Another of our classic lines, cotton candy. Or as we call it in the UK, candy floss, our Aussie cousins fairy floss, and in various parts of the world papas beard, spider sugar and even Ghosts breath. Well today is national cotton candy day.
Invented in 1897 by Dr. William Morrison an American dentist. Who perhaps was taking the long term view of drumming up more customers for his main profession.
Its made by spinning a drum at high speed full of sugar. Around the perimeter of the drum is a mesh heating element. The sugar is heated to 186C where it melts and begin to ooze through the holes in the mesh. It instantly solidifies into long thin strands thinner than a human hair.
The only real ingredient is sugar, with a tiny amount of powdered food colouring to change its colour and flavour.
Traditionally candy floss has had flavours such as strawberry, apple and so on. New for 2020 we are launching a range of adult orientated flavours. The initial batches will be Gin and Tonic, Sherry and Prosecco. We hope to add brandy and rum in the near future.
World Record
In June 2009 a candy floss 1400 metres long was made, entering the Guinness Book of Records. This culinary delight took over 6 hours to make.
There are even vending machines available now that make a candy floss for you.
In China, the street vendors make stunning flowers and other shapes using just candy floss.
Candy FlossCarts were the very first offering we had when we launched the company. It is still one of our most popular lines, and is quite often hired with popcorn as an extra. You can choose from a range of carts and bars to serve candy floss from, with our original Victorian style carts the most popular.
Over time the trend at weddings has been towards more quirky fun times. The food at a wedding is definitely one of the things people remember. A dessert is literally the icing on the cake. Here are the 5 best quirky desserts for your wedding.
Spanish Churros
The Spanish take on doughnuts. No holes in these, just long fluted fingers of crispy doughy goodness. Traditionally served with a thick hot chocolate, they are becoming more popular over here, with many people having first experienced them on Iberian holidays.
In addition to the standard Churros, we also provide an alcoholic version especially for weddings and events, but definitely not for kids.
Churros With Chocolate
Dutch Poffertjes
Little pieces of fluffy Dutch goodness. Poffertjes are mini Dutch pancakes, about the size of a 50p piece. They are not that well known over here, but are gradually gaining traction. The events we have attended with them, they have always gone down a treat. Traditionally coated in melted butter and sprinkles with sugar.
Poffertjes Plaat For Hire
French Crepes
A better known dessert the crepe, is like a pancake, only much thinner. It is said that a crepe should be thin enough to read a love letter through. Watching a crepe being made is entertainment in itself. Being expertly twirled into a circle, then flipped over to bake both sides. Available with a selection of fruit and sauce toppings, with Nutella a firm favourite.
French Crepe Carts For Hire
Belgian Waffles
The country that gave us Brussels Sprouts, (though we think they are the work of the devil), also gave us the fabulous waffle. A similar mixture to crepes, only much thicker, the waffle can be made in various shapes depending on the waffle plates being used. Another dessert that lends itself to Nutella.
Belgian Waffles Carts For Hire
Mini Doughnuts
Not a continental dessert this one, but still one of our favourites, mini doughnuts sprinkled in sugar with a selection of sauces and toppings.
doughnuts
Whatever type of wedding or party you are planning these are definitely The 5 Best Quirky Desserts For Your Wedding
On our travels, and whilst developing our own range of favourite flavours, we cam across some really wacky and weird ice cream flavours. Here are a few of the bing boggling, or stomach churning examples.
Viagra Ice Cream
Viagra Ice Cream
Evidently it caused a bit of controversy this one. The brainchild of a Welsh food inventor Charlie Harry Francis who created it for one of his A list celebrity clients. It is claimed that each scoop contains 25mg of viagra. Can’t see this one appearing on the shelves of Tesco.
Wasabi Ice Cream
Wasaabi Ice Cream
Wasabi, that ultra hot Japanese delicacy made from a Japanese horseradish. This can be blisteringly hot on the palate, and is a firm favourite of our MD. We haven’t actually tried this one, and wonder if the coolness of the ice cream offsets the heat of the wasabi.
White Chocolate Banana Curry
Curry Ice Cream
Take a nice white chocolate melted with banana’s and fragrant Indian curry powder. It brings to mind Indian take outs and summer nights.
Goat’s Cheese With Red Cherries Ice Cream
Goats Cheese
An American concoction this one. Creamy goats cheese melded with the tart taste of roasted cherries. This one supposedly tastes like a cherry cheesecake.
A strange blend this one, the world’s hottest chili pepper blended with a sweet peppermint ice cream. Definitely one for the spice lovers. As they say indulge at your own risk.
Squid Ink Ice Cream
Squid Ink Ice Cream
From the land of the rising sun, another way out weird option. Squid ink ice cream. Purportedly this has a fishy taste and a shocking black colour. It was originally a novelty flavour but has become more of a staple option.
Horse Meat Flavour Ice Cream
Horse Meat Ice Cream
Definitely not on the wish list this one, there is a reason that horse meat should be kept in dog food.
If you want something a little more traditional for your wedding or event rather than these weird ice cream flavours then check out our boutique ice cream hire carts.
With the Christmas party season rapidly approaching, here are some of our best Christmas treats for your events.
Hot Roast Chestnut Cart
Hot chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Memories of childhood, when Britannia ruled the waves, politicians were honest and kids respected their elders. Well perhaps not that far back, and I doubt politicians were ever honest. But the aroma of freshly roasting chestnuts is still a memory of Christmas in many parts of the country. Available on a range of carts for both indoor and outdoor use.
