Chocolate bath bombs – in a chocolate box!

This recipe for chocolate bath bombs is one of my favorites for making as gifts. Not only do they smell delicious, you can make a really special gift just by presenting them in a well-chosen box. The whole effect is so yummy that it's a good idea to put a nice decorative card inside which says DO NOT EAT!

Here's how to do it.

You need the following dry ingredients:

• 3 cups baking soda
• 1.5 cup citric acid

And the following wet ingredients:

• 3 different chocolate flavored fragrance oils – you're going to use a tsp of each. I like to use one ordinary chocolate, one mocha, and one white chocolate. Eg:
  • Chocolate: Brambleberry's Dark Rich Chocolate or Soapylove's Chocolate Fudge.
  • Mocha: Brambleberry's Chocolate Espresso Cybilla or Turkish Mocha.
  • White chocolate: Just By Nature's White Chocolate or Nature's Garden's White Chocolate Truffle.
• About 3 tsp water (ideally filtered or distilled) or witch hazel.
• A few drops of 'soap safe' colorant, to produce two shades of brown (one darker than the other) and one cream.

And the following equipment:

• 3 glass mixing bowls
• A whisk
• Measuring jugs, cups and spoons
• Molds
• A small squirty bottle makes adding your water or witch hazel easier

Making your chocolate bath bombs

1. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly together in your mixing bowl.
2. Divide the mixture into three batches.
3. Into each batch, put a tsp of fragrance, and color to match. So, into your first bowl put a tsp of chocolate fragrance and a few drops of brown color. In your second bowl put a tsp of mocha fragrance and a few drops of darker brown color. And in the last bowl, put a tsp of white chocolate fragrance, and a teensy bit of yellow or orange color to create a creamy color.
4. Mix the three bowls together really well. It's best to do everything from now on one bowl at a time, otherwise the first bowl will dry out while you're mixing the next one. You can  mix by hand or with a whisk, but keep going till the color and fragrance are evenly distributed through the mixture – that's probably about five minutes.
5. Now start adding your water or witch hazel. Spritz a little in, and mix it in really well. Keep going till you get the right consistency, which is a bit like damp sand – you want it just wet enough that if you squeeze it in your hand, it just about forms a nice clump and stays clumped.
6. Now it's time to make the little bath bombs. If you're using molds, you want nice small molds, small cake molds or chocolate molds – hearts are cute. Alternatively, you can make little balls by hand – I like this approach as it makes them look like little hand-rolled truffles. Whichever way you do it, back the mixture together firmly, so that it won't crumble.
7. If you're using a mold, wait a couple of minutes, then gently tap the bath bombs out. Leave them to dry overnight.

The chocolate box

The thing that makes this recipe extra special is the presentation, so finding the right box is half the battle. You need something which is the right size for a chocolate box – just an inch or so deep. Use an old chocolate box if you like – but do make sure you put a 'do not eat' sign in!

Arrange your different flavored 'chocolates' inside the box – the different colors look really delicious together. Then tie a nice satin ribbon round the box to complete the effect.

A couple of extra touches, if you want to go the whole hog:

• If you roll your mini bath bombs in a little epsom salt, it looks like sugar crystals.
• You can also put them in some tiny truffle/cake papers – very cute.