Mini Cheese Cakes

Crust:

• 2/3 cup of graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. of Parkay margarine, melted
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon (optional)

Mix ingredients for crust together and press a rounded tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of a cup cake paper in a muffin pan.  Bake 5 min. on 325 degrees and remove to cool.

Variation:  You can also use a vanilla wafer in the bottom of each cup cake paper or a chocolate wafer for a different taste or for pumpkin cheese cake try a ginger snap.  Or this yummy crust for the pumpkin cheese cake:

• 1 and 1/2 ginger snap crumbs
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup margarine Melted

Bake at 325 for 5 min. and cool and remove from pan.

Filling:

• 2 packages of Kraft Cream cheese softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. lemon peel
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• fruit toppings of all kinds

Beat cream cheese and sugar together and add all other ingredients except fruit toppings on medium speed till smooth.  Pour over crusts to about 3/4 full and bake for 25 min. at 325 degrees.  Cool and remove from pan and refrigerate.  Cheese cakes freeze well at this point if you wrap each one in plastic wrap and you will be able to make these ahead of time.  Let them thaw at room temperature for about 40 min. before serving.

I like to top them with blueberry pie filling, cherry pie filling, lemon pie filling and mandarin orange filling that I make myself on top of the stove.  I take a small can of mandarin oranges and add a little orange juice and bring to a boil and thicken with corn starch and water.  For the chocolate cookie, I like to add some chopped up chocolate morsels to the batter (about a 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup) and after they have cooled I top with a few large chocolate curls on top of whipping cream or cool whip.  For the ginger snap, I like to use a pumpkin swirl mix that follows:

• 2 packages of Kraft Cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Mix everything except the pumpkin and 2 spices in a bowl on med. speed till smooth then remove 1 cup of the batter and add the pumpkin and spices to the rest of the batter.  Fill cups with pumpkin mix and 1 tbsp. of the plain mix on top and slightly swirl with a butter knife.  Cup should still be only 3/4 full and bake at 325 degrees till done.  Cool and top with cool whip or whipping cream dusted with cinnamon.

Fabulous little cheese cakes of all varieties!  How wonderful is that?  You can make them up ahead of time and oh, so, easy!  They also freeze very well.  Imagine having 7 different little cheese cakes at your finger tips ready to take out of the freezer and thaw in an hour for any occasion.  Nice going!

ENJOY!!