Your Glos and Wilts Wedding - Apr/May 2019 (Issue 14)

Our regional experts talk quirky venues and wedding styling ideas We want to impress our guests with some unusual favours and edible gift ideas. We were also hoping to have a fun alternative to the traditional wedding cake or chocolate fountain – what can you suggest? Prudence says: An impressive feature at your wedding could be a bespoke chocolate creation like a centrepiece feature portrait of the happy couple. These can be made using a chocolate slab canvas that weighs approximately 2kg and measures 35cm high and 25cm wide. It’s surrounded with a chocolate frame, dusted in edible gold or silver, and the actual portrait is painted using dark and white chocolate. It’s a fantastic way to decorate the top table, and everything on it is edible. For an even larger feature, couples can opt for a chocolate mosaic-style creation that showcases the portraits made from individual chocolates, all types of sweeties, including jelly beans, plus chocolate buttons and pieces broken from popular chocolate bars. These are usually 65cm high and 40cm wide and, again, is all completely edible. Displayed upright on their own table at a wedding, they get a lot of attention! Instead of cutting a traditional cake, the couple smash it using a hammer and share it with their guests, which is much more fun than the traditional cake-cutting and something that your guests will remember. Wedding favours should be fun and something for guests to enjoy, so why not have edible ones? Chocolate shapes, including hearts and rectangles, combine wedding favours with place names. Each name is hand-piped in a contrasting colour, and you can choose the ribbon to fit the theme. There’s also the option of having a pair of chocolate shoes for the ladies and personalised shot glasses for the gents. You could also consider a chocolate wedding cake with a hand-sculpted topper made from solid chocolate, which can reflect the happy couple’s interests and personalities, or a giant chocolate sculpture of the newlyweds. Food is Art | 01684 772 717, foodisart.co.uk HOT TOPIC SWEET TOOTH Meet the expert: Prudence Staite is the creative director of Gloucestershire-based Food is Art. She specialises in hand-sculpting chocolate and food to create edible art. EXPERT ADVICE 71