We are all about the mini desserts, and these salted caramel cheesecakes can be made mini or a normal cupcake size, but the minis are perfect for feeding a crowd.
If you are a cheesecake fan, you’ll love these! The salty sweet caramel with the creaminess of the cheesecake layer and the crunch of the graham cracker crust is so good together. Sure you can top these little cheesecakes in so many different ways, but this salted caramel is so good, and perfect for this time of year.
What you need to make Salted Caramel Cheesecakes:
For the Graham Cracker Crust:
- graham crackers
- sugar
- butter
For the Cheesecake Filling:
- cream cheese
- sugar
- flour
- eggs
- vanilla extract
- sour cream
- heavy cream
For the Salted Caramel:
- sugar
- water
- corn syrup
- butter
- heavy cream
- sour cream
- salt
- vanilla
- salt flakes to garnish
How to make Salted Caramel Cheesecakes:
For the Graham Cracker Crust:
- Preheat: Preheat oven to 350.
- Crush graham crackers: Crush the graham crackers either with a rolling pin or in a food processor.
- Mix ingredients: Whisk together crushed graham crackers, sugar and melted butter until combined.
- Press into lined pans: Divide graham cracker mixture into paper lined cupcake pans, add in a heaping spoonful into each liner and press mixture down evenly.
- Bake and cool: Bake graham cracker crusts at 350 for 5 minutes. Remove pan from oven and let cool while you make the cheesecake filling.
For the Cheesecake Filling:
- Mix cheesecake ingredients: In a large bowl combine all cheesecake filling ingredients except the eggs and mix with a hand mixer or stand mixer. Once pretty well blended, add the eggs and mix until well combined and smooth.
- Divide in pans: Divide the cheesecake filling between the paper liners in the cupcake pans, filling each one nearly full.
- Bake: Bake at 350 for 18 to 25 minutes. Do not over bake. If they start to crack, remove pan from the oven, and allow to cool for one hour. Cover pan loosely with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.
For the Salted Caramel:
- Add ingredients to saucepan: Add sugar, corn syrup and water to a medium saucepan (do not stir at all!).
- Bring to a simmer: Bring to a simmer over medium heat without stirring. Simmer until the sugar has turned a dark caramel color (recipe says it takes about 10 min. It takes more like 15 min where I live. Don’t let it burn! )
- Add the rest of the ingredients: Remove from heat and add the butter, heavy cream, sour cream, salt and vanilla stir until smooth. Let cool slightly before serving.
- Top with caramel: When ready to serve, top each cheesecake with a spoonful of salted caramel. Enjoy!
- This recipe makes 48 mini cheesecakes and 12 cupcake sizes cheesecakes. The mini cheesecakes are great for serving a crowd.
How to store Salted Caramel Cheesecakes:
Keep these cheesecakes covered and store in the fridge. They will last around three days. A little tip when you make these…wait to put the salted caramel on just before serving. I put it on first and tried to cover with plastic wrap, and the caramel stuck to the plastic wrap. It was bad.
Different ways to top Cheesecake cupcakes:
Making the Homemade Caramel:
The key with making the caramel is patience. You have to watch the sugar start to turn a golden color before you add in any of the dairy ingredients, learn from my mistake (ha)…it works best if you see the sugar turn a golden brown. This caramel is great for dipping Granny Smith Apples or for these cheesecakes.
Pans for Mini Cheesecake cupcakes:
With this recipe we made 48 mini cheesecakes using two of these mini cupcake pans that hold 24, and we made 12 regular sized cheesecakes. So 60 cheesecakes total! They’re perfect for parties, holiday parties or baby showers.

Salted Caramel Cheesecakes
Salted Caramel Mini Cheesecakes are sweet, creamy, and perfect to feed a crowd.
Ingredients
For the Graham Cracker Crust
- 15 graham cracker sheets finely crushed
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 7 tablespoons butter melted
For the Cheesecake Filling
- 4 8oz. packages cream cheese softened
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
For the Salted Caramel
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoon corn syrup
- 1/4 cup butter cut into pieces
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon sour cream
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- crushed salt flakes to garnish
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 350.
-
Crush the graham crackers either with a rolling pin or in a food processor.
-
Whisk together crushed graham crackers, sugar and melted butter until combined.
-
Divide graham cracker mixture into paper lined cupcake pans, add in a heaping spoonful into each liner and press mixture down evenly.
-
Bake graham cracker crusts at 350 for 5 minutes. Remove pan from oven and let cool while you make the cheesecake filling.
For the Cheesecake Filling
-
In a large bowl combine all cheesecake filling ingredients except the eggs and mix with a hand mixer or stand mixer. Once pretty well blended, add the eggs and mix until well combined and smooth.
-
Divide the cheesecake filling between the paper liners in the cupcake pans, filling each one nearly full.
-
Bake at 350 for 18 to 25 minutes. Do not over bake. If they start to crack, remove pan from the oven, and allow to cool for one hour. Cover pan loosely with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.
For the Salted Caramel:
-
Add sugar, corn syrup and water to a medium saucepan (do not stir at all!).
-
Bring to a simmer over medium heat without stirring. Simmer until the sugar has turned a dark caramel color (recipe says it takes about 10 min. It takes more like 15 min where I live. Don't let it burn! )
-
Remove from heat and add the butter, heavy cream, sour cream, salt and vanilla stir until smooth. Let cool slightly before serving.
