Hot Cocoa Bombs Have Gone Viral On TikTok, So Of Course I Tried To Make Them

    I don't think this is what they meant by the "messy side" of TikTok.

    Kristen Harris
    by Kristen Harris

    BuzzFeed Staff

    @sweetsbyjen / Via vm.tiktok.com

    If you've been on TikTok in the past couple weeks, then you've definitely seen those hot cocoa bombs.

    A lot of people have been posting videos of the ones from Costco or Etsy, but creators like @jamfamdiaries have also been creating their own.

    Tutorials like this one have garnered millions of views.

    Now, I don't know about you, but for me, the holiday season is a state of mind.

    Kathy Ireland as Kristen Claus in "Once Upon a Christmas," aka me
    Viacom / Via YouTube

    The day I learned Starbucks carries peppermint syrup all year long was one of the best days of my life. Now, I always add it to my Java Chip Frappuccino.

    I love hot chocolate. However, I don't have a Costco card, and anything from Etsy would melt by the time it got to sunny Southern California. So after watching a bunch of tutorials, I decided to create my own hot cocoa bombs.

    ABC / Via GIPHY

    Keyword: tried.

    First, I gathered all of my supplies.

    Kristen Harris / BuzzFeed

    I used three different silicone molds, a tiny skillet, a brush, and roughly every bowl, plate, and spoon in my apartment. For the ingredients, I used dark chocolate chips, white chocolate melting wafers, cocoa powder, sugar, and sprinkles.

    *Note: You can ignore the salt. I certainly did. I intended to make sea salt-sprinkled dark chocolate bombs, but let's pretend it's there to ward off the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future instead.

    I melted the dark chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals. Then, I brushed the melted chocolate onto the molds.

    melted chocolate is painted onto the sides of a silicone ice mold
    Kristen Harris / BuzzFeed

    I don't have, like, a pastry brush, so I used a brand new makeup brush instead. My sphere molds are ice molds from Amazon. The hearts are candy molds from Daiso, but you can find similar ones at Amazon.

    This brush method was a mistake. The sphere shells shattered when I tried to take them out of the molds. Instead, you should use my not-yet-patented "pour, finesse, and hope for the best" strategy.

    The chocolate that was brushed into the molds cracked, but the chocolate that was poured came out in perfect little half-sphere shapes
    Kristen Harris / BuzzFeed

    On my second attempt, I poured the melted chocolate directly into the molds then used the end of a spoon to finesse it into the shape I wanted. TBH, I'd recommend just using thinner sphere molds instead.

    Then, I melted white chocolate and used it, along with the leftover dark chocolate, to make little embeds to decorate with.

    white chocolate hearts and dark chocolate Christmas shapes
    Kristen Harris / BuzzFeed

    The hearts were fairly easy to even out by just tapping the mold, but the Christmas shapes required some finessing.

    Then, while everything was in the freezer, I made the hot chocolate mix, which I then dubbed my "Bitter It's Cold Outside" hot cocoa recipe.

    my cocoa recipe calls for a cup of cocoa powder and one third cup of sugar combined
    Kristen Harris / BuzzFeed

    Sure, you could buy readymade hot chocolate powder, but I prefer it to be less sweet and more chocolatey, so I made my own.

    Side note — you don't need to make as much as I did. In fact, you probably shouldn't make as much as I did because there's still over half a cup sitting in a container on my coffee cart.

    After about an hour, all the chocolate pieces had frozen solid, and assembly began.

    the bottom shell is in a lochness monster-shaped cup, and the top is secured with melted chocolate
    Kristen Harris / BuzzFeed

    First, I cradled one side of each sphere in my egg cup, Miss Nessie. Next, I poured in some of my "Bitter It's Cold Outside" hot cocoa powder. This is where you'd also add mini marshmallows or crushed candy canes, but I didn't want mine to be too sweet. Then, I heated up a skillet for a few seconds and carefully melted the edges of each top shell against it so they'd stick to their other halves.

    Do NOT do this alone if you are a child. Heck, I probably could've used an adultier adult for supervision. Be careful. A little microwaved chocolate could work instead.

    Finally came my favorite part — the decorations!

    the finished cocoa bombs have sprinkles, drizzled chocolate, and little white chocolate embeds
    Kristen Harris / BuzzFeed

    I melted more chocolate and drizzled it across each hot cocoa bomb. Then, I pressed the white chocolate embeds on top and added sprinkles.

    You can watch the entire process and see my hot cocoa bombs in action here!

    @kristenhwrites

    Christmas came early with this hot cocoa bombs ❄️ #christmastok #christmas #hotcocoabombs

    ♬ Christmas Tree Farm - Taylor Swift
    Frothed oat milk not necessary but recommended.

    Overall, I was modestly pleased with how my hot cocoa bombs turned out.

    Kristen Harris / BuzzFeed

    Sure, they had a few holes, and there wasn't room for as much powder as I would've liked, but I think it's definitely something I'd do again.

    My biggest takeaways — stir the cocoa more than you think you should, and be prepared to do a *lot* of dishes.

    Kristen Harris / BuzzFeed

    It took some effort to get all the chocolate to melt in my mug, but once I did, it tasted pretty good. The cleanup was less fun, so I won't be making these often, but I'll definitely make them again before December rolls around.