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! :)
