So I was lucky enough to be invited to go on an event with Thorntons where we had a great meal out in Nottingham followed by some cocktails and then a morning with Thornton’s Master Chocolatier Keith Hurdman and his wonderful team including the very engaging Sarah.
The morning started off with a great introduction to cacao and chocolate which actually set one of my misconceptions straight – it’s wrong to say there are three main types of cacao. I’ve read about the other stuff Keith mentioned but it was more meant for the other people on the event who don’t normally work with chocolate – but it was still very interesting as Keith is one of the most interesting and passionate people I know (not in that way!)
We then had a go at trying to fill some chocolate cups with some cream that we had to pipe in and then decorate as we saw fit. Mine were good, but slightly unoriginal and Keith marked me down as such – he can be so harsh 
This was great fun as I’m a real wannabe confissier. It’s harder than it actually looks to keep close control on the piping bag.
We then tried to ice a nice message on one of the Thornton’s chocolate plaques. Now I saw a new recruit try to do this on the Choccywoccydoodah TV show and saw how much trouble they had trying to get it right. Thankfully I did a good job of it, just my writing was too small (I think that’s the sign of an organised mind) so I only came second in that competition. I didn’t mind, the prizes were obviously a heap load of Thornton’s chocolate but as I’ve consumed a lot of theirs already it was good that other people won those prizes.
We then had a spot of lunch and a good chat and then went on a factory tour – which I’ll cover later.
If you wanted to see the photos from the event, you can here: