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Red Velvet Hot Chocolate is the perfect drink for cold and spooky nights! This Halloween hot chocolate recipe has a not-too-sweet chocolate flavor and luscious rich and creamy texture.
☕ A spooky Halloween drink
This red velvet hot chocolate is the perfect last-minute recipe. You can whip it up in just a few minutes, and enjoy it while watching a scary movie, or warm up with it after a chilly trick or treating session. It goes beautifully with a slice of red velvet spiderweb cake, but it’s also perfect on its own. (Served in a skull mug for maximum spooky factor, of course!)
What makes this red velvet hot chocolate?
To me, the signature characteristics of red velvet cake are the buttermilk and light cocoa flavor of the cake. Without the buttermilk in the batter it’s just a boring, not-very-chocolatey cake, so I wanted to find a way to incorporate the unique buttermilk/cocoa flavor into the drink. Rather than using actual buttermilk (because that sounded iffy) I blended a little cream cheese into the milk before heating it. Voila! The milk was thicker and richer, and it had a flavor that called to mind not only the red velvet cake, but also the signature cream cheese frosting!
The cream cheese isn’t overwhelming—I only use 3 oz for 20 oz of milk—so it’s not like you’re drinking frosting here. But it does add a wonderful texture and just a hint of cream cheese flavor that blends nicely with the semi-sweet chocolate. Overall the hot chocolate’s flavor is complex and not too sweet, perfect for enjoying in small sips throughout the night.
If you’re in the mood for a cold but equally creepy Halloween drink, you’ve got to try our popular Witch’s Brew Halloween Punch! And check out a few other favorite Halloween recipes, like Spiderweb Cupcakes and Chocolate Spiders, Melting Chocolate Skulls, and 3-Ingredient Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.
🧾 What You’ll Need
Ingredients
One thing that’s NOT scary about this hot chocolate? The ingredient list! Here’s what you need to know: (Links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)
- Semi-sweet hot chocolate: Whenever possible, I recommend chopping up chocolate bars instead of using chocolate chips. Most chips you get from the grocery store are waxy and don’t have a strong, deep chocolate flavor. Using good-quality bars will give you a better hot chocolate flavor and texture.
- Milk: you can use any milk you have on hand. As with all things in life, the more fat, the more rich and creamy it will be, but even skim milk will make a decent cup of hot chocolate, if that’s what’s available to you. I typically use 2% milk fat.
- Cream cheese: The cream cheese is the extra sumthin’ sumthin’ that separates this from typical hot chocolate. I recommend using cream cheese that comes in a block instead of a tub.
- Brown sugar: I like adding a bit of brown sugar to counteract the tang of cream cheese, and add a bit of caramelized sweetness. You can skip it if you like a less sweet drink.
- Salt and vanilla: Both contribute to the complexity of flavor!
- Red food coloring: People have very strong feelings about food coloring, so feel free to skip or modify this recommendation based on personal preference. If you do use food coloring, I recommend a good-quality gel food coloring, because it will take less coloring to give you a strong, vibrant shade. I use Americolor Super red gel food coloring.
Equipment
The only equipment you’ll need is a medium (3 or 4 qt) saucepan, a whisk, and some type of blender to mix the milk and cream cheese. I like using a stick blender because it’s faster, easier, and produces fewer dishes, but any type of blender will do.
📋 Instructions
Red Velvet Hot Chocolate is bloody simple to make! Here’s a quick photo rundown, and you can find full printable instructions in the recipe card down below.
Blend milk and cream cheese
- Pour the milk into a 3 or 4-quart saucepan, and add room temperature cream cheese.
- Use an immersion blender to mix them together until smooth, creamy, and no lumps remain. (Alternately, you can blend them in a separate blender then pour the liquid into a saucepan and proceed.)
Add remaining ingredients
- Add the chocolate, vanilla, brown sugar, and salt to the saucepan.
- Place over medium heat and warm the milk, whisking occasionally, until the chocolate is completely melted and your mixture is smooth.
