The best way to win friends and influence people? Give them this adorable DIY hot chocolate kit. These chocolate bombs make the perfect gift any time of year. They are especially great around the holiday season and, of course, Valentine’s day! You can include cute mugs with the gift if you’re feeling extra friendly. The individual servings are the perfect sweet treat for a friend or, of course, your sweetie! It’s also the kind of hostess gift we could really get behind (hint, hint!). Inside the bomb, you can put your favorite hot cocoa mix, along with mini marshmallow. The chocolate exterior is much easier than it looks, and can be decorated with whatever seasonal sprinkles strike your fancy. Pour some milk over the hot chocolate bomb and watch it melt into a delicious steamy cup of hot cocoa!
A Very Short History of Hot Chocolate Bombs
Hot chocolate bombs seem to have exploded (pun intended) into existence in 2019. Several chocolatiers have laid claim to their invention. We’ll have to see who history (or wikipedia) declares the winner. Then, came Covid. And, really, there’s nothing like a pandemic-induced stay-at-home-order to make you obsessively watch videos of chocolate bombs melting on Tik Tok. Or were we the only ones who spent 2020 that way? In any case, the market for hot chocolate bombs has continued to grow explosively (yep, pun still intended) over the last year year or two. It may have peaked last Christmas with Disney’s amazing and viral Olaf-shaped hot chocolate bomb.
Perfecting Your Hot Chocolate Bomb
The nice thing about chocolate bombs is that they are endlessly customizable. You can decide what kind of chocolate to use for the exterior. You can use your favorite hot cocoa recipe. And, you get to decide whether or not you want to add fluffy marshmallows to your cocoa. You can even make homemade marshmallows. As an aside, we did this once during the pandemic and learned that we are bakers and not candy makers.
There are endless adorable chocolate molds on the internet that can be used, if a sphere isn’t getting you going. There is even, apparently, an entire Facebook group dedicated to hot chocolate bombs. We will refrain from posting this there, since we are clearly just hot chocolate bomb novices. We’re sharing our favorite homemade hot chocolate mix here, as well as instructions for how to go from mix to bomb, in just a few simple steps. BOMBS AWAY!
More From Your Hot Chocolate and Marshmallow Friends
Useful Tools for Making this Recipe

Hot Chocolate Bombs
Equipment
- Silicon molds with 6 semi spheres
- disposable piping bag
- 1/16 inch piping tip
Ingredients
For the Hot Chocolate Mix Recipe
- 1/4 cup regular sugar
- 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 1/2 oz semi or bittersweet chocolate
- 1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
- 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon (optional)
For the Hot Chocolate Bombs
- 2 cups chocolate candy melts or 8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 cup white chocolate or colored chocolate candy melts
- 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
- sprinkles
Instructions
For the Hot Cocoa Mix
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until powdery.
For the Hot Cocoa Bombs
- Melt the chocolate candy melts in a small bowl placed over a pot of simmering water. If you are using chocolate chips, you will want to temper the chocolate to make sure it's shiny and pretty. Candy melts don't need to be tempered.
- To temper, you will need a candy thermometer. Melt two thirds of the chocolate to roughly 105 F. Then, add the remaining chocolate a little at a time, stirring to melt. Let the chocolate cool to 82 F. Once the chocolate has cooled to 82 F, put it back over the hot water and reheat to 88 – 91 F. Maintain the chocolate at this temperature.
- Use a clean paint brush to brush the silicone molds with chocolate. Freeze 10 minutes to set.
- Use gloves for this step to avoid fingerprints on your hot chocolate bombs. Heat up a frying pan on medium heat and gently melt the edges of one chocolate bomb half. Pop the chocolate bomb half into a cupcake paper or round cookie holder to hold it while you fill it. Fill with 1 tbsp hot chocolate mix and some mini marshmallows.
- Melt the edges of the second half, then put the two halves together. The melted edges will seal.
- Let the hot chocolate bombs rest for a few minutes. Melt the white chocolate or colored candy melts. Place the white or colored chocolate in a piping bag and pipe swirls over the hot chocolate bombs. Add some sprinkles!
These look very fancy! I need to try this some snowy day!
Thanks, Daniel! Time to test your chocolate making skills!