Tuesday, 18 April 2017
REVIEW: Chocolate making parties in Hertfordshire with The Choccie Drop
Okay, so it's way too early to start thinking about my hen party, but with my bridesmaids officially assembled now, I am pretty excited to spend a weekend with all of my favourite ladies. Can't we just have six-monthly mini hen dos until the wedding? It's AGES away.
One thing that got me thinking about hen dos was The Choccie Drop party I went to a few weeks ago with Matt. The lovely Kirsty holds chocolate making workshops in Hertfordshire, and we spent an evening creating items of chocolatey wonder and getting entirely covered with sugar. It was, predictably, great - because what could possibly be wrong with that scenario?
We started by learning to make caramels, carefully piping molten caramel into chocolate shells and leaving them to set before dipping them later. This was super satisfying, although it was hard not to go nuts when I sprinkled mine with salt - I like my salted caramel super salty. We sealed them with a dab of chocolate on the top of the caramel hole, and set them aside.
Then we made chocolate lollipops, by piping hot chocolate onto baking parchment. This was not as easy as it looked, so I settled for a simple star, while Matt went for something a bit more adventurous - his own face, made out of chocolate. You have to decorate these quickly, as the chocolate sets quite fast, so it's actually kind of an achievement that he managed it:
Next up was dipping time - Kirsty presented us all with an array of goodies, like coconut ice, turkish delight, caramel fondants (my favourites!) and marshmallows, and we went crazy dipping them, half-dipping, adding transfers and covering with sprinkles. I made an impressive mess with all the melted chocolate, but the final results tasted delicious. We also dipped our caramels at this point, now that they'd set.
While we waited for all our chocolate to set, Kirsty gave a little talk on how chocolate is made and then a chocolate tasting quiz where we had to identify different flavours - harder than you think! Then there was the option to purchase some of Kirsty's own amazing chocolate creations (her Easter eggs looked incredible) before heading home to stuff ourselves with chocolate.
The party lasted about an hour and a half and was a really interesting, fun evening. As I mentioned earlier, it would be excellent to do on a hen party, especially the chocolate lollipop making (I had visions of some rather lewd designs)! But it would also be great for a kids' party, or even an adults' birthday - if you know someone who likes chocolate, this would be perfect. Kirsty holds parties from £25 a child or £45 an adult, and can also arrange to come to you and hold a private party if you're in Hertfordshire. Get in touch with her if you're interested via her website.
The Choccie Drop kindly invited us to experience one of their parties for free, but all opinions within this honest review are my own.
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Essbeevee | Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, St Albans, Tring food, lifestyle, & parenting blog. All rights reserved.
This would be an amazing hen do!
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Looks lovely - well done Kirsty!
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