-
When ready to serve, top each cheesecake with a spoonful of salted caramel. Enjoy!
-
This recipe makes 48 mini cheesecakes and 12 cupcake sizes cheesecakes. The mini cheesecakes are great for serving a crowd.
Making This Recipe? Tag us on Instagram: @NoBiggie using the hashtag #NoBiggieRecipes, so we can see what you are making in the kitchen!
More mini recipes that we LOVE:
- Mini Pavlovas
- Mini Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifles
- Mini Choco Tacos
- Mini Cheese Quesadillas
- Mini Taquitos
More recipes like this:
That’s it! If you make this recipe, please let me know!
-Using the star icons below: RATE and COMMENT… I would love to hear your experience. Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on this recipe with your comment.
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Can you make these ahead of serving and how do you store them?
Hi Janice! Yes! You can make them a day in advance and store them in the baking pans with a cover or plastic wrap. You will want to add the warm caramel an hour or two before serving. Just don’t cover the caramel with plastic wrap, because it will stick to it.
Refrigerate?
YES! But refrigerate before adding the caramel! Add the caramel after.
They look wonderful.
Can you frezz these and fir how long?
Hi Deanna! Yes you can freeze them! Just make sure to add the caramel just right before serving. You can’t freeze the caramel. You can freeze them for a couple of weeks, wrapped up in the freezer to avoid freezer burn.
Can you put the caramel on several hours before? I would love to bring to thanksgiving but I would need to have them done prior to arriving.
Hi Heather! Sure you can put caramel on hours before! Just don’t cover with plastic wrap directly touching them…the caramel will stick to the plastic and it will come right off.
I had a huge problem with the caramel sauce. As soon as I added the cream and sour cream the whole thing seized up into a rock hard ball. I also cut the cheesecake recipe in half and still ended up with 48 mini cheesecakes and half a dozen bigger cheesecakes.
Hi Shelley! Oh my! That is so strange on the quantity that you got even after cutting the recipe in half. Im not sure what to say on that?? As for the caramel sauce, I think the temp of the water sugar mixture was not to the right temp before you added in the dairy ingredients. On a candy thermometer it needs to be up to the soft ball stage to not seize. I think you will have better luck with the caramel the next go around.
I want to reduce the recipe, so how much is 15 sheets of graham crust in ounces
Hi David! I’m not exactly sure what to tell you without remaking it. Because graham crackers are not super expensive, you could try cutting the graham sheet quantity in half and blend in the food processor to see where you are at. I guess I would also need to know what you are reducing the recipe to?
Hello, it says the printable recipe is below and I can’t find it. Can you send it?
Hi Nanette! The printable recipe is there. It is inside of a turquoise colored frame.
I also had a problem with the caramel sauce. I did exactly what you said and combined the corn syrup, sugar and water and did not stir it at all. I simmered it on medium for 15 minutes and it never turned dark. It did however form some type of super glue around the edges of my pan! It’s cooling now but it doesn’t seem to be thickening up. What consistency should it be when it cools? Can I make the caramel sauce a day before using it on the cheesecakes?
Hi there! So sorry it didn’t work out on your first attempt. You will need to cook it longer and wait until it starts to turn a caramel color. This is key. Yes you can make the caramel a day before and then just warm it gently in the microwave.
Hi there….i would like to make these for a party 4 days from now. Should I freeze them or will they be ok in the fridge. If frozen, how long do they need to thaw? Also, I was gifted some homemade peach jam and was thinking of using that to too instead of the caramel. Do you think that will be too sweet?
Hi Lisa! They should freeze well. Just don’t freeze them with the jam or salted caramel.
Does the recipe call for Lite or Dark Corn Syrup?
Light Corn Syrup
How much crushed Graham crackers is 15 sheets? I hit the Graham cracker crumbs.
I’m not sure…maybe 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs?
Hi
Can these be mAdei. A regular size cupcake liner?
What type flour?
all purpose flour
What is 4 8oz cream cheese? 48oz?
It is 4 separate blocks of cream cheese. 4×8=32oz in total. You can cut the recipe in half if you don’t want to make as many.
Hola Kami, se ven deliciosos estos pasteles de queso y quiero prepararlos. En la receta para el caramelo pones: 1 c. De azúcar
1/4 c. agua
¿Qué significa la “c”? Porque también pones completas las palabras “cucharada” y “cucharadita” y eso me hace pensar que es otra cosa. ¡Gracias!
Hola rosa La medida c es para taza. Lo siento por cualquier confusión. He actualizado la receta para asegurarme de que está clara. ¡Gracias!
Can you freeze cherry cheesecake?
Hi Karen! You can freeze this cheesecake with out the caramel topping. Not sure about about a cherry topping, you could freeze them separately!
How long to bake the regular sized cupcakes?
Hi Sarah! I would bake the regular sized cupcakes closer to 30 minutes, but watch them to prevent them from cracking.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I have made it twice now and they come out perfect. I don’t make my own caramel though, I used ready made, also, I got 60 mini cheesecakes and 1 small whole cheesecake!
I just had to make extra crust. I bought, cherry pie filling and apple pie filling along with the caramel and had an assortment, so fun, thanks!!
Yay! Thank you for sharing! So glad you love them!!