Cadbury Creme Egg Coffee

When I was a kid, my favorite thing about Easter was the candy – especially gooey and sweet Cadbury Creme Eggs. Even now I can’t resist buying a package around Easter, although I will freely admit that I can’t eat them like I used too because I find them to be a little on the sweet side. This sweetness is not a bad thing, however, as it opens the door for other culinary uses for the chocolate eggs. For instance, you can make a Cadbury Creme Egg Pie with a whole batch of them. Or, you can turn it into a handy way to sweeten your coffee.

Cadbury Creme Egg Coffee is exactly what it sounds like: coffee sweetened with a Cadbury Creme Egg. All you need to do is dissolve a whole, large egg into a hot mug of freshly brewed coffee. The egg adds a nice sweetness and a hint of chocolate without much effort at all. I prefer using the Cadbury Caramel Eggs, which add a subtler sweetness and give the coffee a caramel-latte feel. You don’t need to add milk or cream to the coffee after adding the egg, although a little bit of whipped cream makes the coffee look quite festive if you plan to serve this around Easter.

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Nutella Coffee with Nutella Whipped Cream

Nutella is hard to resist, but it can be difficult to come up with new ways to use the delicious chocolate hazelnut spread besides, well, spreading it on things like muffins and toast. I never really tire of having velvety Nutella on toast, but a little change of pace is always a good thing – especially when that change of pace involves coffee. I stirred some Nutella into a cup of hot coffee and was impressed with the way the chocolate and hazelnut flavors blended with my dark roast. I played around with the combination until I had a delicious drink, then I topped it off with some Nutella whipped cream to boost the flavor even more.

The Nutella whipped cream is made by dissolving Nutella into a small amount of hot coffee (water or milk would work, too), then folding it in to whipped cream. You need to dissolve the Nutella first because it is really far to thick to easily fold into the cream, and simply heating the Nutella would make it so warm that the whipped cream would deflate when you combined the two. The cream is incredibly decadent, like a very soft Nutella mousse. It is hard to resist not simply eating it with a spoon, but it really does finish off the coffee perfectly.

If you’re looking for shortcuts, I should mention that you can actually used canned whipped cream to make this drink. I prefer to use regular heavy cream and just whip it up, but you can whisk the melted Nutella mixture right into the canned stuff (it doesn’t fold in and must be whisked quite vigorously), too. If you’re going to go this route, keep in mind that you’ll need plenty of whipped cream to achieve the right consistency (just keep squirting more in) and that the whipped cream will deflate much faster than heavy cream that has been whipped.

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Cal Blue Hot Chocolate

When I picture hot chocolate, I don’t picture drinks that are blue. A friend of mine gifted me this container of University of California Golden Bears Blue Hot Chocolate because I went to Berkeley and they thought I might enjoy the novelty of it. The box promises that the hot chocolate will to turn bright blue when you add hot water to it – and it exceeded my expectations on how blue it was going to be! I assumed that this would be regular hot chocolate (which is to say, that the drink would be brown) with blue coloring added to it. Instead, this is a blue drink with chocolate flavoring! I can’t say that it going to beat out homemade hot chocolate or gourmet mixes like Godiva’s in a chocolate taste test, but it is fun to make and makes for a warm, festive way to support your favorite blue college or pro sports team. Naturally, I drink a glass when Cal is playing, but I’ll just hide the container and call it Dodger blue hot chocolate when I’m watching a baseball game next season.

Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa Mix, reviewed

I like the seasonal Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate that Starbucks adds to their menu in the winter and it is something that I’ll definitely order if I feel like indulging in a non coffee beverage on a cold night. I had no idea, however, that Starbucks packaged hot cocoa mix in single serving packets (think Swiss Miss) until a friend handed me this box of Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa Mix.

The mix is made from natural ingredients – including Madagascar vanilla powder and ethically sourced cocoa powder – and the mix can boast that it is lower in calories and fat than the version that you can order in the store. The trade-off, of course, is that you don’t get the same indulgence factor as you do with the in-store version of this drink. This is a good hot chocolate mix that has salty overtones and actual pieces of caramel mixed in with the cocoa. The caramel melts into the hot milk (which you add yourself) and brings a richness that you don’t find in other hot chocolate mixes. It’s a definite plus that there are no artificial flavors and you get the real thing (including that caramel) for the overall flavor of this mix. I just might have to keep my eyes peeled for another box because I’m going through the eight included in this box surprisingly fast!

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Minty Mallows

I usually make my own homemade marshmallows around the holidays, with good results. I’ve even made chocolate dipped marshmallows to mimic the ones I’ve seen sold in high end, gourmet stores. The gourmet marshmallows tend to be ridiculously overpriced for what you get – 20 for 6 marshmallows, anyone? – and even if they are tasty, it’s not worth buying them. But when I spotted Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Minty Mallows on my last shopping trip, I didn’t hesitate to pick them up.

These gourmet, chocolate-dipped marshmallows run only $2.99 for a box of 10 (one box I bought had 9, the other had 10), making them much more affordable than most, and perfect not only for a holiday stocking stuffer, but as a treat around the house. The marshmallows are fluffy and elastic, with a nice chew and sweetness to them. The dark chocolate layer is thin and provides a great contrast with the minty marshmallow, giving them a flavor that is reminiscent of a York peppermint patty. I liked them straight out of the box, but also popped them into some hot chocolate to see how they fared. They held up well and, while they did give my hot chocolate a hint of mintiness, I wasn’t patient enough to let the marshmallows dissolve and simply scooped up the warm mallows with a spoon and ate them after a bit.

Candy Blog has another review of these marshmallows, so take a peek at that review, too!