Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with 16 muffin wrappers or cupcake liners. Choose muffin wrappers that easily peel off food so the creamy cheesecake doesn’t get stuck to the wrapper. In a medium bowl, stir together graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar until mixed well.
Press about 1 tablespoon of mixture into the bottom of each muffin wrapper. Press it down firmly in the bottom of each cup. Place in oven to bake for 5 minutes. Let these cool before filling with the cheesecake mixture.
Making the Cheesecake
In a large mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese and granulated sugar until smooth.
Beat in eggs (one at a time) and vanilla extract. Beat until fully combined.
Stir in sour cream and flour (do not beat in these ingredients).
Separate cheesecake batter into equal portions between 6 bowls. This is about 130 grams per bowl. Color one bowl of cheesecake batter red, one orange, one yellow, one green, one blue and one purple.
Starting with purple cheesecake batter, put about 1 teaspoon of purple cheesecake batter on top of each baked crust. This will be your bottom layer of cheesecake. For the next color layer, put about a teaspoon of blue cheesecake batter over top of the purple layer in each cup. Continue layering cheesecake batter in this order: green, yellow, orange and finishing with red filling on top. Each cup should be about ¾ full of cheesecake batter. Don’t overflow the cups or the cheesecake won’t set properly.
Place cheesecakes into oven and bake rainbow cheesecake for 17 to 19 minutes.The tops should look set and have a smooth texture and they should be no longer jiggling in the middle. Remove cheesecakes from the oven before the middles start cracking. If a few cheesecakes do crack a bit, that’s okay! We’ll be covering the top with whipped topping, anyway.
Let cheesecakes cool (still sitting in muffin tin) at room temperature for one hour, then place cheesecakes in the fridge (still in muffin tins) for at least 4 hours or overnight. Do not remove cheesecakes from muffin tin until they are completely cooled.
Making the Whipped Topping
In a medium bowl, beat together heavy cream, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla extract until soft peaks form (about 5 minutes).
Remove muffin wrappers and top each colorful cheesecake with whipped topping just before serving them. (Don’t top them with whipped cream too long before serving or the whipped topping will start to melt into the top of the cheesecake and will start to change the texture of the cheesecake!) Add sprinkles if desired.
You can store these cheesecakes (separate from whipped topping) in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Yum!
Notes
** It’s important that the cream cheese is softened to room temperature so that it blends up smoothly with the other ingredients. Eggs and sour cream should also be at room temperature before mixing with the other ingredients so they all blend together properly.