I made mini cheesecakes today in muffin tins. They still sunk, which I attribute to overtaxing, but they didn't crack-I used my steam oven rather than a water bath. I plan to put strawberry jam on top.

Room temp ingredients--especially the cheese. Do not whip on high --incorporating too much air gives you a souffle effect-rise and fall. As betteirene mentioned, 1Tbsp flour/8ozs cream cheese helps stabilize the cake.

This often happens when there is a sudden change in temperature.

One solution is to cook until the cheesecakes are still slightly jiggly in the center, turn off the oven, and leave the door ajar. That way, they will have a little time to finish cooking, but at the same time they will cool very gradually. When they are room temperature you can transfer them to the fridge until ready to use.

If that doesn't work, maybe you could try another recipe like the other cooks suggested above. Hope this helps!

I'm making these in a muffin pan with a nilla wafer as a crust. I'm swirling different fillings in the batter. The bride doesn't want any toppings so I thought swirling different fillings would be a good way to get a variety of flavors. Thanks for all the help.

I find tat the best cheesecake recipes always sink a bit - yet they are dense, creamy and taste great. So what if it falls a bit or cracks? Perhaps you can cleverly conceal any flaws with fruit or a fruit glaze. Maybe make a few different fruit versions and people could select their preference.

Are you making them in a muffin pan with a crust of crushed crumbs, or in a mini-muffin pan with a whole vanilla wafer for the crust, or in mini-springform pans? Actually, I don't know why I asked that. . .it has nothing to do with your question, but I am interested in knowing if the wee pans are with removable bottoms are worth the purchase--they're awfully cute..

It's hard to bake small cheesecakes in a bain marie--if they're in enough water to come halfway up the pan, the pans have a tendency to float. If your recipe does not call for the addition of flour, here's the cheat: For every 8 oz. of cream cheese used in the recipe, add 1 tablespoon of flour (stir it into the sugar to avoid lumps). This small amount of flour is not enough to affect the texture or flavor of the cheesecake but it's enough to give the cheesecake some structure so that it isn't likely to deflate as it cools.

Or, you can find a recipe with flour built into its list of ingredients, such as this one, which I've not tried, from King Arthur flour:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/ny-cheesecake-recipe

Hard to know what is going wrong. I would bake them in a water bath, this helps to insulate the cheesecake, keeping the center and the edges more similar in temperature as well as keeps the oven humid so the texture of the cheesecake is creamier. I would also consider a sacrificial one per batch, and rig up my digital oven thermometer so the probe was in the center of if it, and pull the cheesecakes when the probe hit 145º to 150º F. As soon as they come out of the oven, run a sharp knife around the edges to free them from the pan. I'd also consider topping them so if there are some minor flaws they will be hidden! Best of luck.