Hot Chocolate Bar | Easy DIY Gift Idea

 The gift of giving during the holiday season doesn't have to mean spending a lot of money. I came across this gift idea on Pinterest and I couldn't resist giving it a go. It's really quite simple to put together, and it's also relatively inexpensive- you probably have majority of the items hanging around the house or easily accessible.

The instant hot chocolate mix

I did a little bit of research for DIY hot chocolate mixes. The recipe I used came from Laura Vitale, but you could find any other one you like or even come up with your own.  You could obviously substitute the kind of chocolate you use based on your preferences- that's the beauty of it! I just grabbed the dark chocolate I had in the pantry.

100g chocolate, grated
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp instant coffee
1/2 tsp corn starch

The method is super simple- just pop your grated chocolate into a bowl and sift the rest of your ingredients to make sure there's no lumps. Mix them together until they're well combined and transfer into your chosen container.

TIP: to make the chocolate easier to grate, pop it into the freezer for a few minutes.

Putting it all together...

You can choose whatever you like to accompany the hot chocolate mix, which makes it super easy to customise to your recipient. I chose some cinnamon quills, marshmallows and candy canes. You can leave them as they come in the packaging, but I chose to put mine into some little jars that I bought for about $1 each. In mine, I added a pair of cute matching Christmas mugs- but you might like to include something like a small bottle of Bailey's or some cookies instead.

I didn't include one for the purposes of this post (I'll probably be consuming this myself!), but I'd recommend including a little tag or card with instructions on using the hot chocolate mix. I used 2 heaped spoons of it to one cup of heated milk, but that's just a guideline.

Given that it's summer in Australia, hot chocolate might not necessarily be a Christmas classic unless you're going to add ice cream by the tub, but I still think this makes a sweet gift. It doesn't take long at all to put together and your imagination is the limit!