They popped my catty cherry!

Last night was my first night joining the girls over at The Catty Kitchen! I have been wanting to join those fun-loving catty gals ever since I saw the crazy times being had over at their blog! I'm sure glad I did! It was a ton of fun! This week they were celebrating Faith's B-day! So, I thought, being the baking blogger I am, I would bring a tasty treat!

Cheesecake pops! The recipe was from a previous Daring Bakers challenge that I wasn't a part of (it was before my DB time).

They turned out really cute and delicious. I'm sure they should be much more uniformly round than this, but I wasn't patient enough to round the sticky globs into perfect spheres.

Cheesecake Pops
Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor
makes 30–40 pops

5 8-oz pkgs cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream

boiling water as needed
thirty-forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 lb chocolate, finely chopped
2 tbsp vegetable shortening
assorted decorations: chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees (optional)

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil. In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream. Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes. Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight. When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety. Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

Faith received a sushi-cake from Octavia and Jenn

.

After some of the gals consumed some sushi, we were summoned to the deep, dark basement to observe a possible black widow spider. Faith decided to take advantage of Octavia's vulnerability at this point. Spiders seemed to come up in a couple contexts throughout the night! ;)

Faith got some very thoughtful and crafty presents from Octavia, Jenn, and Jenna for her birthday. Like this adorable cupcake that Jenn crocheted.

She also received an awesome penis, I mean mushroom, for her garden that became a wonderful tool for phallic photos

!

Faith showing off her bag made of bags. Poor Jenn tried to show us several times how to make it, but I think we kept cutting her off. I hope to learn the technique someday!

There was a lot more to the evening that I won't post pictures of. I am so glad that the girls were so welcoming to me. They never once made me feel like an outsider (Faith!). They were so sweet to stop their conversations and give me the back story before continuing on. They are a great group of girls, with obviously strong bonds with each other. Thanks again girls! I'll be back!

Another thing I meant to blog about yesterday was the Resolve Advocacy Day. Resolve is a National Infertility Association. Yesterday they were headed to Washington, DC to fight for better insurance coverage for infertility patients. I so wish I could have been there, especially since I will be in DC tomorrow! I just missed the Advocacy day by 2 days!

Finally . . . RIP Michael Jackson.