Our chocolate making workshop

Recently I was lucky enough to win some Virgin Experience vouchers, and I decided to exchange some of them for a Chocolate Making Workshop, which took place in Brighton. Ram and I did it together and really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd share what we got up to!

The class was led by a friendly chocolatier, and we learned a lot about the history of chocolate and how it is made. We started out by tasting some different types of chocolate, starting with the low grade 'Advent calendar' chocolate and moving on to cocoa in its natural state, which was not very tasty! Then we spooned melted chocolate on to baking paper to make our own chocolate button which we could decorate with various ingredients and enter into a competition.

I took it very seriously and made a lovely flower. We didn't win, but there was some excellent competition! Then we learned how to make truffles. I was surprised how easy it was. We just mixed two parts melted dark chocolate to one part double cream to make a paste, then use an icing bag to pipe out into little balls. When they had set we rolled them in cocoa powder and dipped into more melted chocolate. Such a simple process, and they tasted delicious! It's definitely something that I'll be trying again, a great simple gift to make. Here are our truffles, can you guess which is which?

We were also given a little block of delicious fudge that we could cut up and dip into the melted chocolate. Then the chocolatier took all the melted chocolate that was left and it was mixed up with flavourings and poured out to make huge bars of chocolate which were cut up and divided between us.

We had plenty of chocolate to take home with us, and we were also given a selection of boxes, bags and ribbons so that we could present them really nicely. The class was timed perfectly and there was always something to keep busy with while waiting for the ingredients to make their way around the table or for the chocolate to set. I'd definitely recommend it, it was something different for us to do as a couple!