Color and serve!
- If you are using food coloring, time to add it! Give your pot a few generous squirts of food coloring until you get a red you’re happy with.
- Serve hot, in spooky skull mugs…if you dare.
Donut Hole Eyeballs
Bloody Truffles
This recipe makes about 36 cake truffles, but if you add the optional cherries in the center, you’ll get closer to 42-48 out of the batch.
Red Velvet Hot Chocolate
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups milk, (20 fl oz)
- 3 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
- 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate, (1 cup), finely chopped
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 TBSP brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp red gel food coloring, optional, I used Americolor Super Red
Instructions
- Place the milk and cream cheese in a blender and blend them together until smooth. If you have a stick blender, you can just place them in a saucepan and blend them together right in the pan.
- Pour the milk-cream cheese mixture into a medium saucepan, and add the chocolate, vanilla, brown sugar, and salt.
- Place over medium heat and warm the milk, whisking occasionally, until the chocolate is completely melted and your mixture is smooth.
- Whisk in the red food coloring, adding more until you get a color you like. Serve hot!
- Red Velvet Hot Chocolate can be made several days in advance and kept in the refrigerator until ready to use. Reheat in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stove.
Recipe Notes
MEASURING TIPS
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Click here to learn more about baking measurements and conversion.Nutrition
GET MORE HOT CHOCOLATE RECIPES
We’ve rounded up our 25 favorite hot chocolate recipes — click here to get all the recipes!
About Elizabeth LaBau
I’m Elizabeth, but you can call me SugarHero! I’m a former pastry chef turned blogger, cookbook author, and baking instructor, and I consider myself sugar’s #1 fan. Learn more from my About page, or connect with me on social media:
Love those finger cookies! So creepy!
Thanks Heather! No time like Halloween to make creepy cookies. 🙂
This recipe combo is absolutely disgusting. So naturally, I love it! Next year, I’m moving into your guest room (assuming you have one of those, if not, the couch is fine) and staying for the whole month of October. I’ll even wash the dished. Please say yes? 🙂 Happy Halloween!
Ah yes, this is the one time of year I’m happy to hear that my recipes are disgusting. 🙂 And you are welcome to enjoy the comforts of my guest suite, aka the couch in the living room. We could have some epic dinner parties!
Can I trick or treat at your house? Those cookies look magnificent. And with that bloody hot chocolate? Yessss. you win halloween:)
Wouldn’t the parents have loved me if I gave out little shot glasses of blood-red hot chocolate for Halloween? Mwahaha!
It’s not red velvet without cream cheese, so I’m glad you included that in the recipe!
Would be great for Christmas too. Pinned!
Thanks Krystle! I agree–sans skull-shaped glasses, this is a perfect Christmas recipe. Thanks for the Pinterest love!
Oh my gosh. These are so so gross, and so cool and creepy at the same time. Do you give the fingers out in complete sets of 10, and are the thumbs stubbier than the other digits?? And your red milk is genius!Perfectly Halloweeny.:)
Oh man, I totally missed the perfect opportunity to make edible thumbs! Curse my short-sightedness! That’s it, we need a Halloween re-do so I can do these cookies up right.
Love this cookie and the nail polish you chose, it that ESSIE or O.P.I?
Haha, OPI all the way. 😉
What a fun idea! I love how spooky these are! 🙂
Thanks Annie!
You always come up with the best ideas for Halloween! Hot chocolate that looks like blood? It’s disgusting and amazing at the same time!
Disgusting and amazing?! My work here is done! Thanks Natasha. 🙂
Oooooo creepy! I love them Elizabeth! They are so perfect for Halloween!
Thanks so much, Kristi!
Okay, I’ve totally made those witch finger cookies before, but you just went and made them approximately 2319658761938476x more awesome by dipping them in blood red hot chocolate!
And I can’t even handle those skull shot glasses.
Just freakin’ brilliant!
Thanks Rachael! Turns out blood red hot chocolate makes everything better. 🙂
This creeps me out and makes me mad hungry. Mission accomplished, amiga!
