Cheesecake Cupcakes for the Birthday Guy!

My co-worker's birthday was today and in honor of him and all the fabulous graphic work he does for us in the online advertising department at GJSentinel.com I made him cheesecake cupcakes.  His wife had told me that cheesecake was his favorite, and I figured cupcakes were more self-serve than a whole cake.
I found a recipe on this great new site, Foodily.com.   It was originally published on food.com and the person who published it goes by the username moonpoodle.  I'm not sure I want an explanation for that.

Anyway, here's how my counter looked as I started out on this project:  Yes, that's a beer.  It could be part of the reason I crushed up a LOT of graham cracker crumbs and then forgot to actually measure 1 1/2 cups.  Oh well, the crust was fine.

Here's the next step, me mixing the cream cheese, ricotta cheese, and powdered sugar:




Finally I got everything into little cupcake baking cups.  The recipe doesn't tell how much of the crumb mixture to put in each cupcake cup or how much batter to put, so I guestimated.  I filled the cupcake cups 2/3 way full with batter.  The crust (before the batter obviously) I gently spooned in and just made sure to have enough to form a nice layer across the bottom of the cup.

Next, while the cupcakes were baking, I made the mixed berry sauce.

So, here are the finished cupcakes, without sauce and then with sauce and berries.

These were a pretty big hit at the office.  They were not overly sweet but had a great texture and flavor.  Click here for the original recipe.