boil to a deep amber color. Be careful, the mix will be extremely hot, so don’t touch the saucepan or the caramel under any circumstances.
- Standing back from the pan, slowly whisk in the lavender cream. Be careful, the mix will bubble up violently, so stand back and again don’t touch the caramel under any circumstances.
- Let the caramel cool.
How to make the crusts:
The cupcake crusts are flavored with dried culinary lavender as well and are easy to make. Start by preparing the graham crackers:
- Crush up graham crackers. Mix the crushed crackers with finely chopped, dried culinary lavender and granulated sugar.
- Mix in melted, unsalted butter and make sure that the lavender is distributed more or less evenly.
Baking the crusts:
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. and line 8 muffin tin wells with cupcake liners. Divide the graham cracker crust among the wells, then press the mix into the liners using either your fingers or an espresso tamper.
- Bake the crusts until they start to brown (about 5 minutes).
How to make the cheesecake filling:
- Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. for the cheesecake filling. In a mixing bowl, whip cream cheese*, goat cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract until well combined.
*RECIPE NOTE: Don’t use any cream cheese products that are labeled as low-fat or reduced-fat. Those have a higher moisture content than full-fat cream cheese and that will interfere with the baking process.
- Whip in granulated sugar and egg and continue to whip until you have a very smooth batter.
How to fill and bake the cupcakes:
- Scoop the batter onto the crusts and fill each well about ¾ full. (You can use a metal scoop like I did here or an actual spoon.)
Swirl in the caramel:
- Rap the muffin tins on the kitchen counter once or twice to smooth out the batter, then add about 1 teaspoon of the lavender caramel sauce onto the cupcakes.
- Swirl the caramel sauce into the cheesecake batter.
Recipe Note: Be sure NOT to drag the caramel all the way out to the cupcake liner. You want an outer rim of pure cheesecake batter that will bake up into firm cheesecake and give the cupcakes their structure.
- Bake the cupcakes until they are set (about 20 minutes). Let the cupcakes cool to room temperature in the muffins pans and then chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Recipe tips and common questions:
Cheesecake cupcakes are done baking when their centers no longer jiggle when you move the muffin pan they’re in.
Absolutely! Simply use straight up cream in the caramel sauce and skip the lavender in the graham cracker crust. The cheesecakes will taste purely lemony and still very delicious this way.
Store any leftover cheesecakes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one day. (Any longer than that and the crust will get soggy).
You will have quite a bit of lavender caramel sauce left over from this recipe that you can store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
You can use the caramel sauce on ice cream, cake or you can stir it into your espresso drink. Just warm it up in the microwave or over a pot of simmering water to soften it before using.
Yes, you can easily do that by using gluten-free graham crackers for the crust.
Go for it! Homemade graham crackers are delicious and easy to make. I love this homemade graham crackers recipe from Martha Stewart.
More delicious cake recipes:
Made this recipe? It would be awesome if you could leave a rating. Either tap or click the stars in the recipe card or leave a comment below. Thanks!
Full Printable Recipe
Caramel Cheesecake Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the lavender caramel sauce:
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons dried culinary lavender
- ½ cup water
- 1 cup granulated sugar
For the lavender graham cracker crust:
- ⅓ cup crushed graham crackers (you need about 2 and ¼ sheets for that)
- 1 teaspoon dried culinary lavender, finely chopped
- ½ tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
For the cheesecake filling:
- 4 ounces cream cheese,* at room temperature
- 3 ounces goat cheese, at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- ½ tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 egg
Instructions
For the lavender caramel sauce:
- Add the heavy cream and the lavender to a saucepan.
- Heat the cream until it starts to simmer, then turn the heat off, cover and let sit for 15 minutes.
- Strain the cream through a fine mesh sieve into a container that you can easily pour from, such as a liquid measuring cup. Use a spoon to press the last bit of cream through the sieve. Set aside.
- Add the water to a clean, heavy-bottomed saucepan.
- Slowly add the sugar in a mound into the middle of the saucepan. Be careful not to have any sugar on the sides of the pan.
- On high heat and without any stirring or touching of any sort, let the sugar/water mix come to a full boil. Be very careful, the mix will get very, very hot. Do not touch the pot or the caramel under any circumstances.
- Keep boiling the mix on high heat (still without any stirring) until it starts to turn golden brown.
- Turn the heat down to medium and continue to boil until the mix reaches a deep amber color.
- Turn the heat off.
- Standing back, slowly whisk the lavender cream into the mix, a little bit at a time. The sauce will bubble violently and is still very hot, so be careful.
- Let the sauce cool.**
For the lavender graham cracker crust:
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Mix the graham crackers, the lavender and the sugar together in a bowl. Set aside.
- Melt the butter in the microwave or in a saucepan.
- Stir the butter into the graham crackers. Make sure to mix everything well so that the lavender is distributed evenly.
- Grab two muffin pans and line 8 of the wells with cupcake liners.
- Distribute the mix among the cupcake liners (about 1 scant tablespoon per well) and press into the bottom using an espresso tamper or your fingers.
- Set the two pans on a baking sheet and bake until the crusts start to brown, about 5 minutes. Take the pans out and let them cool.
For the cheesecake filling:
- Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. for the cheesecake filling.
- Add cream cheese, goat cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla to a large mixing bowl and whip until smooth.
- Whip in the sugar, then the egg and continue to whip until the batter is very smooth.
- Pour the batter onto the crusts, filling each well about ¾ full.
- Add about 1 teaspoon of the lavender caramel sauce onto each cupcake and swirl it in with a bamboo skewer or toothpick.***
- Bake the cupcakes until set and no longer jiggly in the center (about 20 minutes).
- Let the cupcakes cool completely in the pan, then chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Easyfoodsmith
Yum! I can see myself gorging on these :D
Olga
Huge cheesecake fan here! These look absolutely stunning especially with the caramel swirl (drooling here)! I won’t be able to stop at just one :)
Nicole B.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Olga! (I didn’t stop at one either… :P)
Kankana
I love little individual dessert bites and these cheesecake cupcakes fits right in! I am definitely trying this soon.
Nicole B.
Wonderful to hear that, Kankana, I hope you like them as much as I do! :)
Kelly | Foodtasia
Nicole, these look wonderful with the caramel swirl! Love the hint of lavender! I could eat tons of these!
Nicole B.
Thank you so much, Kelly! (I kinda did eat tons of them when I developed the recipe, haha!) :)