They’re as fun as they look and as delicious as they sound. My hot chocolate bombs are pretty simple, but you can easily make them as fancy you’d like. I added a drizzle of homemade icing and some sprinkles I had home to finish each bomb for a fun and festive look.
Hot Chocolate Bomb Ingredients
Most of the ingredients are conveniently at Target for curbside pickup. The only thing I got elsewhere was the ice cube mold. Be sure to shop for the mold early because they sold out on Amazon last year!
Tagging my items or close dupes for convenience.
- Silicone ice sphere mold (alternatively, this mold costs about the same and has four more molds)
- Chocolate chips or light cocoa melting candies
- Hot cocoa mix
- Mini marshmallows
Optional: Icing + Topping Ingredients
- Confectioners/powdered sugar
- Red sprinkles and green sprinkles
- Crushed peppermint sprinkles
- Peppermint sticks for garnish
- Vanilla
- Milk
Melting the Chocolate
To me, this was the trickiest part. I first tried to do it on my stovetop with chocolate chips and they burnt to a CRISP. Totally unsalvageable. After a bit of research I found a way to boil some water and sit a (heat safe) bowl hovering over it with the chocolate to stir and melt it.
That seemed complex, so thankfully I remembered I have some Wilton melting cups. They seriously saved my butt! If you don’t have something like this I urge you to consider investing. They don’t cost much and can be used for making candies, melting chocolate, melting butter and SO many other things.
Spooning Chocolate into the Silicon Mold
While the chocolate is freshly melted and still at its smoothest, use a spoon to smooth some onto the inside of the silicone mold. My mold has one side with holes in it (it’s typically for making ice) so I just used the side without holes. Looking back, I think you could use both sides because the chocolate is plenty thick.
Try to keep as much as close to the inside as possible so you have plenty of room in the center for the mix and marshmallows later on.
Once your molds are fully covered put them in the fridge for at least two hours to set. If they’re still warm they won’t pop out of the molds properly and will likely get dented in the process. You can leave them sit longer if you’re not in a rush. I left them in the fridge overnight and they were SUPER easy to work with; I recommend that route if you have the time.
Assembling Hot Chocolate Bombs
Once your chocolate has fully set, pop each half sphere out of the mold. Wiggle the tray around gently, like you’re cracking an ice cube tray, to loosen any pieces that may be stuck. Then, push the half sphere from the backside gently until the rounds have popped out.
Thinking ahead, you’ll need somewhere for the assembled rounds to set once molded together and decorated.
HACK ALERT! Knowing it may be hard to get them out again, I set a few extra mini marshmallows in the mold to sit them up higher, making it easier for me to take them out when they’re done.
Add your hot cocoa mix (~1 packet or a heaping spoonful) and as many marshmallows as you prefer, or will fit, to your bottom half spheres.
To fuse the two halves together, use a heated pan to melt the rim of the top half spheres like so. I used my mini one egg pan (totally recommend grabbing one, I use it for all kinds of random recipes) which was the perfect size. Then, press the top and bottom halves together to seal the ingredients inside.
Chances are, your edges aren’t going to look perfect, and that’s totally normal. Take the fully assembled sphere and inspect it for large gaps along the seam. If you have any, carefully melt it gently on that same pan while it’s still hot to seal any openings.
Set the fully fused bombs back in the tray and place in the fridge to set. Once they’re fully cooled you can use a butter knife to sculpt the seam if there are any additional large chunks you’d like smoothed or removed.
Decorating Hot Chocolate Bombs
There are no hard and fast rules for this! What I did was pretty simple. I made homemade icing with confectioner’s sugar, milk and vanilla and drizzled one top.
Add a large spoonful of confectioner’s sugar to a dish and add a tiny splash of milk and vanilla. Stir until thick, but thin enough so that you’re still able to spoon drip it onto the hot chocolate bomb.
Ultimately, I didn’t end up using these crushed peppermint sprinkles this round of hot chocolate bombs like I thought. I picked them up on a recent Homegoods run and still think they’d make an adorable hot cocoa bomb topper; turns out Target makes an almost identical one!
Finished Hot Chocolate Bombs
How did they come out? I’m pretty impressed with how these came out on the first try, to be honest. If you’ve ever considered giving them a try, please do so. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with how easy they are to make!
Will you give these a try? (If so, Pin this article to your Pinterest for later). If you have given these a try before please let me know your tips and experience in the comments.
More Christmas + Holiday Cheer
- Hot Cocoa Bar Reveal + Decor Sources
- 20 Christmas Crafts + Recipes
- The BEST Starbucks Holiday Drink
- DIY Foam Cone Glitter Tree Decor
- Shakeology Hot Cocoa Recipe
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