Irish Cheese Cakes

I made these with my niece for her multi cultural night at school. And they were amazing! Almost enough to knock the lil girl down and keep them for myself! But I would never do that I'm a nice aunt.

The cheese cakes:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
rind and juice of 1/2 a lemon (zest)
2 eggs, beaten
8 tablespoons self-rising flour
8 oz pie crust
8 table spoons raspberry preserves
1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Beat the butter, sugar, and lemon zest until fluffy. Beat in the eggs a little at a time.

Sift the flour and add to the butter mixture.

Push the pie crust into 12 cupcake tins. Spoon in the preserves and fill 3/4 full of batter. Bake until brown about 25 minutes.

Let cook and ice with powder sugar and lemon juice mixed together to make a yummy lemon icing.



The recipe for the pie crust I got from
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_pie_crust/
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
* 1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 4 to 8 Tbsp ice water
Cut the sticks of butter into 1/2-inch cubes and place in the freezer for 15 minutes to an hour (the longer the better) so that they become thoroughly chilled.

Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor; pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse 6 to 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter. Add ice water 1 Tbsp at a time, pulsing until mixture just begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it's ready. If the dough doesn't hold together, add a little more water and pulse again.

Remove dough from machine and place in a mound on a clean surface. Gently shape into 2 discs. Knead the dough just enough to form the discs, do not over-knead. You should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These small chunks of butter are what will allow the resulting crust to be flaky. Sprinkle a little flour around the discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour, and up to 2 days.