With Christmas growing closer we spend more time with family and friends, reminiscing, eating delicious foods and drinking warm drinks - and there’s nothing better than a Christmas hot chocolate when it comes to creating the perfect winter warmer.
Inspired by our favourite festive drink, we’ve put together some simple steps to help you plan a tempting homemade hot chocolate bar, perfect for all ages to create their own chocolatey concoction, all served in your favourite Burleigh ware pieces.
Step 1: Clear the area you would like your bar to be, it’s up to you but we always recommend popping down a table cloth to catch any gooey spills that may appear during your get together.
Step 2: When making hot chocolate for groups we find it much easier to do this in a slow cooker, that way you can plug it in and keep it warm, but don’t worry if you’ve not got one, a sauce pan is fine, just be prepared to help little ones to fill their mugs to avoid any accidents.
When it comes to the mix it doesn’t matter if it’s pre-made or homemade as long as you love the flavour.
Here’s our favourite hot chocolate recipe, which keeps for 3 months in a sealed container:
- 212g of dried milk
- 115g Sugar
- 60g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 32g Milk Chocolate chips
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp All Spice
- 1 tsp Nutmeg
- ½ tsp Ginger
Mix together all of the dry ingredients. To brew your hot chocolate use 2 Tablespoons of mix to every 350ml of either milk or water. This should make a nice mug full for one person. Repeat until you have enough for all of your guests to have at least one mug each.
If you are making this in a saucepan heat on low until all the chocolate chips are combined and the mixture looks thick and glossy, stirring regularly
Once you’ve made your hot chocolate. Place it in its rightful spot where you’d like your bar to start with a ladle for scooping.
Step 3: select your favourite Burleigh mugs and place those right next to your hot chocolate mix ready to be filled.
Step 4: selected a range of small and medium Burleigh bowls and fill them with a variety of toppings. Our favourites are crushed up candy canes, whipped cream, chopped fudge pieces, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips and wafers, the choices are endless. Once your bowls are full place them on your bar space.
Step 5: decorate to your heart's content, fill in the gaps around your bar with some Christmas pieces, and why not add an extra bits of sparkle with some small LED fairy lights and a little chalk sign.
Step 6: Sneak in a quick taste test before all your guests arrive.