Has everyone recovered from the long weekend?? Monday was definitely slow getting going but I love that everything is now in full Christmas mode! I started some of my Christmas decorating and I will be slowly working on the getting the rest of it out this week. Sometimes I wish Thanksgiving was in early November so we had more time for the Christmas season. It is my favorite holiday but it goes way too fast!
So who out there loves hot cocoa!?!? We are definitely a fan of our homemade hot cocoa around here! If so, then how about these Hot Cocoa Cookie Cups?!?! A few weeks ago my girls hosted a party with some friends from their God’s Girls group and they chose Hot Cocoa making as the theme. Yes please! This was such a fun party to set up for and a great way to kick off the Christmas season. Each girl got to put together their own cocoa mix to take home and make a couple of hot cocoa crafts. In keeping with the hot cocoa theme I had the idea to make these Hot Cocoa Cookie Cups to have as dessert. Because hot cocoa isn’t already enough of a dessert…. right!! I thought they would be the perfect addition to have out at the party!
I have made cookie cups before but they have always been filled with white or colored icing and with a more decorative swirl in the middle. This time I used brown frosting, flattened on the top, topped with marshmallows! I thought they turned out super cute for the party!
When making cookie cups I have always used Pillsburry refrigerated sugar cookie dough. It is the perfect amount for cutting the dough evenly into 24 parts to fill a mini muffin tin.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Open your dough and cut it in half the long way. Hold it back up together and then make 12 equal marks across your dough. I always make little marks with my knife first to make sure my spacing is even.
Then take your knife and slice your dough where you made the marks.
Now you will have 24 equal parts of dough.
Spray your mini muffin pan generously with cooking spray. Don’t skip this step as the cookies will stick to the pan and you will loose the bottom of your cookie cups.
Roll each of your sections of dough into a ball and place in your muffin pan.
Then just lightly push them down. They don’t need much as I think they will form into cups anyway!
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-13 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. When removing the cookies carefully take a knife and slide it around the edges to loosen the cookies and then carefully lift them up.
When the cookies are cool make the frosting. Here is what you need.
Cream your butter with the whisk attachment on your mixer. Add in the powdered sugar and cocoa and combine on low. Turn off the mixer and add the vanilla and heavy cream. Turn the mixer on low until the sugar and cocoa are mixed in and then turn up the speed to whip it all together. I didn’t want the frosting to be too thick so I used about 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream. Probably a little more cream than you would use if you were making this same recipe to frost a cake. You don’t want it to be too runny either so start with about 1 1/4 cups and add more if needed. You will end up with more frosting than you need, I just used my normal chocolate frosting recipe, so you will have more to smother on some graham crackers!! Just sayin!
Then I took a piping bag, you can use the corner cut off of a plastic zip lock bag too, to pipe the frosting into each cookie cup. I just cut a little off the end of the bag. I did not want to use a tool as I wanted as little lines as possible.
Fill the bag with chocolate frosting and then pipe into your cookie cups.
It was still not as smooth as I wanted so I took a small spatula to carefully level it out as best as I could.
When all your cookie cups are filled with frosting add three mini marshmallows to each cup.
A super simple way to add some more cute to your next cocoa or holiday party! They were a huge hit and the girls loved them!
Here is a few more pictures from the hot cocoa making set up.
Our Polar Bear Marshmallows!
These were a fun little cocoa party craft and aren’t they just about the cutest thing to happen to your cocoa!
Here is your printable recipe!
- 1 roll refrigerated Pillsbury sugar cookie dough
- 1 bag mini marshmallows
- Frosting
- 3½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 stick butter (room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1¼ - 1½ cups heavy whipping cream
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Open your dough and cut it in half the long way. Hold it back up together and then make 12 equal marks across your dough. I always make little marks with my knife first to make sure the spacing is even.
- Then take your knife and slice your dough where you made the marks. Now you have 24 equal parts of dough.
- Spray your mini muffin pan generously with cooking spray. Don't skip this step as the cookies will stick to the pan and you will loose the bottom of your cookie cups.
- Roll each of your sections of dough into a ball and place in your muffin pan. Then just lightly push them down.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10-13 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. When removing the cookies carefully take a knife and slide it around the edges to loosen the cookies and then carefully lift them up.
- While your cookies are cooling make the frosting.
- Cream your butter with the whisk attachment on your mixer. Add in the powdered sugar and cocoa and combine on low. Turn off the mixer and add the vanilla and heavy cream. Turn the mixer on low until the sugar and cocoa are mixed in and then turn up the speed to whip it all together. Start with about 1¼ cups of heavy cream and add more if needed. You want it to be not as thick as normal frosting.
- Then using a piping bag, with the corner cut off, pipe the frosting into each cookie cup.
- Take a small spatula to carefully level out the frosting as best as your can. You want it to look like a smooth even level of hot cocoa.
- Add 3 marshmallows on top of the frosting to each cookie cup.
Megan Elzey says
Those look super cute! I’d say they look delicious, but I actually don’t like chocolate 🙂
Jen says
Thank you! I can’t imagine not liking chocolate though!!
Megan Elzey says
I know, it’s crazy! I can tolerate it with peanut butter (like a Reece) or caramel (like Twix), but other than that, I don’t even like the smell of it.
Miz Helen says
Your Hot Cocoa Cookie Cups will be perfect for the season! Hope you are having a good week and thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday!
Miz Helen
Jen says
Thank you so much!
tarahlynn says
omg they’re so cute! Thanks for joining us at the To Grandma’s house we go link party, see you next week!
Jen says
Thank you so much!