For hot cocoa bomb makers

A tempering business with a six-week season.

Cocoa bombs are precision chocolate work on a holiday clock: couverture tempered to a snap, molded shells, cocoa and marshmallows sealed inside, and nearly all of it selling between Thanksgiving and New Year's. The chocolate is real money and the season doesn't forgive guesswork. MadeKeeper costs the batch and keeps last December on file for this one.

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How MadeKeeper maps to your tempering setup

Couverture by the poundReal tempering chocolate at $6.20 a pound is the business's whole cost structure. Batches pull by weight, seized-and-rescued chocolate included in the notes.

The batch is two dozen bombsShells, fill, seal, wrap — one batch entry splits chocolate, cocoa, marshmallows, and foil across 24 bombs at $1.83 each.

Wrapping is half the giftFoil wraps, boxes, and ribbon log per bomb. These sell as gifts, and the gift-grade packaging is a third of the cost — counted, not vibes.

The season, on fileWhat sold by which week, at what price, in which flavors — December's ledger is the only honest planner for next November's chocolate order.

One batch, to the penny

Say you mold a batch of 24 bombs:

4 lb couverture chocolate @ $6.20/lb$24.80
Cocoa mix and mini marshmallows$6.30
Foil wraps and boxes, 24 @ 45¢$10.80
Labels and ribbon$1.90

Batch cost — $1.83 a bomb$43.80

At $6 each you keep $4.17 a bomb — and the four-pack gift box at $22 clears $14.68. The season is short; the ledger makes sure every week of it gets priced like it counts.

Molded chocolate work is on most states' cottage food lists — MadeKeeper keeps the batch, date, and label records that paperwork asks about; where fillings and dairy-adjacent mixes land in your state stays yours to check.

Straight about what's live

Materials and true cost per piece, products (in bulk or one-of-a-kind), sales that drain stock, the was-this-fair-worth-it event math, mileage, expenses, and the year-end tax packet — all in the app today. Etsy and Square sync, your own storefront, a booth card reader, and shipping labels are building, shaped with founding makers. Nothing above describes a feature that doesn't exist without saying so. See the full live-vs-building list →

Questions hot cocoa bomb makers ask

How do I plan chocolate buying for a six-week season?

From last season's ledger: bombs sold by week, by flavor, at what margin. Buy November's couverture from that page and the year you over-ordered forty pounds becomes a story instead of a pattern.

What about seized chocolate and cracked shells?

Losses log on the batch, so your real yield — not your hopeful one — sets the per-bomb cost. Cracked shells have a proud second life as 'snowman soup' jars at a seconds price, and the ledger tracks that too.

Can I sell year-round?

Some makers run birthday and movie-night bombs through the year at a trickle. Channel history will tell you honestly whether off-season bombs earn their bench time or just keep the molds from feeling lonely.

Ready to see your real numbers?

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