With only 6 ingredients, these easy little cheesecake cups are a breeze for your holiday tray. And they’re so pretty too!
I love a tray of bite-size desserts during the holidays. They’re so pretty and festive. And I can always splurge and eat “just one more.”
Quick, easy and fun is the name of the game with these! Today, sticking with that red and white theme, I have pretty little cheesecake cups. There isn’t actually any cheesecake in there though. It’s a light and creamy cream cheese mixture that tastes like cheesecake, even though it isn’t baked.
Making No-Bake Cheesecake Cups
This cheesecake-flavored dessert is not only pretty and tasty but it’s also really quick and easy to make.
You buy a box of frozen mini fillo shells (these are an amazing deal for under $2 for 15 cups!). You bake them for 3-4 minutes to make them extra crispy.
Then you mix together four ingredients (Only four? Yes really!): cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and a touch of orange zest. Transfer the mixture to a zip-top bag and cut off a tip (or use a piping bag).
At that point, you can refrigerate the filling and the cups until you’re ready to serve them. Both will keep in the fridge for a few days so you can have them on hand and quickly fill them as you need them. I wrap the cut tip of the zip-top bag in plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.
To fill you squeeze the filling into the cups and then top each one with a few pomegranate arils. Note that you can remove the arils from a pomegranate the day before and store in an airtight container in the fridge. This is my favorite method for getting the arils out of the fruit. Or you can simply buy the arils in containers in the refrigerated part of the grocery store. Or, put one raspberry on top of each cup instead of pomegranate!
Once the filo cups are filled, you can refrigerate them and then serve them within 2 hours. But since they only take a few seconds to fill, I usually fill them right when I need them. Your friends will love watching you do it. It’s amazing how a few simple things can quickly turn into something so pretty.
Podcast Episode: Making Mini Cheesecake Cups
Listen to me explain briefly about how to make this recipe, along with some other great tips, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
PrintNo-Bake Cheesecake Cups Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 minutes
- Total Time: 13 minutes
- Yield: 30 mini cakes 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: No Cook
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
With only 6 ingredients, these easy little cheesecake cups are a breeze for your holiday tray. And they’re so pretty too!
Ingredients
- 30 frozen mini fillo shells (2 packages)
- 8 oz. cream cheese (regular or 1/3 less fat), softened
- 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1/4 tsp. orange zest
- 1/4 tsp. vanilla
- 4 oz. pomegranate arils (about 1/2 to 1 full pomegranate)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Put the frozen fillo shells on a baking sheet.
- Once the oven has preheated, bake them for 3-4 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool.
- In a large bowl combine the cream cheese, condensed milk, orange zest, and vanilla.
- Transfer it to a large ziptop bag. Cut off 1/4 inch from a corner of the bag. (You can instead use a piping bag).
- Squeeze about 2 teaspoons of filling into each fillo shell.
- Distribute pomegranate arils over the tops of the filled shells.
- Serve immediately or refrigerate uncovered for up to 2 hours.
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This post originally appeared in December 2014 and was revised and republished in December 2018.