CADBURY World’s chocolatiers have revealed some bizarre methods they use for making the tasty treats.
Donna Oluban, 59 and Dawn Jenks, 54, have worked at the chocolate factory giant for almost 20 years – here are their secrets.
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To create some of the most iconic Cadbury World showstoppers, including giant Easter eggs, a baby diplodocus dinosaur, and even a tribute to William Shakespeare, the employees have resorted to some unusual techniques.
Donna said: “An insider secret is that we actually use all sorts of household items and packaging, from yoghurt pots to biscuit trays which can be filled with liquid chocolate and set.
“All our designs require a lot of intricate hand-piping to bring the piece to life.”
The dedicated chocolatier told of one disastrous experience when an aeroplane crafted from chocolate broke while being transported.
“On route unfortunately a rather sudden speed bump caused the wings to fall off the main structure.
“Back at Cadbury World, we had to quickly mastermind something to support the wings which wouldn’t spoil the overall look of the creation.
“Taking a look around the attraction, by chance we found cloud shapes used for themed lighting in our Cadbury World Café which worked perfectly to mould chocolate cloud-shapes to fit underneath the wings.”
Donna explained they quickly fitted the new supporting clouds and re-attached the wings with chocolate “glue” just in time.
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And, Dawn spoke of her involvement designing a baby diplodocus which went on tour around the UK.
“One of my favourite parts of the job is designing the showstopping chocolate creations”, she said.
“We’re always tasked with weird and wacky things to build, and we’ve created some amazing things over the years.
“My personal favourite was our chocolate baby diplodocus, which we created to celebrate the Birmingham-based leg of ‘Dippy on Tour’.
“We crafted him to poke his head around a cracked shell as though eager to take in his new surroundings.”
Donna added: “Being a Cadbury World chocolatier isn’t like any other job.
“We’re able to get creative every day, designing and decorating handmade items for sale in the shop, as well as personalised gifts that guests pre-order and collect on the day of their visit.
“Plus, we get to work with chocolate all day, and who wouldn’t want to do that.”
This comes as one woman shared what it’s like to work as a chocolate taster at Cadbury’s.
Angela Castleton, 54, from Middlesborough used to work in IT, but is now employed part-time by Mondelez ― the firm behind big name confectioners like Oreo.
Plus, one couple who quit their busy city jobs tell the story of becoming real-life Willy Wonkas — by buying a chocolate factory.
Mark Owen, 54, and wife Karen, 50, produce 100,000 bars a year and employ 22 workers.
Meanwhile, a father and daughter duo turned their love of chocolate into a business – and now it makes £1million a year.
The business now produces about 40 tonnes of chocolate a year – enough to fill three double-decker buses.
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