Last Friday, I was invited to attend the Inspiring Women Awards. All of the women nominated were absolutely amazing. Not only was I inspired by them, I was totally humbled by each and every one of them. Their achievements were nothing to do with wanting to win awards, but were a way of life that they had adopted – a lifestyle choice that they had made. Wow!A week later I attended a “storytelling” session with Martin King which was fabulous. Until then I hadn’t really understood “Storytelling” as an art form. Wanting to learn more, I decided to attend the first meeting of the “Mouth of the Mersey” club.The club has just been started and was a gathering of established Storytellers as well as curious newcomers like me!It was an unusual evening and quite often I found myself pondering why I had attended and why i was enjoying it. A variety of stories were told. As well as being entertaining, they were interesting, sad, thought-provoking and funny. It was a great honour to attend a storytelling session with the nation’s first Laureate for storytelling, Taffy Thomas. It was also an honour to see his amazing Tale Coat and hear his own personal story. I was once again inspired.
The really interesting thing for me is that at both these events, it was not just the people at the front who inspired me and filled me with enthusiasm and va va voom … it was also the people alongside me – Molly, Geraldine, Liz, Gwen, Judith. I realise that when I look around and allow my mind to listen that inspiration is all around me. It sounds so obvious (and a little corny) but sometimes it is the obvious that is so hard to see.

I find inspiration in my environment, my friends, my children, my colleagues and the many people that we meet in the shop. Sometimes, just their smiles are an inspiration.

Download the map here and go visit all the monkeys.

We think they’re fabulous … we have Coco Moe (Number 6 on the map)…. a very happy monkey indeed as she is covered in chocolate! She’s also permanently got one of our Tia Maria Truffles in her mouth! As mentioned in our newsletter, come in and say “Mankey Monkey” during April and receive a free Nana-choc!

The Monkey’s are a very worthwhile cause in aid of the Alder Hey Imagine Appeal. All the businesses displaying them have paid a fostering fee and they are to be auctioned off soon too.

The Lambananas were of a similar ilk in 2008 and did very well indeed. The penguins in January were great, but didn’t seem to get as much coverage… or was it just me not noticing?

I do hope the monkeys are a success – it’s something fun to do in the Easter Break for the kids.

Maybe a little plea to the organisers … if they were around a little longer more people would talk about them and more people would want to see them. I think overall the lambananas were out for almost a year … the penguins only a few weeks? If the monkeys were around until at least the summer holidays all the children could really have fun visiting them all! Just a thought!

Look forward to everyone saying “Mankey Monkey” over the next few weeks!

Take care and have fun!

Things were quiet at the Chocolate Cellar at the beginning of this month and the team brainstormed to come up with some fab new ideas for our Valentines Day Collection and also design some stunning new cakes.

So now we are all beavering away to turn all those ideas into reality – watch out for some show stopping cakes!

Tuesday 5th January was pretty eventful for us. We had decided to take a day out for a team building exercise. We started off with breakfast at the new Novotel Hotel across the road from us. If you haven’t paid them a visit yet, do pop in – the staff are extremely friendly and the breakfast was delicious – many of us had the veggie option as well as the meat – eating one!!
Just as well …. our next task was a treasure hunt around the city of Liverpool … A big thank you to the Stig who allowed us to have his picture taken with our team

There was no definitive winner as we didn’t have enough time to complete the challenge… I do think our team won though as we completed more of the bonus tasks!
The bad weather and horrific grid locked traffic descended on us the same day and most of us were then challenged with the task of getting home! It is so nice to feel warm again after such a cold week. We were forced to close the shop for most of that week due to the bad weather and we do apologise to anyone who made it to the chocolate cellar only to find it closed!
We now seem to be back to normal and our winter warming hot chocolate and cakes seem to be flying out. We are using January to try out some new ideas – so keep your eyes and ears open – there are always a few little samples on offer in return for honest feedback!

Keep warm … hope to see you soon – Bala

Already there is a buzz as people are coming in and placing orders and asking to see our Christmas Collection ….. alas! our christmas chocolates aren’t out yet – we like to make everything as fresh as we can! So we are currently focusing on Chocolate Week next week and then will be putting together trick or treat cauldrons  for Halloween.

For the first time this year we are officially participating in “Chocolate Week”. We have events every day in the shop – the website www.thechocolatecellar.co.uk has full details, but highlights are a chocolate tasting with all of our unusual chocolates on Thurs 15th and Fri 16th – mango and chilli, Lavender, whiskey and gunpowder, lemon and cumin to name but a few!  There will be a tea party in aid of the Sick Children’s Trust on the Sunday – do please come and support this if you can.  Free lunchtime demo’s on the Tuesday and Wednesday, so there should be something for all somewhere along the line!

Happy Chocolate Week and see you soon, I hope – Bala x

The Wirral Food and Drink Festival is a particular favourite of mine as it is near home, the setting is amazing, particularly in the courtyard and the team running it are all absolutely fabulous. The atmosphere is wonderful … for the past 3 years they’ve even managed to get the weather right! (Well almost!) If there is only one event you go to all year, make it this one! We will be launching our Chocolate Tasting Club here!

Last year was the first “opening event” for Liverpool Food and Drink Festival … very different in style to the Wirral, but equally fantastic. The organisation was fabulous and I felt very safe taking along my two little ones. The Festival opens with an event at Sefton Park and then restaurants (and chocolateries)  hold special events through the week – we have a cheese, chocolate and wine tasting on the Monday and a chocolate tasting on the Tuesday. The week closes with Feast on Hope Street!

For me these events are an eye opener as I see all the amazing foods that are available to us!  I always come away with bag fulls of food and brilliant ideas … it is so different buying food from a producer! Their passion for their food is always so intense and they can tell you so much about their food that you would probably never know if you only stuck to supermarkets.

Can you tell I’m getting excited?! Anyway I hope this year will be fabulous again and look forward to seeing both old and new visitors. Enjoy!

Wirral Food and Drink Festival  – Sunday 30th and Monday 31st August

Our next Chocolate Half Day Workshop -  Saturday 5th September 1pm onwards

Wirral Farmers Market - 12th September 9am onwards (2nd Saturday of every month)

Liverpool Food and Drink Festival Launch Day – Sunday 13th September

Liverpool Food and Drink Festival Week - 14th – 20th September

Hope Street “Feast” – 20th September

I can’t believe how predictably the disappearance of our heat-wave co-incided with the beginning of the summer holidays.

 I have to say I can’t say I’m devastated by this – no one wants our delicious hot chocolate when the sun’s out in full strength – maybe we need to consider selling ice creams next summer? But then this takes us into a whole new dimension!

So – as you can guess we’ve been a little quiet in the aftermath of Easter …. what have we been hatching whilst the sun’s been out?

Well, our summer cupcakes made by the delightful Helen went down a treat. Lime and Coconut! They looked absolutely divine and tasted amazing.

We changed the layout in the shop to allow all of our goodies to be more visible – please let me know what you think of the layout when you have visited the shop!

We watched the final of The Apprentice with interest! I loved the packaging chosen by the winner, Yasmina and am looking for something similar now – obviously containing our fine handmade chocolates instead of those designed by The Apprentice Team.

We have planned our chocolate tasting club – this is being launched towards the end of August. Let me know if you are interested in attending the launch party!

We have now formalised our workshops – details available HERE 
 
For the summer holidays we are offering children’s workshops every Tuesday at 11am – call us on 0151 200 2202 if you would like further details.

We have also booked our place for the Wirral and the Liverpool Food and Drink Festivals.

 Our signage is well on its way now and should hopefully be up in the next 4 weeks – free box of chocs for the first person (not employed by us!) to e-mail me and say they’ve seen it in place!

The Chocolate Cellar offers a range of workshops. The workshops are taught by Award Winning Chocolatier, Bala Croman.

Bala’s passion for chocolate is totally infectious and all who have attended have come away inspired and enthralled by the art of chocolate making.

Sessions are run at The Chocolate Cellar in Liverpool City Centre and at Claremont Kitchens on the Wirral.

Workshops can be arranged for groups on mutually agreeable dates or for individuals on pre-arranged dates.

Our workshops are popular for corporate events, birthday parties, hen /stag parties and special individual treats.

All items created during the workshop are packaged and taken home by participants.

Call now to book your place on 0151 200 2202 or e-mail bala@thechocolatecellar.co.uk

Dabble               2 hours                 £20/head

Talk on chocolate and chocolate making

Demonstration on chocolate tempering

Practical session:

-          making your own chocolate pieces (lollies, discs, decorative pieces)

Creative           Half day               £35/head

Talk on chocolate and chocolate making

Chocolate Tasting Techniques

Demonstration on chocolate tempering and using moulds

Practical session

·         tempering chocolate 

·         making your own chocolate pieces (lollies, discs, decorative pieces)

·         using chocolate moulds

Chocoholic         Full day                  £85/head

Talk on chocolate and chocolate making

Chocolate Tasting Techniques

Demonstration on chocolate tempering and using moulds

Chocolate pairings for truffle making

Practical session

·         chocolate tasting

·         tempering chocolate 

·         making your own chocolate pieces (lollies, discs, decorative pieces)

·         using chocolate moulds

·         creating truffles