Let's Do This! - Blog - The International Sugar Arts Collection by Nicholas Lodge

It’s been a very busy week here at the International Sugar Art Collection. As you may well know, we have our annual Spring Open House in just two days time. The week leading up to our Open House events are always busy, and this week has been no exception. Molly and I were both at ISAC late into Monday evening prepping all of the handouts for Chef Joseph’s and Chef Sachiko’s demos. Molly has been ordering all kinds of fun new toys and molds for all of you to check out in our gallery this weekend. And, after driving all the way back from Texas on Monday night, Chef Nicholas been putting the final touches on his demo!

Chef Nicholas' Bunny cake from our 2017 Spring Open House — Chef Nicholas’ Bunny cake from our 2017 Spring Open House

We are so thrilled that both sessions of our Spring Open house has sold out! We are so excited to see you all there! I thought as a fun treat this blog, I would leave you with a fun little history of the chocolate easter egg! I hope you all enjoy!

In 1828 a Dutch inventor created the press that would allow cocoa butter to be separated from the cocoa bean. Before this, chocolate could only be consumed as a hot drink. It’s likely that the first chocolate eggs were created in either France or Germany, and were probably solid. It would still take another 19 years for British chocolate maker, Joseph Fry, to mix melted cocoa butter and sugar to form a type of chocolate paste that could be pressed into a mold. Using this chocolate paste to line a easter egg mold was painstaking work.

In 1866 the Cadbury brothers came up with a method to create large quantities of cocoa butter, and in 1875, the first Cadbury Easter Egg was created! These early eggs were filled with sugard almonds (YUM), and had a plain shell. Today, milk chocolate eggs are the most popular. The Cadbury Creme Egg is very popular in the United States, and are made with liquid chocolate. The chocolate is poured into molds that are “half shells.” These are rotated so that the shells are all the same thickness. Once the chocolate has cooled, two halves are joined together to form the eggs we all love to eat at Easter time. To keep up with the large demand, Cadbury produces their chocolate eggs for eight months of the year!

If you are lucky enough to be attending our Spring Open House, then you will all be learning how to make chocolate eggs! Chef Joseph will be showing our guests how to create chocolate easter eggs that can even be used as a cake topper. I don’t know about all of you, but now I want to go eat some chocolate, and maybe start writing a blog on this history of chocolate to share with all of you!

See you all on Saturday!

Sweetly yours,

Stephanie