Chocolatework

Chocolate Bombs for Charity

Hand crafted hot chocolate bombs

Hot chocolate bombs certainly made a splash (pun intended!) in 2020.

Easily one of the biggest food trends of the holiday season, images of hot chocolate bombs flooded social media—everything from moms melting chocolate chips to make a simple DIY version with their kids, to fancy, high-end hot chocolate bombs like these drinking chocolate snowmen made by chocolatier Kate Weiser and sold at Neiman Marcus.

After seeing these cocoa confections just about everywhere, I decided to get into the hot chocolate bomb game myself. I made and sold handmade hot chocolate bombs to friends and family and donating the proceeds to a worthy cause.

Choosing a Charity

The non-profit I chose, World Central Kitchen, dedicates itself to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters. During the pandemic, World Central Kitchen launched the #ChefsForAmerica Covid relief effort. This effort included the purchase of over 35 million meals from 2500 restaurants in more than 400 cities. WCK then delivered those meals directly to Americans in need of assistance.

With many of my chef classmates and colleagues currently unemployed or on furlough due to the devastating impact of the pandemic on the restaurant industry, World Central Kitchen promotes a mission very close to my own heart.

Chocolate Bomb Combos

I offered my hot chocolate bombs in five flavor combinations: salted caramel, ruby raspberry, classic dark chocolate, milk chocolate orange, and dark chocolate peppermint. Each bomb contained a custom hot cocoa blend.

I paired my chocolate bombs with handmade marshmallows in coordinating flavors, plus caramel stirring spoons and an assortment of hand-pulled hard candy. Although exhausting, making the hard candy was by far the best part of the project. I absolutely love sugarwork! Check out this timelapse video I made of myself pulling the mint-chocolate version of the sweets.

I couldn’t believe how many people were interested in ordering hot chocolate bombs. In fact, the response turned out to be so overwhelming that I eventually had to place a cap on orders. I hated having to turn away friends and family, but I also knew that there was a finite number of candies that I could realistically make and deliver in a timely manner!

Hand holding a white chocolate and salted caramel chocolate bomb
Salted caramel hot chocolate bomb
White chocolate and salted caramel hot chocolate bomb
Salted caramel hot chocolate bomb with coordinating spoon and marshmallows
Hand crafted hot chocolate bombs in truffle cups
Classic dark chocolate
Hot cocoa bomb in a truffle cup
Peppermint bomb
Classic hot chocolate bomb next to a stirring spoon and homemade marshmallows
Classic hot chocolate bomb set
Milk chocolate orange chocolate bomb, and chocolate marshmallows
Milk chocolate orange
Milk chocolate orange chocolate bomb and stirring spoon
Milk chocolate orange set
Cocoa orange marshmallows
Cocoa orange marshmallows
Ruby hot chocolate bombs on a white surface
Ruby chocolate bombs
Ruby hot chocolate
Ruby bombs with raspberry marshmallows
Ruby hot chocolate bomb
Ruby bomb
Peppermint hot cocoa bomb in a truffle cup
Peppermint bombs with coordinating marshmallows
Salted caramel hot chocolate bomb in a white truffle cup
Salted caramel bomb
Ruby hot chocolate
Ruby raspberry hot chocolate bomb
Peppermint hot cocoa bomb and homemade peppermint marshmallows
Chocolate peppermint bomb with peppermint swirl marshmallows

Hand crafted hot chocolate bombs

Mug of hot cocoa with marshmallows

Mug of hot cocoa with marshmallows

Hot chocolate bombs

Becky and the Chocolate Factory

Over the span of a couple of very, very long days, I produced close to 200 orders to be shipped all across the United States. In total, this included nearly 400 handcrafted hot chocolate bombs, over 20 trays of marshmallows, five varieties of hand-dipped caramel stirring spoons, and more than 16 kg / 35 lbs of hand-pulled hard candy sweets in a variety of seasonal flavors.

As a side note, I was very thankful for my tempering skills, learned at Ecole Chocolat and honed at Le Cordon Bleu London, which came in very handy for this project!

