Mini Cherry Cheesecakes

My baking fever continues! I wanted to branch out from cupcakes, and especially challenge myself to make something that didn't come from a mix. So I made ... mini cherry cheesecakes!

Let's take a second to review, friends. Two months ago, I had never made a cupcake by myself. I had barely cooked, period! But look at me now!

So what goes into cheesecake? Cream cheese, obviously. Sugar, duh. Eggs and vanilla extract, of course. And...sour cream. I didn't see that one coming!

One of the most interesting things about learning to cook has been finding out how ingredients work together to reach the end result. When I was blending the cream cheese, and it was sticking to everything but the bowl, I thought I'd already messed up. But lo and behold, add the eggs and you've got cheesecake consistency!

Lookie there! I'm getting somewhere.

I didn't just make cheesecake from (mostly) scratch. I also made crusts out of crushed teddy grahams, sugar and butter. And this crust is particularly delicious, which I attribute 100 percent to the smiles on the Teddy Grahams' faces.

I popped them in the oven at 275 for a little over 20 minutes and then took them out. I was concerned because they didn't have that browned edge that you usually see...was I supposed to bake them even longer? But they were just fine.

I left them on the cooling racks and when I was ready to refrigerate, wrapped the entire muffin tin in plastic wrap.

And this morning, I spooned on the cherry topping (which I did not make...seriously, I have no idea how one would make that).

Guess what? It was delicious. Sweet, but with that bite from the sour cream. The crust was amazing, too ... buttery, chocolatey, crumbly goodness. I'm not sure I've ever been so proud of myself, and it really didn't take much longer than making cake from a mix. You should all try it, seriously.