Blueberry-Lemon Cheesecake Piecaken - Simple & Fun Recipe!

I was inspired to make this Lemon Blueberry Piecaken when I saw the most adorable blueberry pie at the SuperStore over the holidays. I know pie should really be described as 'yummy', 'tasty' or even 'scrumptious'. But this pie really was adorable. It was only 2.5 inches across, and came in cute single-serving containers. My first thought was: that will be perfect in a lemon cheesecake! The rest just sort of happened.

To make a mini piecaken, you really need a small 5" to 7" cake pan. If you have that, you can make a small piecaken with any small pie inside! If you can't find pies like the one I bought, make the blueberry pie recipe on my blog here and simply cut smaller circles of dough to fit in small/mini pie plates (find these at any grocery store, and even pre-made mini pie crusts in the freezer section!).

For the lemon flavouring, you can use natural lemon oil, if you have it.  Or you can plan 1 day in advance and peel large pieces of lemon rind off a few lemons.  Then soak them in the sugar that you plan to use for the dessert.

Here is how you tackle the rest of it:

To make a shortbread cheesecake crust, mix together the following ingredients:

• About 10 small shortbread cookies or lemon cookies, broken up
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 tbsp. granulated sugar

Press into a parchment-lined 5" to 7" cake pan until the bottom is covered and up the slides about a 1/2". Bake for 14 minutes in a preheated oven set at 350 degrees F. Remove from oven and let cool for a little while you prepare the filling.

For the small cheesecake, beat together:

• 1 package cream cheese, softened (warmed in microwave with NO packaging for about 25 seconds)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup agave syrup
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 lemon (you need the rind only should soak in the agave for 8 to 24 hours)

Then pour half the batter into your prepared cheesecake crust, then place your pie in the middle of the batter, and pour the remaining batter on top. Spread around and bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 to 40 minutes, checking to be sure the middle looks cooked but still lightly jiggly. Stick a knife in the middle to be sure raw cheesecake is not coming out of the center still before pulling it out of the oven.

Cover with marshmallow (Martha Stewart has a recipe here, but simply spread over cake immediately, before it sets into squares. For lemon marshmallows, just add lemon oil or soak your sugar & corn syrup in lemon first). You can simply sprinkle icing sugar over top to prevent stickiness. Or torch it with a chef's torch, like I did. Lemon buttercream would also be a nice topping or white chocolate ganache and coconut pressed into the sides.

I know this recipe is very casual compared to my other recipes. Use the Comments section below if you have questions, and I will try to answer them as soon as I can.

Good luck!

Lisabeth