And I can’t NOT comment on the steamy wisps of steam in your hero photo. A+++, love it, you genius good witch!
Thanks D! The fact that it took me 45 billion shots to get some sexy steam will just be our little secret. 😉
Thanks for sharing the recipe! I made this for a Halloween dessert battle last night when we played FoodFu. It was delicious! One of the judges said it was the best hot chocolate he’s ever had! I did modify the hot chocolate slightly and added a half shot of Almendrado right before serving. It was a bit of a challenge to make this in the 45 minutes the FoodFu game allows but I got it done!!!! If you haven’t played FoodFu (it’s a free app in the iTunes store) you have to try it!
Thanks Lisa! So glad that you loved it, and your modification sounds delicious. I haven’t heard of FoodFu but I’ll have to check it out–sounds fun!
The witch finger recipe is so cool. I pinned it so I can make them for my Halloween party next year. Thanks for the recipe.
Oh, perfect! I love how you’re thinking ahead. 🙂 I hope you love them!
This is the best thing I’ve ever seen! I’m totally doing this next year… or maybe for Christmas haha.
Ah yes, the famous witch’s Christmas fingers! I like the way you think. 🙂
These are really cute. I will have to try these for next Halloween. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much, Denise!
I just made the bloody chocolate (so bloody yummy!) but I need some help. I tried blending the cream cheese in the milk but it was still so lumpy and I had to end up straining what I could. Is there something I’m missing to make this better? What can I do better for next time?
Hi Samantha, I’m sorry to hear it didn’t blend well for you! Did you use a regular blender or a stick blender? Were the ingredients at room temperature? What cream cheese did you use? I always use full fat cream cheese (as opposed to light or nonfat) because sometimes the light varieties have weird binding ingredients that make them behave differently. Next time you might try blending them in a different order–maybe start with the cream cheese and add a little bit of milk, gradually adding more milk as the cream cheese loosens up until you have a cream cheesy liquid. (Ugh, that sounds kind of gross, right?!) I hope you’ll let me know how your next batch works out!
I love this and I’m going to try it, wish me luck! Oh, where did you buy the skull shot glasses?
Good luck Cheryl! I’m actually going to film a video on how to make these, but it won’t be up for a few weeks probably. Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions. And I got the shot glasses at a Dollar Tree. It was like 3 for a dollar, can’t beat that! 🙂
Does this recipe freeze well?
Do you mean the hot chocolate or the cookie dough? The cookie dough does for sure! The hot chocolate I haven’t tried. I don’t see why not…if it separates while defrosting you can blend it together with a stick blender and heat it back up. Sorry to not be able to say for sure, but please let me know how it goes if you give it a try!
Hi there! I just love this recipe, I’ve included it in a roundup “Five Things I Love This Halloween” post on my site. I’ve credited your recipe and photo, here’s a link to the post: http://maverickbaking.com/five-things-love-halloween/ (thank you!)
Where did you get those Skull Shot Glasses???
Hi Amy, Believe it or not, I got them from the Dollar Tree! I bought them a few years ago but actually saw them there again this year. I think I’ve also seen similar at seasonal Halloween stores like the Spirit stores.
Perfect drink this Halloween!! for refreshing and spooky nights! Thanks for sharing this!
Thanks Alison! Hope you have a Happy Halloween!
So fun and festive for the holiday season! My kids will love it
Thanks Michelle! I hope your kids do!
How fun is this recipe?! Perfect for a spooky night with the family! And those glasses are so fun!!
Right?!? The glasses were such a fun find. Love this time of year.
I love red velvet cake, but would never would have thought to do this. I can’t wait to try.
Hi Dannii! I promise this recipe does not disappoint. It’s one of my favorite ways to enjoy red velvet.
Such a cozy and festive way to enjoy Halloween! I might even treat myself and add some red wine next time.
Thanks Matt! I’d love to hear what you think of adding red wine to it. Might be a great variation!