FOR SALE

Wednesday 24 December 2014

Looking for Never Never Land.....City of Chocolate...

Yesterday my mum and brother John arrived for Christmas and in the afternoon we took them to one of our local chocolate factories to see the Christmas display.  Each year, this particular factory, La Estepeña, which also houses a small museum, puts on a differently themed display.  This year the theme was London and the world of Peter Pan!

Everything is apparently edible.  They used real plain, milk and white chocolate, and the waterfall and the river Thames are made from honey!  The 'fruits' you see around the display are made from marzipan.


Below, Mum, Brian, John and my friend Magdalena:
 

Entrance to the display and museum was €1 per adult and each entrant is given a little box containing chocolates :)

Here is the display, it was amazing!  You will see that 'poetic licence' has been used here with some of the London landmarks, but they are still beautifully made....and almost everything is made from real chocolate.  The aroma was delicious, I think I put on half a stone just from that!!


Below is supposed to be the house where Wendy lived and in the background the dome of St Paul's Cathedral.....well I did say about poetic licence, didn't I!








Above and below you can see the River Thames made from honey, and the 'mud' around the edges is made from a really tasty chocolate filled with tasty almonds.  


Here you can see the white chocolate swans on the honey river. 



Above and below you can see Captain Hook's pirate ship and Cook himself being eaten by the crocodiles! 



Below a white chocolate lighthouse in front of Tower Bridge!  


Below we see Peter Pan and Tinkerbell perched precariously on Wendy's house.  The children can be seen inside the bedroom window below Peter and Tinkerbell and Mr Darling can be seen outside the front door.





Below is Trafalgar Square!!  And the buildings at the back represent the Houses of Parliament.










Below can be seen the 'flying pirate ship' and the little people coming down on parachutes apparently represent "the lost boys"...


I particularly liked the 'Big Ben' tower. 



Below you can just see Peter Pan peeping through the edible trees.


Here are the details of what does into the display:

2500 hours of work by our Master Chocolate Makers
52 square metres surface area
2000 kg of authentic (or genuine) chocolate
(Big Ben weighs 120 kg), monuments, castles, mountains and figures
10 kg of Marzipan
(Fruits, trunks)
30 kg of almonds
(roads)
2 kg Cinnamon
(roofs)
100 kg Honey
(Lake and waterfall) 









At some point in January, the display will be dismantled and distributed to various groups who will give the chocolate to children from poor families.

Once we'd had our 'fill' of the chocolate, we left via the 'shop' area where there was a lovely Christmas tree on display,


  as well as a couple of growling automated polar bears, a sweet deer and two cute fluffy owls! 




The little deer below would make the perfect prop to have a Sasha riding on it's back, don't you think? ;) 




A close up of a couple of the decorations...



 A mural of how the shop used to look....


 In the shop there are all sorts of chocolates and other tasty 'goodies' for sale...And FREE samples...can't be bad!!!








They have a lovely old fashioned counter area...



This is one of the company's logos which is used on most of their packaging, it reminds us a little bit of the Mabel Lucie Attwell drawings.... 


The entrance to another small part of the museum, showing that the company was founded in 1858...


The ceiling is very high and quite attractive with mirrors and carving....


Outside in the carpark there are a several palm trees decorated with fairy lights....catching the last rays of the sun...



And finally, I thought you might like to see this orange tree laden with ripe oranges...

I hope you all have a wonderful chocolate filled Christmas! :)


7 comments:

  1. What a wonderful place and so cheap to get in! There is a place in York I cannot remember which company the chocolate is and it tells you the story but they wanted about £20 to go round!! Needless to say we did not bother!!
    Looks like you all had a lovely time, Merry Christmas :)
    hugs Dee xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. mmmmm......chocolate !!!!!!!!......have a lovely family Christmas Sharon , lots of love sarah xxxxx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just send all the chocolate back with your mum S....I do like a bit of chocolate...you can keep the oranges :)
    Have a great Christmas xxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a beautiful (and tempting) exhibition! Thanks for sharing. I love the Peter Pan-story, as well as honey and chocolate.
    Merry christmas to you and your family, Sharon!

    ReplyDelete
  5. What an amazing place Sharon! I have never seen such art using chocolates as a medium! Remarkable! I enjoyed each photo and what a great place to visit with your Mom and brother! Thank you for sharing with us!

    Enjoy your family over the holiday! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! <3 xxx

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you so much for sharing this. It was very interesting and looked quite delicious. Just the place I would want to tour :)
    I hope y have a very Happy Christmas and New Year.

    ReplyDelete
  7. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
    I wonder when they started making all those buildings etc.
    We laughed over the honey Rver Thames as we remember seeing it that colour in the 70s, but because of pollution, not sweetness. Love the St Paul's dome on a tall tower - I'm sure Christopher Wren would have added in the tower ad he known how tall buildings around it would be by now.
    Oh, that little deer- my new girl Gerda, named for the child in the story of the Snow Queen (Ronny's first cousin) , would love to ride to the palace on it in search of her brother Kay, as the original Gerda rode on the robber girl's reindeer.
    What a great day out. Hope your parents and John enjoyed it.
    Merry Christmas!
    Email will be following in next few days.
    Love,
    Jenni xxxx

    ReplyDelete

Your comment will be visible after moderation.