Nutella Cake Pops

Another Superbowl, another excuse to bake something fun and creative!

This year's unfortunate Patriots/Giants rematch fell on World Nutella Day, so I wanted to make a dessert incorporating that glorious chocolate-hazelnut spread. Then, I thought cake pops would be a perfect finger food for a party, and just like regular cakes they can be made in any number of flavors. I put my own recipe together from anecdotes of past "cake-poppers", which I have written down below. It's very straightforward, but multiple cooling and heating steps mean it takes several hours.

• 1 box chocolate cake mix (I used Betty Crocker's SuperMoist Chocolate Fudge)
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 C water
• 1 jar Nutella
• 2 bags Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips
• paper lollipop/candy sticks

1. Make the box cake as instructed on the packaging, with the next three ingredients. Bake it in a 13"x9" pan, and let it cool completely once it's out of the oven.
2. Take a fork and fluff the entire cake into crumbs.
3. Spoon the majority of the Nutella jar's contents into the crumbs, and blend the Nutella and cake crumbs together. The fork works well for blending, but I finished the task with my hands.
4. Form the mixture into spheres. Mine are about the size of golf balls, or a little smaller; I ended up with 31 balls.
5. Let the balls chill in the fridge for a half-hour.
6. While they are chilling, get a double boiler ready for melting the chocolate. Melt one bag of chocolate chips along with half of whatever Nutella is left in the jar.
7. Take the chilled balls out of the fridge.
8. Dip one end of a candy stick into the melted chocolate, and insert the dipped end into a chilled ball.
9. Dip the ball into the melted chocolate, coating it with the milk chocolate / Nutella mixture.
10. Once the ball is covered, set it on wax or parchment paper to dry.
11. Partway through this process, you will run out of dipping chocolate. Melt the second bag of chocolate chips along with the remaining Nutella - and continue coating those balls once the dip is ready!
12. Transfer all cake pops into the fridge for further cooling; the outer chocolate layer should harden.
13. Enjoy!

First, let's talk process. I rarely if ever use box cakes, since I pride myself on from-scratch baking - but, since this was only going to be torn apart and refashioned into something completely different, I didn't feel much remorse for taking a shortcut. It did feel odd to destroy something I just baked, but helping the cake transform from unruly crumbs into a soft, pudding-like mixture was rather satisfying. Nutella is a thick spread, so I'm guessing the blending part took significantly longer than it would when using regular frosting. I got a rudimentary assembly line together for sticking and coating the bites, but that last step took a long time! The melted chocolate/Nutella mixture is thick, so it did not easily run over the chilled cake as I had envisioned. I ended up manually spooning the mixture over the cake, and twirling the cake around and around in my spoon to make sure it was evenly coated. I had considered embellishing the bites with colored decors, but the coating hardened quicker than I had expected. They still look very pretty, though! 

And now, how did they taste? In a word, marvelous. The moist, almost pudding-like cake center was bursting with Nutella and deep chocolate flavors. The creamy coating was oh so smooth; with Ghirardelli milk chocolate, already a silky and even treat, and Nutella mixed together, how could it not be?! I especially loved how refreshing that chilled exterior was, like biting into cooled, hardened fudge. I'd definitely do cake pops as a party treat again, provided I had an entire afternoon to devote to them in advance.

So the Pats may have lost...but my baking definitely won. We kept on reaching for more pops throughout the game. Did you enjoy any exceptional Superbowl desserts?