Made these for Allen’s birthday several weekends ago. We spent the afternoon staking our claim at a fire pit at Dockweiler beach. Jen lent me a beach chair so I could park myself with a book in my hands and my feet in the sand for a good three hours (I was pretty toasty) before we built a huge bonfire, to welcome the sunset with S’mores. Since cheesecake is the celebrant’s favorite, I decided to make bite-sized versions for portability and easy munching—no need for plates and forks. (We had to be extra careful because the sand got EVERYWHERE—the pizza was slightly crunchy!)

What’s interesting about these mini cheesecakes was the shortcut in the recipe for the crust. These were baked in mini muffin cups, and instead of filling each individual one with crushed graham crackers, you just pop in a Nilla wafer, dome face down. Neat, huh? And I mean that literally, because you don’t have to futz around with crumbs, so there’s less cleanup.

After filling them 3/4 full of cheesecake mixture, you chuck them into the oven and they come out nice and plump.

They cool down into little treats with a slightly concave center, ready for the filling. I chose strawberry jam and fresh strawberry slices for half the batch, and honey with fresh blueberries, walnuts and orange segments for the other half.

Bite-sized, blissful, beachy birthday treats! Care to make some of your own? HERE you go!