Daring Bakers Pops 2nd Challenge - Cheesecake Pops!

So, only my second challenge, and I was so excited. When I found out we were going to make Cheesecake pops, I was ecstatic because my first thought was - these will be perfect for CFY!

First off I want to thank Elle of Feeding My Entusiams and Deborah of Taste and Tell for submitting the recipe of the month - The recipe this month hales from a cookbook entitled, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor. You can view the recipe at either of their blogs!

If you need a gluten free recipe, you can view one at Ginger Lemon Girl's site. I visited her site this morning and her pops look great! I have a personal interest in gluten free because of my friend who was just diagnosed with Celiac disease.

Before I started I went in to see if others had made the pops and how they turned out for them. I was finding that many people were having trouble with the cake setting. I thought to myself, "eh, I'm a pro at cheesecake, I will do just fine"......NOT!

I thought that after reading the troubles, that if I used a different sized pan, I would be fine. I read someone else used a 9x11 pan and their cakes seemed to turn out....so I followed suit. My cake pan was still filled right to the top when I poured my batter in. Putting the boiling water in the pan after the cake pan was in for the water bath was a challenge itself! All I could think was, I hope I don't pour boiling water into my cake! I baked the cake itself for more than an hour, which was longer than the recipe stated. When I pulled the cake out - it didn't look bad. It hadn't browned on the top like many others said theirs did- and mine had cooked for well over 1 hour and 15 minutes. So, I was thinking....maybe, just maybe I was in luck - but my luck stopped here.


This is basically where I stopped taking photos - although I did get a photo of the few I did get made into pops. After the cake cooled and sat in the fridge overnight, I was ready to make my pops. I found the top layer and around the edges was cheesecake consistency, where as when I got into the center, it started to become gooey. So, I threw the pan in the freezer after forming a few pops to try to firm it up enough to roll into balls. It was obvious to me I wasn't going to be able to cut the pops. I managed to get about 9 pops out of a recipe that made 40. Pretty depressing to me considering all the yummy ingredients that was in this recipe. Every time I took the cheesecake out of the freezer and started to form into balls, the cheesecake became liquefied in my hands. I took what I had for balls and froze them over night and dipped them the next morning. I was able to take them to CFY (kept frozen the whole time or I was afraid they would become liquid!) and when they were passed out to the participants, they were told not to save them but to eat them immediately!

The pops were a hit with the women who ate them. WHEN I make these again, I will divide the batter into 2 pans like I have seen other DB'ers do. I'm glad I participated in this challenge even though I was unable to use up all the batter. I know it can be done so I will try again and the next time I will be more successful!


To see how other Daring Baker's fared, click here.