What sweet Valentine gifts these would be! These adorable cocoa bombs would be a fun project, especially knowing you are going to make someone so happy when you give them these specially made Valentine surprises. Then later they will smile again when they use the cocoa bombs to make a perfect mug of hot cocoa.

You will need melting wafers (I have found that they are much more forgiving and so much easier to work with than chocolate), heart or circular molds, hot cocoa mix, mini marshmallows, and of course – lots of sprinkles! Optional items include a bench scraper to clean off edges of the mold (once the wafers have set) and squeeze bottle or pastry bag with piping tube to fill with melted wafers so you can fill in any little gaps around the edges.

I used the white melting wafers in the circular molds for these, and then melted pink and red wafers to drizzle over the top right before adding the Valentine sprinkles.

The heart shaped molds make adorable cocoa bombs! These are the dark pink wafers -they make such pretty treats! It does take more wafers to fill the heart shape molds, compared to the circular ones.

The red wafers make very pretty traditional Valentine gifts. Look on the Etsy and Pinterest sites for many creative Valentine cocoa bomb decorating ideas.

Create a plate of mixed treats to share! Hot cocoa is always welcome on a chilly day -but watching these little treats “explode” in the warm milk is bound to make everyone happy!

Make take home gifts for everyone ! You can create individual treats by placing the cocoa bombs in snack bags and then tying them with pink or red ribbons. Makes a cute Valentine basket!

The website below has very good directions and lots of photos:

https://www.shugarysweets.com/valentines-hot-cocoa-bombs/

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Cocoa Bombs are very popular this winter! Many bakeries and specialty food stores offered a holiday version to give as gifts or to enjoy! Did you know you can make your own? We still have a few months of wintery weather here – and hot chocolate is always a welcome treat after spending time out in the cold. If you do a search for Cocoa Bombs online or on Pinterest you will find literally hundreds of recipes with so many creative variations.

While they are relatively “easy”, there is a learning curve. I think you should read over several recipes and see which ones would work for you. It will depend on what type of chocolate you like, what type of mold you want to use and the flavorings you want on the inside. I grated up semi-sweet chocolate bars, used a silicone mold, Nestle hot chocolate mix and mini-marshmallows in mine.

Then I drizzled them with melted chocolate and added sprinkles. Ready for fun – place the Cocoa Bomb in a mug or cup.

Then pour 8-16 ounces of hot water or hot milk over the cocoa bomb and watch it slowly melt to reveal all the goodies inside. Stir and enjoy. Try pouring hot coffee over a cocoa bomb for a tasty mocha drink.

I made some of these for Christmas and added crushed peppermint on the inside and outside.

Be creative – Valentine’s Day will offer a whole new theme for decorating these!

Below are links for the basic directions:

https://boulderlocavore.com/hot-chocolate-bombs-recipe/

https://sugargeekshow.com/recipe/shiny-chocolate-bombs-with-marshmallows/

My Notes:

1. I melted the grated chocolate in 15 second intervals in the microwave and stopped when the chocolate was almost melted, then stirred until the chocolate was smooth. You don’t want to overheat the chocolate.
2. I used the back of a spoon to coat the silicone mold and used a 1/4″ brush to fill in the spots that were missed.
3. Then I placed in the refrigerator about 15 minutes. Many recipes say to pop in the freezer for about 5 minutes, but it seems to make the chocolate brittle and most of my shells that I put in the freezer broke when I was trying to assemble them.
4. Repeat, applying a second coat of chocolate and refrigerate until firm. Run a bench scraper across the top of the domes to smooth the upper edges. Gently remove the domes from the mold. If some break, just melt the pieces and try again.
5. I put cupcake liners in a cupcake tin and placed half of the domes in the liners, then fill each of those with 1 tablespoon hot chocolate mix and 1 tablespoon marshmallows.
6. One at time, dip the remaining domes into remaining melted chocolate and place on top of a filled dome. You can also pipe or use a knife to place a thin bead of chocolate around the edge of the filled dome and gently press together. Fill the spots that were missed with melted chocolate (making sure it is not too warm – or it might melt the shell- and create a larger hole). You can smooth out the chocolate with the back of warm spoon or your finger.
7. Place back in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes to firm up chocolate.
8. Drizzle with additional chocolate and decorate with sprinkles, mini-marshmallows, crushed candy canes, etc. The drizzle and sprinkles can easily hide all the imperfections! No one will ever know!!!
9. To serve, place the cocoa bomb in a mug or cup and pour very hot water, milk or coffee over it. Watch the bomb “explode”, then stir and enjoy!

I know strawberries are really not in season right now, but my husband brought home about 2 quarts of strawberries this weekend – and there is only so much strawberry shortcake you can eat! So for our Sunday breakfast, I did search for strawberry muffins on Sally’s Baking Addiction blog – which always has amazing recipes. This Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins recipe did not dissappoint.

To start, the deliciousness has three components – the moist muffin batter filled with fresh strawberries, then the cheesecake filling with a cream cheese base – and of course the crunchy cinnamon brown sugar streusel.

You layer those three in your cupcake liners – batter, cheesecake filling, batter and top with streusel. Bits of strawberries and cheesecake will peak through the top. I also added a bit of sparkling sugar on top before I baked them.

What a treat! Great for breakfast or a snack.

For the recipe and complete instructions on how to make these Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins, click on the link below:

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/strawberry-cheesecake-muffins/