One of the best ways to spruce up your girl’s night is to offer a DIY hot cocoa bar! This is a cute and tasty way to give everybody something warm and cozy to sip on while chatting. You can pull this one off with a lot of ingredients you may already have at home like cinnamon and whipped cream, and it’s sure to be an especially aesthetic way to spruce up your holiday party. Here’s what I use to set up my hot cocoa bar:
Hot Cocoa
The most necessary ingredient to offer in your hot cocoa bar is hot cocoa of some kind. I like to use Swiss Miss K-Cups for my Keurig or offer hot cocoa bombs like the ones linked here.
To use hot cocoa bombs, you just need hot water! You can use a tea kettle to heat water or run a Keurig/Coffee Pot without any coffee or K-cups in it. Simply place your hot cocoa bomb in your mug, fill your coffee pot or Keurig with water only, and run the machine!
K-Cups make the process easy as well, giving guests the option to serve themselves without halting the party. Just simply slip one into your Keurig, fill with water, and brew!
Add-Ins
For a fun and customizable hot cocoa bar, you’ll want to have plenty of add-ins and toppings. I like to stick to the basics first: whipped cream, mini marshmallows, crushed peppermint and cinnamon.
I like to use small glass jars and scoops to offer toppings like sea salt, cinnamon, and crushed peppermint (you can crush it yourself using candy canes in a ziploc bag and a mallet or rolling pin). You can find sets of small jars like the ones linked here, and fill them with whatever toppings you like.
You can also set up coffee syrup flavors like these to add or candies like Hershey kisses or Ghirardelli truffles.
Garnish
You can’t forget about a few garnish options. For my hot cocoa bars, I like to offer peppermint sticks like the ones linked here. A smaller garnish like full cinnamon sticks or mint leaves works great as well.
Stirrer sticks like these are also a great addition to your hot cocoa bar for both practicality and aesthetics.
Mugs and Displays
If you’re going for the carefully curated, matching look, I suggest setting out your hot cocoa bar in a display like this one, and offering matching mugs. Laying your available toppings out charcuterie-style is another great, creative option.
You can find sets of mugs for around $5/mug on amazon, like these, which are my personal favorites:
Consider offering your hot cocoa bar along with snacks at your next book club, girls night, or sleepover. You can partner it with a mug decorating night or add a bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream or Kahlúa for the grown-ups.
For sweet snack pairs, try chocolate-covered pretzels, buckeyes, peanut butter blossoms, pirouette cookies, Christmas tree cakes, powdered mini donuts, nutter butters, gingerbread cookies, cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies, or cake pops.
Danielle Says... 