M&M’s Pumpkin Cheesecake Pops and Apple Cider Wassail » Fall Recipes
I’m seeing pumpkin recipes popping up everywhere so to kick off the Fall recipes, and as part of a sponsored post for Collective Bias®, I made these Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake Pops and Apple Cider Wassail Recipes to share with my sister and my office friends.
Fall is my favorite time of year. Of course, I love pumpkin recipes and falling leaves in beautiful East Texas, but what I love most are the colors. My favorite combination of colors with orange and brown. I love these colors so much that they were my wedding colors when I got married in October 2007. I let the bridesmaids choose between the two colors and it was beautiful to see all the married girls pick brown while the one unmarried girl picked orange. She was a pop of color and she was my little sister.
This week my sister is heading back to work from being on maternity leave. In fact, she had been on bed rest for much longer than that, but now it is time for her to take her baby to daycare. I wanted to do something special for her. I know from her baby shower that she loves cake pops so I added in a Fall theme and made Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake Pops. She is still breast feeding and pumping while at work so I also decided to make a little Apple Cider Wassail for her to enjoy as well.
My other reason for loving Fall is the beginning of the holiday season. Of course, that means lots of sweets and candy, candy, candy. Hey, I didn’t get to this size from loving lettuce, you know! I love seeing all the Fall and Halloween candy start showing up on the shelves this time of year.
Peanut M&M’s are my absolute favorite candy ever. Seriously, I cannot control myself around them. Look at those beautiful Fall colors! Why didn’t I serve these at my wedding? I probably would have gone around eating them all night and forgot to say, “I do”.
I have to admit when I saw the Candy Corn M&M’s I wasn’t sure about them, but they are white chocolate so how could you go wrong? I crunched up the two different types of M&M’s to use as my candy coating on the cheesecake pops. I can only imagine how the crunch and chocolate is going to taste!
Nothing but the best for my sister and new niece so I had to use Mott’s Apple Juice in my homemade Apple Cider Wassail. I couldn’t find cinnamon sticks anywhere (and seriously, they have to stock these because it’s Fall!) so I used ground cinnamon and a fresh orange and lemon along with some honey.
Finally, I used Howard’s cheesecake recipe for a plain cheesecake along with a pumpkin box cake to make the cake pops. It was a little tricky with the crushed up M&M’s at first, but then I realized I could just chop them in the cuisinart and make a candy dust. I absolutely have fallen in love with making cake pops since my sister’s baby shower so they are my new treat for special occasions.
Apple Cider Wassail
Ingredients:
64 oz. Mott’s Apple Juice
1 Orange
1 Lemon
2 cinnamon sticks (or 2 tbsp ground cinnamon)
1/2 cup honey
Directions:
Mix all ingredients in large cooking pot
Cook at medium heat until warm to liking
Let simmer on low for additional time for a yummy smelling home!
M&M’s Pumpkin Cheesecake Pops
Ingredients:
4 Large Eggs
4-8 oz packages of Cream Cheese
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3/4 cup Sugar
1 Pumpkin box cake
1 Package Almond Bark (Candy Coating)
Cake pop sticks
Directions:
Mix all ingredients in mixer until smooth
Pour into 8 x 11 pan or 2 cake pans
Cook at 350 for 55 minutes
Let cool before using for cake pops
Cook box cake according to directions
Let cool before using for cake pops
Mix half of the cheesecake with 1/3 of the box cake and knead into dough. The consistency should be slightly doughy, but strong enough to stay in a ball.
Roll into small balls
Dip the cake pop sticks into a small amount of melted candy coating and insert 3/4 into the cake pops
Refrigerate for 10 minutes
To cover the cake pops:
Melt the candy coating until smooth. Add a small spoon of shortening to make it slightly smoother.
Dip the cake pop into the candy coating and cover completely. Let the excess drip off, but not too long that the candy begins to harden.
Dip in or sprinkle the crushed M&M’s over the candy coating.
Let rest in the refrigerator for 5 minutes.
For more great ideas visit the Fall Baking and Entertaining Pinterest Board.
You can bring ME some cake pops to work any time. I haven’t been on bed rest but I have been in my bed a lot. But mostly because I’m lazy.
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Amy, I will bring you cake pops to SFC14!
How sweet to think about your sister! Yummy recipe, and I love cake pops too!
Thank you, Patricia! I took them to her this morning and made her cry again. She was thankful anyway.