A detail from the beige team's creation for Santa's Mega Challenge: Ultimate Christmas Lights, where an animal party with reindeer and other animals that get tangled up in their own Christmas light display, as seen on Food Network's Cake Wars, Christmas Special.
Recipe courtesy of Fred Isla

Chocolate Hazelnut Decadence Cake Pop

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  • Level: Intermediate
  • Total: 2 hr 20 min (includes cooling, chilling and setting times)
  • Active: 35 min
  • Yield: 24 servings

Ingredients

Flourless Chocolate Cake:

Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch:

Raspberry Vanilla Bean Cream:

Directions

Special equipment:
a small-cavity silicone mold and 24 cake pop sticks
  1. For the flourless chocolate cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a food processor, mix together the melted chocolate, granulated sugar and cocoa powder. Pour in the hot espresso while mixing and process until the mixture turns creamy. Add the cubed butter piece by piece and process until fully incorporated. Add the eggs 1 at a time and mix until fully emulsified. Mix in the vanilla.
  3. Fill the cavities of a small-cavity silicon mold with the batter, place in a water bath and bake for 12 minutes. Let cool completely, then refrigerate to set. Once set, remove from the molds.
  4. For the milk chocolate hazelnut crunch: Put the milk chocolate in a mixing bowl and melt over a double boiler. Add the praline paste and mix until fully emulsified. Take the chocolate mixture off the double boiler and add the feuilletine flakes. Fold gently until fully combined (making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl). Spread evenly on a silicone mat and let set. Cut out pieces the same size as the bottom of the cakes and refrigerate until hardened.
  5. For the raspberry vanilla bean cream: Put the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer and cream together until light, fluffy and lighter in color. Add the raspberry puree and mix slowly until completely combined.
  6. To assemble: Microwave the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl in 15-second intervals until melted, about 1 minute total, stirring between each interval. Make a small cavity in the bottom of each cake and fill the hole and smear the bottom with the raspberry vanilla bean cream. Place a disc of the milk chocolate hazelnut crunch on the bottom of each cake. Poke a hole in each disc and insert a lollipop stick. Dip in the melted chocolate and garnish as desired.