02
fish and chips,
a London bus,
Shakespeare’s head: just some of
the instantly recognisable icons on
our cover this month. What isn’t
immediately clear just from looking
though is that every item on this
enormous cake is made of chocolate.
The handiwork of
Choccywoccydoodah, a company
that could showWilly Wonka a
thing or two, it arrived on our desk a few short weeks ago.
More than 24kg of chocolate sponge, layered with dark-
chocolate truffle and covered with hand-dyed, white-
chocolate figurines, we’d never been more popular.
Despite 18 years’ practice, their own TV show, and with
achievements including an edible house under their
(
elasticated) belts, the folks at Choccywoccydoodah still found
our two-tier request a bit tricky. “It was a challenge because
it’s so crowded,” says senior chocolatier Tom Robertson. “We
had to make all the different figurines and get them to all work
together on the cake without losing anything.”
That said, they’re not the most successful bespoke cake
company in Britain for nothing. In the end the highly skilled
Choc tactics
Our British cake was crafted with a lot of chocolate – and a sprinkling of genius
M A K I N G O F
T H E C O V E R
50
BRITISH
GREATS
SecretGardens
Chillingout in
Marrackech
RockCity
Mälmo's
buzzing
musicscene
FreshShoots
Iceland’sroad
torecovery
B I
EJ136_00_Cover.indd 001
13/03/2013 12:36
01
PIECES OF CAKE
01
First designers sketch out
a plan for the cake
02
Detail on the solid
chocolate exterior
03
Tom Robertson sculpts
part of the decoration
04
Even 24.5kg of cake
doesn’t last long in a room
of hungry workers
team of six easily completed the job in a day. “Everyone had
their own role,” Tom explains. “We made the decoration first
and then the cake so it stayed as fresh as possible.”
Since adding a second Soho establishment to the
“
mothership” store in Brighton last February, the chocolatier’s
sticky, gooey magic has seeped across the world. It now pulls
up to 10,000 cakes out of its ovens every year. Whoopi
Goldberg and Alice Cooper are among its clients.
“
Chocolate is a magical process,” says creative director
Christine Taylor. “We’re very ambitious to create things from
chocolate that have never been seen before.” Our two-tier
monstrosity was certainly something no one in our office had
ever encountered before. Nor is it, now, something they’ll see
again. A cup of tea and a ceremonial slicing later and our
beautiful Great British cake was reduced to a few sad crumbs.
choccywoccydoodah.com
The company pulls up to 10,000 cakes out
of its ovens every year. Whoopi Goldberg and
Alice Cooper are among its clients
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