Sunday, April 27, 2008

Stick to the challenge!

My name is Castrinator, Pro Castrinator. Again I waited to the last hours to fulfill my Daring Bakers Challenge April. This time I exactly knew why....

We had to do crafts. Cream cheese crafts. Fickle on a popsickle. Twirl and Swirl. Decorate your Dairy. Yup, my favourite pastime, plus the fact that I'm not so sure on the cheese cakes part.

Come on, what would you think when a recipe involves a kilo of cream cheese, a couple of eggs and nothing else? Oh yes that and a pound of chocolate?
Run for the hills and call Weight Watchers from your mobile while you're at it. Which would be a fine training since you're going to need both the exercise and the WW after completing and eating).
As of today, posting day 4 o'clock my freezer burps with a large amount of chocolate covered cream cheese balls. I feared baking the cheese cake, I feared rolling the balls, I feared covering them in chocolate. The hardest part? Finding a place for them to set and making the pictures. As often is the case, when I am finished I am so happy that taking the pics is like an afterthought...


I followed the recipe exactly as it was written and it turned out that halving the recipe and accidently setting the oven a tad too high (350F instead of 325) made a perfect cheese cake, no cracks, all set in 35 minutes. I tried cutting the cake with a small cookie cutter, tried rolling balls with cold damp hands, both were do-able but very messy! Freezing them for a couple of hours made them hard enough to enrobe in chocolate (tempered with a spoonful of margarine) but I found that I had to work in small batches, the cake was defrosting fast!

The challenge this month was brought to us by yet another illustrous duo: Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell, you can find the recipe there. Thank you girls for choosing another new to me exercise! I bet you want to see all the other cheesecake crafts, click on the The Daring Bakers Blogroll on the right hand side and let your eyes go pop!


The recipe comes from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey, by Jill O’Connor. I halved the recipe and it made me close to 30 -Dutch- walnut sized balls. Knowing the kids and their friends (and their Dad ;-)) would love their looks, I used almost every colour and shape sprinkle in the house. There are still plain cheesecake balls in the freezer, those will pursue a career as a dessert topping. Can't give you a verdict yet, we all tried one but they were fairly soft, and the richness was almost overpowering. I wonder what they will be like when they are firm.

45 comments:

  1. love all the different shapes you made and all the sprinkles...too cute!

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  2. hahahaha Crastinator.. so funny! I just heart you. :)

    Very pretty and colorful pops! I'm lovin the purple rock sugary lookin' ones!

    xoxo

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  3. You did a great job..I love them...and since I did mine at 2 a.m. this morning..I must be part of the castrinator family too.

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  4. My favorite is the one with the purple sugar as well. Call Weight Watchers is right.Very nice work,

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  5. I know, why I pass this challenge... Kudos, you did it!

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  6. WW would be a great call.
    Love that lavender sprinkle! You must have an arsenal of sprinkles there.
    So I should call you Castrinator now ;))
    It wasn't nearly as hard as my mind tried to make it. Now I think it's the best size(way) in the world to serve cheesecake.

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  7. You're saying you had all those types of decorations just lying around? I love it. Also the seahorse skewers, so cute!

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  8. Great job! They look Delish!

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  9. Loved your sprinkle arsenal! You will love them, for sure!

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  10. Those pops look great - lovely sprinkles!

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  11. This post gave me a good ol' giggle, you're too funny! I can relate as a fellow procrastinator and as fellow collector of sprinkles. I thought I had a collection going, but I think you have me beat!

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  12. Toch weer gelukt meid, gefeliciteerd!
    Super collectie strooigoed!

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  13. It's always better late than never. You made it and they look great.

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  14. Wil je wel geloven dat ik feitelijk niet meer dan zeven (!) van die rare kaaslolly's heb gemaakt?! Veertig; ze zien het zitten, zeker! (trouwens had ik uit mijn 'bescheiden' cheesecake van 'slechts' 300g roomkaas nog makkelijk veertig lolly's kunnen fabriceren) Nee, ik ben het helemaal met jou eens. En ik vind ook echt dat je het grappig opschrijft!

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  15. You did it! Great job, they are adorable.

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  16. I venture on to the computer and find my first DB cheesecake pops challenge... Love them - love you more of course!

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  17. Don't get your hopes up on the richness being tempered by the freezing, these babies are rich!
    Yours look adorable.

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  18. I think the size is perfect, and they are so cute! Nice job.

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  19. Loved your post - very funny!

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  20. Well, although you were resistant in making them, they turned out beautiful. Hope you like them as much as we did!

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  21. I have the very same thoughts as you in the beginning since we didn't have many people to eat all those pops, which is why I divided my recipe by five (it turned out great). Your look beautiful.

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  22. well ms. crastinator, they look pretty good! i think i am your long-lost twin, as i was also down to the wire time-wise with this challenge. took my photos just minutes before posting!

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  23. My cheesecake took quite long to set...next time , I'm raising the temperature :-DD...your pops look great :-)

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  24. Beautiful looking pops!!!

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  25. There was no need to fear, those look awesome!

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  26. They look wonderful, and isn't it so satisfying to feed people and have them love it? I used low fat cream cheese, and they tasted rich but not too rich, so I'm glad I made that adaptation.

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  27. We must be cousins!
    On the Castrinator side. See ya at the next WW meeting. LOL

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  28. Your balls look amazing.
    Great work.

    Iisha of
    http://thefablifeofi2daj.blogspot.com/

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  29. They all look so wonderful! I'm usually a procrastinator as well, but I figured I should do mine at the beginning of the month since I was co- hosting! Great job on this challenge!

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  30. Hello Pro Castrinator! Seems like you totally excelled with these pops :)

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  31. Teehee, I'm an uber procrastinator too! But hey, your pops turned out beautiful. Wasn't it fun?

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  32. Your cheesecake pops look amazing! I love the colorful sprinkles! I just joined DB and Im starting next month. Yeay~

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  33. I'm another cousin on the Crastinator side of the family, my mother having married Time K.(illing) Straggler. Pleasure to have made your acquaintance!

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  34. I so relate to the Pro Crastinator side of things. In fact, this has been my first daring baker challenge that I actually had 2 days left before posting. . .Amazing! Your cheesecake balls are beautiful and FUN! I love your choices of decorations =D

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  35. Delicious looking cheesecake pops!! After reading all these posts I am craving cheesecake again.

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  36. They all look so adorable, the hardest part for your family must have been choosing which to eat first! Even without girls to help, these turned out beautifully. Well done!

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  37. I love all the fun shapes and sizes of your pops! Very nice job.

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  38. hehe...great blog, I was giggling first line in ;)! Your pops look fantastic, great job!

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  39. Karen,

    This is so funny! Run for the hills ... I love it!

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  40. I know all about procrastination! Your pops look lovely. Excellent job.

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  41. great looking pops! Why worry about procrastinating when the pops turn out so well!!

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  42. Hi! Gosh, your pops look fabulous! The chocolate looks so much smoother than mine! =D

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  43. those pops look very cute Karen - you must have quite the sprinkle collection!

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  44. HI... U HAVE NICE BLOG... PLZ ADD MY LINK UR SITE... PLZ... MY LINK IS ABT FOOD N DRINKS.. IN RETURN ILL TOO ADD UR SITE IN MY BLOG ROLL...

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  45. Oh I love the footballs at the end of each stick. Did you make those?

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