raspberry marbled mini cheesecakes

My friend Sue invited me to her sister-in-law Nicolle's birthday pool party, and it was a potluck so I decided to bring dessert.  I had just made this classic cheesecake earlier in the week, so I was still in a cheesecake-making mood. :)  But I wanted to make something hand-held and easy to eat, so I made mini raspberry marbled cheesecakes!

I used the same recipe for the mini cheesecakes I made here, which started with making a graham cracker crust in the bottom of each cupcake liner.

Once the crust had baked up golden brown and cooled, I quickly whipped up the cheesecake filling, and then poured them over the crusts.

Then I pureed and strained some raspberries for the raspberry marble swirl.

Using a spoon, a dolloped a few drops of the raspberry puree onto the cheesecakes.

And then used a toothpick to create the swirl effect.

Then I placed the whole cupcake pan onto a 12x17 baking pan, filled the pan halfway with hot water, and baked the cheesecakes in the water bath.  And when they were done, there were no cracks!  Yay!

The mini cheesecakes turned out great, and the hint of raspberry swirl was a perfect compliment to the creaminess of the cheesecake.  We all had a blast at the pool party (especially the kids!).

Hope you had a happy birthday, Nicolle!

*** Update:

I also made these with a Valentine's Day version of these with cute heart design, using the raspberry puree and a toothpick! Check it out here!