Wine and Chocolate Gift Basket with Molten Lava Cake Mix

This is a red wine and chocolate gift basket idea that anyone on your list would love to receive! With a homemade molten chocolate lava cake mix and your favorite bottle of wine, it feels special, handcrafted and luxurious.

Add a festive potted holiday plant, a charming handmade herb wreath, and you’re on your way to a truly special gift!

This post was originally published December 11, 2014 and updated with new details and information December 17, 2020.

I enjoy giving gifts even more than receiving them. It’s one of the many reasons I love the holidays!

It gives me the opportunity to get creative and more importantly, thank those who have made our year so incredible. You know my affinity for red wine and chocolate – luckily, the same applies to most of our friends.

I suppose my mom was right when she said “show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are.” Actually, it’s one of my “secrets” to gift-giving. If you give your friends something you love, chances are they will, too.

I love a cute and special handmade gift, don’t you? Don’t skip my favorite Creative Christmas Ideas and these 40+ adorable DIY Handmade Gifts.

Well friends, I love peppermint chocolate molten cake and I think you will too!

I’m sharing the Molten Lava Cake recipe – it’s deceivingly easy to make and yet feels so decadent! I love the magic that happens when your fork pierces the cake…mmmm!

Red Wine and Chocolate Gift Basket

I’m wrapping that thought up in a cellophane bag for gifting! It’s so easy and cute to package it with free printable instructions, a bottle of wine and potted paperwhites so they too can enjoy a beautiful blooming January!

This gift is broken into several parts and you can easily do just one to make a perfect gift for neighbors and the like:

• A potted plant (in this case, forced paperwhite bulbs to enjoy for weeks to come)
• A bottle of wine (with a charming herb wreath on the neck)
• Molten Chocolate Lava Cake – in peppermint or classic flavors, with a pretty printable directions label.

Use each element together for a unique, elegant gift basket, or do just the lava cake mix if you’d like!

This wine and chocolate gift basket also makes a great hostess gift. Be sure to check out my round-up of the Best Hostess Gift Ideas, too!

Peppermint Molten Lava Cake Mix Supplies

• chocolate chips
• sugar
• salt
• flour
• peppermint extract
• 2 smaller cellophane bags {available in cake/candy aisles}
• 1 larger cellophane bag
• label/sticker/tape
• ribbon
• peppermint molten lava cake printable or easy molten lava cake printable

How to Package

1. Combine sugar, salt and flour.
2. Pour into a smaller cellophane bag. Fold the top over twice and seal with a label toward the base of the bag.
3. Add chocolate chips to a second small cellophane bag and seal.
4. Add one bag on top of the other in a larger cellophane bag. Next you’ll add the peppermint (if you choose) on the side, insert instructions and tie with a ribbon.

It goes from that cute little gift bag to rich chocolate decadence with very little effort!

Wine and Chocolate Gift Basket Tips

• If you want to elevate your gift even more, use a picnic style basket with handles that can be reused for years to come!
• I love using a soft, natural material for a professional look in the background of my gift baskets. Here, I used Spanish Moss, but wood shred and shredded kraft paper are equally pretty natural looks!
• Not sure what kind of wine they love? Choose your own personal favorite, because it makes it that much more special to share!

If you plan to gift just a bottle of wine, forgo a gift bag and create an herb wreath! It takes less than five minutes and is such an easy way to elegantly dress up a bottle of wine!

How to Create an Herb Wreath

Supplies

• scissors
• thyme, rosemary or oregano {shown with thyme}
• fishing line

Herb Wreath Tutorial

1. Select your herbs and arrange them in opposite directions so that the stems meet and overlap in the middle.
2. Tie the middle of your herbs together with fishing line. Act like you’re adding the wreath to the bottle and see what sprigs pop out. Tie those – I usually use 3-4 ties in all.
3. Place the wreath around your bottle and secure the ends together with fishing line.

What are you excited to gift this Christmas?

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