🥥 Mini Easter Cheesecake Bites are cute little cheesecakes that feature a creamy cheesecake filling atop a shortbread crust topped with a cheesecake pudding whipped cream, coconut, and mini chocolate eggs!
Cute Easter Egg Cheesecake Bites
I love cheesecakes of all time, like my Samoa cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake bars, and mini Ferrero Rocher cheesecakes. However, it’s particularly hard to resist these adorable mini cheesecakes! After all, mini food always tastes that much better and is much more tempting, and these cute little bites are one of my favorite delicious recipes for an Easter celebration. Plus, there’s no need to fuss with individual slices!
- The buttery shortbread crust creates a rich flavor base and is sweetened with cream cheese.
- The filling comes together with whipped cream and cheesecake-flavored dry instant pudding mix, adding lusciousness without much effort.
- And toasted coconut and mini chocolate Easter eggs are the perfect finishing touches.
I love the texture contrast between the crunch from the shortbread cookies in conjunction with the super-rich and creamy cheesecake filling and whipped cream topping. The toasted coconut adds even more great flavor. The burst of chocolate, especially the crunchy Cadbury egg “shell,” is another winner for a texture-lover like myself!
Ingredients You’ll Need
For these fun and festive individual-sized cheesecakes, you’ll need to have on hand the following:
- Shortbread cookies – You could also use graham cracker crumbs for a graham cracker crust
- Unsalted butter
- Cream cheese – Use brick-style, full-fat cream cheese for the best results. Make sure your cream cheese is really soft so there aren’t any lumps in the cheesecake! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to rush things and didn’t properly allow my cream cheese to really come to true room temp. In this recipe, it’s essential to plan ahead!
- Granulated sugar
- Sour Cream
- Eggs
- Lemon juice
- Vanilla extract
- Heavy cream
- Confectioners’ sugar
- Instant cheesecake-flavored pudding mix – Instant vanilla pudding mix can be used instead of cheesecake-flavored. You can also just use whipped cream and omit the pudding mix if you don’t have any on hand, or if it’s not available in your area
- Sweetened shredded coconut – I think the coconut makes the Easter cheesecakes not only look really festive, but also adds a great flavor element that I believe really ties in so well with Easter and the spring of the year. However, if you just can’t get into coconut, you can skip it, noting that the cheesecake bites may not look quite as cute and festive
- Cadbury mini eggs
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Easter Cheesecakes
Think of these Easter egg cheesecakes as three parts — crust, filling, and topping. There’s no need for a springform pan or complicated water bath!
- For the crust, pulse together shortbread cookies along with melted butter in your food processor before patting a thin layer into each of 18 lined standard-sized muffin pan cavities greased with cooking spray or lined.
- To make the filling, beat the very soft cream cheese with sugar in a large mixing bowl on low speed, increasing to high before adding sour cream, eggs, and vanilla extract. Turn out a few tablespoons of the mixture over the crust of each.
- Bake cheesecake for about 25 minutes, and then crack the oven door, and allow the muffin pans to remain in the oven for 45 to 60 additional minutes. Make sure the oven is off, and the door is cracked! This allows the mini Easter cheesecakes to set up fully.
- Chill them in the fridge before topping them with a mixture of heavy cream, confectioners’ sugar, and instant cheesecake-flavored pudding mix. If preferred, skip this step, and top your cheesecake bites with Cool Whip.
- Run a knife along the sides of the pan to release the cheesecake bites. Then, pipe or dollop the whipped cream mixture over the chilled cheesecakes, add toasted coconut, chocolate Cadbury eggs, and you’re ready to serve these little beauties! It’s best to add the whipped topping mixture and coconut to the top of the cheesecake bites right before serving. Although you can get away with making these 24-48 hours in advance, noting that the crust will soften after about 24 hours in the refrigerator.
Can I Make This Recipe as a Regular Cheesecake?
I’m sure you could, but I’ve only made mini Easter cheesecakes using this recipe, so I can’t speak to bake times, baking methods, etc.
Mini Easter Cheesecakes
Equipment
- 2 (12 Cup) Muffin Pan
- 1 Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer
Ingredients
Crust
- 5 ounces shortbread cookies, such as Lorna Doone
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Filling
- 16 ounces cream cheese, softened (brick-style, full fat)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- 2 large eggs, at room temp
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon instant cheesecake pudding mix, dry*
- ½ cup sweetened shredded coconut
- Mini Cadbury eggs, as desired for garnishing
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat oven to 350F and line two cupcake tins with liners for 18 cheesecakes; set aside.
- Add shortbread cookies to a food processor and pulse until fine crumbs form.
- Add the melted butter and process again until fully combined.
- Fill the cupcake liners with 1 tablespoon of the crust mixture and gently press evenly against the bottom of each with the back of a spoon or your fingers.
Filling
- To a large bowl and electric mixer or to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, cream together (a verb; to mix or to beat; there is no cream in this step) the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. scraping down the sides as needed.
- Add the sour cream, eggs, lemon juice, and vanilla to the cream cheese mixture and beat until smooth.
- Measure 3-4 tablespoons of filling into each of the cupcake liners, leaving about ¼ inch of space from the top.
- Bake for 25 minutes, then turn off the oven, crack the oven door, and leave the cheesecakes in for 45 to 60 minutes to allow cheesecakes to set evenly.
- After cheesecakes cool to room temperature, they can be transferred to the refrigerator. Allow them to fully chill in the fridge, at least 1 hour.
Topping
- Before serving, to a large bowl and electric mixer or to a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and instant pudding mix together until fluffy; set aside.
- Toast the coconut by spreading it on a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet and placing it under the broiler on low for 2 to 3 minutes; keep a very close eye on it because it will be prone to burning! Allow the coconut to cool.
- Pipe dollops of the whipped cream mixture (or just spoon it on) onto the tops of the cheesecakes, then top with toasted coconut, and Cadbury mini chocolate eggs as desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Cute Easter Desserts:
Easter Egg Treasure Cake – This FUN cake is made with two different cake mixes. The eggs, chicks, and bunnies from the first cake are cut out and put in the second cake before it’s baked. Decorated with coconut grass and candy eggs, this is a FESTIVE Easter dessert with buried TREASURES inside! Use the leftover cake to cut out more mini cakes and let the kids decorate for extra fun!
Easter Egg Bars — Fast, EASY, super soft, and loaded with chocolate M&M’s Eggs galore! Definitely my favorite type of Easter eggs! SAVE this recipe for your leftover Easter candy!
Springtime Sugar Cookie Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting — Sugar cookies in bar form with SPRINKLES galore! FAST, EASY and yummy! Great for springtime, Easter, Mother’s Day, showers, and parties!
Easter Chocolate Bark – A mixture of milk and white chocolate swirled together and topped with M&Ms and sprinkles! Such a FAST, EASY, NO-BAKE, and MAKE-AHEAD treat!
Soft and Chewy M&M’s Cookies — Super soft, chewy, buttery M&M’s cookies that totally are irresistible! Loaded with M&M’s and perfect for springtime, Easter, Mother’s Day and more!
Lemon Lemonies — Like lemon brownies, but made with lemon and white chocolate! Dense, chewy, not cakey and packed with big, bold lemon flavor!
Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Bars — Dense, chewy, super moist bars that taste like carrot cake with a cream cheese topping that’s baked right in so you don’t need to worry about frosting them! So much EASIER than making carrot cake but with similar flavors you will LOVE!
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