I did my best to document the entire process, from crafting each individual confection to packaging and shipping my wares:

Pulled Sugar Sweets

Sugar lamp and silicone mat with molten sugar
Molten sugar
Pulled sugar on a silicone mat under a lamp
Pulled sugar
A silicone mat with pulled sugar and scissors
Pulled sugar tube
Silicone mat with a pair of scissors and red and white pulled sugar
Pulled sugar tubes
Sugarwork
Pulled sugar tube
Pulled sugar on a silicone mat
Pulling the sweets
Red homemade hard candies
Peppermint hard candy
Molten sugar poured onto a silicone mat
Molten sugar
Homemade hard candies
Raspberry hard candy

Gloved hand holding homemade hard candy

Purple and yellow homemade hard candies
Eggnog hard candy
Pulled sugar sweets
Chocolate hard candy

Gloved hand holding two pieces of homemade hard candy

Yellow, green, and tan pulled sugar
Making the lemon candies
Hand holding hand-pulled sweets
Lemon hard candy
Yellow and brown hand-pulled hard candy sweets
Butter rum hard candy
Chocolate mint hand-pulled sweets
Mint chocolate hard candy

Hand holding four pieces of homemade mint hard candy

Blue hard candies
Cinnamon hard candy
Hand-pulled hard candies and a metal scoop
16 kg / 35 lbs of candy!

Making the Chocolate Bombs

Chocolate shells painted with cocoa butter
Dark chocolate shells painted with cocoa butter

Chocolate shells painted with cocoa butter

Ruby chocolate shells painted with purple and pink cocoa butter
Ruby shells

Ruby chocolate shells

Milk chocolate orange chocolate bomb shells
Chocolate orange shells
Filling salted caramel hot chocolate bombs
Filling the salted caramel bombs
Salted caramel hot chocolate bombs
Salted caramel hot chocolate bombs

Salted caramel hot chocolate bombs with blue and gold decoration

Salted caramel chocolate bombs
White chocolate drizzle!

Salted caramel chocolate bombs

Ruby raspberry chocolate bombs arranged on a sheet of parchment
Sealed ruby bombs, ready to decorate
Ruby raspberry chocolate bombs with white chocolate drizzle
Drizzled!
Filling the hot chocolate bombs
Finished ruby bombs
Filling the hot chocolate bomb shells
Ready to fill the peppermint shells

Filling the hot chocolate bomb shells with cocoa powder

Filling the hot chocolate bombs with cocoa powder and chocolate chips
Filled shells
Hand holding a red hot cocoa bomb
Dark chocolate peppermint hot chocolate bomb
Hand holding a homemade hot cocoa bomb
Classic hot chocolate bomb

Hot cocoa bombs in truffle cups

Hot cocoa bombs arranged in trays

Hot cocoa bombs in rows

Peppermint hot chocolate bombs in rows on a sheet of parchment

Marshmallows

Slabs of homemade marshmallow in tins
Sooo many marshmallows!

Packaging the Products

Hot chocolate bombs in clear boxes

Hot chocolate bombs in clear boxes

Hot chocolate bombs packaged in clear boxes

Hot chocolate bombs in clear boxes

Hot chocolate bombs packaged for sale

Hot chocolate bombs in clear boxes

Hot chocolate bombs in clear boxes

Hot chocolate bombs in clear boxes

Boxes of homemade chocolate bombs

Hot chocolate bombs packaged for sale

Ruby raspberry hot chocolate bombs

Trays of marshmallows, spoons, candy, and hot chocolate bombs

Homemade raspberry marshmallows

Raspberry marshmallows in clear bags with thank you stickers

Hand holding hard candy in a clear plastic bag

Homemade marshmallows in clear bags

Hot chocolate bombs in packaging

Hot chocolate bombs in packaging, in metal trays

Hot chocolate bombs in packaging with gold ribbons

Hot chocolate bomb bags tied with gold ribbon

Hot chocolate bombs in packaging with gold ribbon and bastecutfold sticker

Hot chocolate bombs in packaging with @bastecutfold sticker

Trays of homemade cocoa bombs in bags, tied with gold ribbons

A clear bag with homemade marshmallows and hot chocolate bombs

Hand holding hot chocolate bombs in packaging

Shipping Woes

Sadly, the shipping gods were not on my side for this project. (And I wasn’t alone!) Most friends and family were understanding. But, I’ll admit that I felt disappointed to have worked 14-16 hours each day to produce everything and ship it to arrive at peak freshness and pay for pricey 2-day shipping, only to have many of the packages take 2-3 weeks, or longer, to arrive.

Thankfully chocolate and hard candy have a long shelf life. And, I definitely learned a few lessons about the potential pitfalls of shipping perishable items through the mail.

Shipping boxes
Shipping the orders

The End Result

In the end, I was pleased to be able to make a donation of $1000, plus a small additional amount to cover administrative fees, meaning the entire donation will go toward furthering the mission of World Central Kitchen.

To learn more about World Central Kitchen and their efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic, please visit this page. And as always, you can stay up to date on my recent pastry projects by following me on Instagram at @bastecutfold.

Hand crafted hot chocolate bombs

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