Key Lime Cheesecake Bites with Raspberry Drizzle

I, Sheri love Key Lime! I love it almost as much as I love lemon! But the flavor is so fabulously intense that "less is more." I choose to serve this cheesecake as mini-bites because the single bite demands that you stand up and take notice of it's marvelous flavor. If you had an entire slice on your plate you would be thinking of the next bite and the next.........but this way, each and every sinful bite gets the oo's and ahh's it deserves! And remember, you can eat as many bites as you want!

The whipped cream and raspberry drizzle not only adds beauty to this cake, but it's the delicate sweetness that soothes the wickedly, wonderful sour of the key lime.

Are you feeling wicked today?!!

Key Lime Cheesecake Bites with Raspberry Sauce

Crust:
1-1/4 Cups Fine Crumbs Graham Crackers
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter

Filling:
2 (8 ounce) Cream Cheese, room temperature

One Cup and 2 Tablespoons Sugar
3/4 Cup Fresh Key Lime Juice (about 1-1/2 lb Key limes) or bottled (we use Nellie and Joe’s)
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
One Teaspoon Vanilla
2 -1/2 Tablespoons Flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs

Whipped Cream:
One Cup Whipping Cream
One Envelope Whip It
One Teaspoon Vanilla
Sugar to sweeten to your liking

Raspberry Drizzle:
One Bag Frozen Raspberries
1/4 Cup Water
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
4 Tablespoons Sugar
One Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Making the crust: Preheat oven to 350°F and butter bottom of springform pan.

Stir together crumbs, sugar, and butter in a bowl with a fork until combined well or just use a food processor, then press evenly onto the bottom of pan. Bake crust in the middle of the oven for 8 minutes and cool in pan on a rack.

Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.

Making the Filling: Beat cream cheese at medium speed until fluffy, then beat in sugar. Add lime juice, sour cream, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Mix in flour and salt at low speed, scraping down the sides as needed, until just incorporated. Then add eggs all at once and mix just until incorporated.

Pour filling into crust and set springform pan in a shallow baking pan. Bake cake in middle of oven until set in center, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cool completely in springform pan on rack. (Cake will continue to set as it cools.)

From here you could treat this as a normal cheesecake - running a knife around edge of the cake and removing the sides of the pan - OR you could let it cool in fridge over night, then remove the sides of the pan and cut cheesecake into little square, bite-size pieces and place on a serving plate.

Then in a mixing bowl, beat one cup whipping cream, an envelope of Whip It, and some sugar and vanilla extract to taste. Using an icing doohickey thing or just a sandwich bag with a hole cut in the bottom, give each "bite" a generous dollop of cream.

Yesterday: Make a raspberry sauce by placing a frozen bag of raspberries in a pan. Take a glass with about 1/4 cup of water, add 2 tablespoons cornstarch, and 4 tablespoons sugar - mix until mixed and add to raspberries. Cover and heat over low-medium heat, stirring occasionally until raspberries break down and sauce thickens.

Then remove from heat and push sauce through a sieve to remove all the seeds. You are left with a beautiful, tasty, and smooth raspberry sauce.

Let cool overnight!

Take the raspberry sauce from yesterday and place in plastic sandwich bag. Cut a teeny tiny hole in the bottom corner. Squeeze the bag, letting the sauce drizzle over the dollop of cream.

Ta-Da!