To: The life of the holiday party

From: A Cocktail Life

This homemade hot chocolate is made of sugar, spice and everything nice -- aka, chocolate, cayenne pepper and a shot of spiced rum. It's every cocktail lover's dream hot chocolate recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
2 ounces milk chocolate
1 ounce semi-sweet chocolate
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 ounces spiced rum
Marshmallows to top

Directions:
Place 1/2 tablespoon butter in a mug, and microwave for 5 seconds to soften. Stir in sugar and brown rice syrup, and mix until blended.

Add milk, sugar and chocolate to a small pot and cook on a low heat, stirring consistently, until chocolate and sugar have dissolved.

Whisk in your spices. Remove from the heat, stir in rum and pour into a mug or glass. Stir in the marshmallows, serve hot and enjoy.

To: The star gift giver

From: Kitchen Treaty

Get on your Aunt Trudy's good side once and for all this Christmas by gifting her some candy cane-flavored homemade hot chocolate mix. Even Ebenezer Scrooge would crack a smile if he found a jar of this stuff in his stocking.

Ingredients:
5 cups Dutch processed cocoa powder
3 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 (3.5-ounce) dark chocolate bars
4 (3.5 ounce) white chocolate bars
15-20 candy canes

Place the dark chocolate and white chocolate bars in the freezer for 10 minutes. In a large bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, sugar, cornstarch and kosher salt.

Take the chocolate bars out of the freezer, place them in the food processor and pulse until the chocolate is ground into crumb-size bits. Add this to the cocoa powder mixture.

Break the candy canes into pieces and place in the food processor. Pulse until they are ground. Add to the cocoa powder mixture and chocolate.

Stir everything together, then add it all to the food processor in batches and grind until the mixture is a fine powder consistency. Add to mason jars and gift away.

(To make the cocoa, add two heaping tablespoons of cocoa mix to one cup warm milk. Serve with a candy cane stir stick.)