I followed the recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything.
Considering I had no idea what stiff white peaks are (they are what form after beating egg whites for a lengthy period of time), I'm very happy with how my first attempt turned out.
Some notes:
I would definitely add more strawberries to the batter and as garnish.
I would also consider making the graham cracker crust a bit thicker.
That night at the fundraiser, I was watching my platter of cupcakes like a hawk and pretty much hovering over everyone who tried one. I wanted to gauge their reaction, ok?! Anyway, at first, no one was touching my cupcakes! I later found out that they didn't know it was a cheesecake cupcake hybrid. They thought I'd brought plain 'ol cupcakes. Madness! Anyway, once word got out that it was no ordinary cupcake (*curtsies), several people came up to me saying how much they enjoyed it. THAT alone made me forget all about the 4+ hours it took for me to muster up these delicious, but DIFFICULT treats.
Hopefully with practice, I will get even better.
ETA: I personally would not call these cupcakes "strawberry cheesecake cupcakes." They are more of a strawberry cupcake with a creamcheese frosting. So, sorry if that confused anyone who was reading the post. I realized I'd switch between cheesecake and cake. I just referred to the treats that way since that is how OP calls them. Cheers!
