Chocolate peppermint cake pops

Grease a 10 inch cake pan with butter and dust it with cocoa powder.

Whisk the boiling water into the cocoa powder until homogenous, then whisk in the whole milk and set aside.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl.

Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer with the paddle on medium high until light and fluffy, two to four minutes.

Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs one at a time, beating and scraping between each.

Alternate wet and dry: a third of the dry, half the wet, another third of the dry, the rest of the wet, then the last of the dry by hand so the gluten is not overworked.

Tip into the prepared pan, spread flat and bake at 350F for 25 to 35 minutes, until a tester comes out clean or it reads 200 to 210F at the thickest point.

Cool in the pan 10 to 15 minutes, turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely, at least two hours.

Temper the chocolate: melt the roughly chopped chocolate in a double boiler to no higher than 130F, take off the heat and wipe the bowl dry.

Stir in the finely chopped seed chocolate until melted, adding more if needed, until the chocolate comes down to 88 to 92F; hold it there and never above 95F.

Whip the butter, powdered sugar, milk and peppermint extract into a smooth frosting.

Break the cake into fine crumbs, discarding big chunks and crispy edges, and massage in the frosting to a thick shapeable cake dough.

Press and roll into golf ball sized cake balls.

Dip a handle in the tempered chocolate and stab it into a cake ball; let set 15 to 20 minutes.

Drop the cake pop inverted into the chocolate, spoon chocolate up around the sides and pull out slowly while swirling.

Sprinkle crushed candy cane on the chocolate while it is still wet.