There Will Be Cake

Flower Cookie Pops

I made these adorable flower cookie pops as a gift for my mom on Mother's Day. The cookie recipe is from Joy of Baking, right here. I also used the royal icing recipe (the powdered egg white version) on that same page.

A pretty flower pot with some floral foam and river rocks serves as the perfect way to present these. What I did was cover the bottom of the pot with some rocks to weigh it down, added floral foam which the lollipop sticks stuck into, then covered the foam with some more rocks. So cute. Here's a picture of the almost finished gift (this doesn't show the top layer of river rocks and I also wrapped each cookie in clear cellophane tied with a ribbon).

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

I'm a terrible blogger. I hope these individual cookies and cream cheesecakes help make up for my absence. I made these for a New Year's Eve party. These most decadent and delicious mini pieces of heaven come from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes
from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 42 Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
• 2 lbs cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
• 1 cup sour cream
• pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 275 degrees F. Line muffin tins with a paper cupcake liner, then place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each.

Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth. Add sugar slowly, followed by the vanilla extract. Make sure to scrape down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

Drizzle in the beaten eggs slowly and continue to beat. Add the sour cream and pinch of salt and mix until everything is well-blended. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

Fill each cupcake liner almost to the top with the batter. Bake for 22-26 minutes, rotating the muffin tins halfway through. Cool completely on a wire rack, leaving the cheesecakes inside the tin. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (overnight is better). I put mine in the freezer for about an hour and they were fine.

These will keep very well in the freezer if wrapped in aluminum foil. I had about 8 extra that I didn't bring to the party and I wrapped them individually, then froze them. I might have one thawing out right now.