Chestnut Cart For Hire
Spicy Mulled Wine
The perfect complement to chestnuts, hot spicy wine. Originally adding spices and heating the wine was a way to keep drinking wine that had spoiled, to save wasting it. But over the years it has become a classic favourite at Christmas time. Known in other countries as Glögg and gluhwein, this is the perfect reception drink for those cold winter months. We can also provide a fabulous non alcoholic version.
Mulled Wine Cart Hire For Weddings And Events
Minced Pies
A great accompaniment to mulled wine, the classic mince pie. Ever so funny when foreign guests are present as they try to reconcile Christmas with eating a pie full of minced meat. We have provided a mixed mulled wine and minced pies cart to many shopping centres and indeed supermarkets such as Tesco’s.
Minced Pie
We have a selection of stalls available for chestnuts or mulled wine, from our classic engine cart, to the rustic bar we use for the Mailbox Shopping Centre In Birmingham.
Whichever Christmas treats you choose for your events, they are sure to be a hit with your guests on.
Not everyone calls it candy floss. That is its UK name. The Americans call it cotton candy, the Aussies fairy floss. In France its ‘barbe a papa’ or Papa’s beard. The Afrikaans call it spook asem, and the Dutch suikerspin.
It’s Not As Bad For You As You Think
Although it is made basically from sugar alone, it consists mainly of air. So a typical serving is about 70 calories and contains less sugar than a can of coke. It is also fat free, so its almost healthy lol.
Brandedable
It is possible to add branding to the actual floss itself. This is fully edible and available in various colours. Ideal for parties, weddings and corporate promotions.
It Can Be Frozen
Cotton candy itself doesn’t actually go off, but it slowly deflates and shrinks down into a lump of sugar. However, it can be frozen and its usable lifespan extended for months. The best bit is when you take it from the freezer, it isn’t actually frozen and can be eaten straight away.
It Was Invented By A Dentist
Yup, that’s right, a guy called William Morrison introduced the first machine spun floss to a wide audience at the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis. He sold 68,655 portions at the price of 25 cents. Equivalent to a price of $7.11 in today’s money.
With a scientific name translating as ‘Food Of The Gods’, having been eaten for centuries and a taste loved by most people, chocolate is actually a fascinating substance.
1 Its First Shipment Was Mistaken For Sheep Poo
We might well have enjoyed the delights of chocolate earlier in this country, if it wasn’t for a case of mistaken identity. A Spanish shipment of goods was seized off the coast in the 16th century. But when they opened the sacks of cocoa beans they were mistaken for sheep poo and destroyed.
2 Chocolate, Along With Coffee, Was Once Associated With Rebellion
King Charles felt threatened by the coffee and chocolate shops in 1660’s England. It had became a drink of the intellectuals and radicals, and he felt they would be meeting to plan subversion. Spain and France didn’t have this problem as there it was reserved as a drink for the privileged.
The insurance house Lloyd’s of London, actually started in a coffee shop.
Lloyd’s Of London Started In A Coffee Shop
3 Many Of Our Favourite Chocolate Bars Are 100 Years Old
Cadbury’s Flake, Fruit and Nut, and the crunchy bar date from the 1920’s. Mars Bar, Milky Way, KitKat, Maltesers, Aero and Smarties from the 1930’s. This was the golden era of chocolate creativity.
An interesting fact, is that the much loved Cadbury’s Cream egg, was actually a J.S. Fry’s product. It wasn’t branded Cadbury until much later.
Did You Know These Were Actually A J.S. Fry Confectionery.
4 Chocolate Consumption Dates Back 5000 Years
Archaeological evidence suggests that people from the Mayo-Chinchipe civilisation were ingestion cacao based products some 3000 years B.C. The Maya poeple were evidently consuming it as a drink between 250 and 850A.D. And it was very popular with the legendary Aztecs.
I suppose it was their version of quaffing champagne whilst on a day out at the races. A good cup of cocoa and a few human hearts being cut out.
Like A Day Out At The Races For The Aztecs
5 White Chocolate Was Actually A Children’s Medicine
In Switzerland in the 1930’s, doctors tried to improve the health of young patients by giving them vitamin enriched milk. But the older kids thought milk babyish. The addition of cocoa butter resulted in the accidental invention of white chocolate.
6 The Claim That Chocolate Is An Aphrodisiac Is False
Damn, I always liked this one.
The Aztecs may have been the first on record to draw a link between the cocoa bean and an increase in sexual desire. Montezuma was reputed to have consumed the bean in large amounts to fuel his romantic trysts.
There are actually two chemicals in chocolate that do have an effect on sexual desire, tryptophan and phenylethylamine. The first is a building block of serotonin that sexual arousal chemical. The second a stimulant released when people fall in love.
Sadly scientists reckon that the amount in chocolate is so low as to have no discernible impact.
Chocolate As An Aphrodisiac. Or Not As It Turns Out
7 The Largest Cup Of Hot Chocolate Ever Made Was 1059.4 Gallons
It was produced to celebrate Three Kings Day and was achieved by the Municipio de Uruapan (Mexico), in Uruapan, Michoacán, Mexico. It contained 600kg of locally grown chocolate.
I bet that had enough tryptophan in to gets things rising.
8 The Most Expensive Chocolate Dessert
The Frrrozen Haute Chocolate, which costs an eye watering £12,000, was added to the menu New Yorks Serendipity 3 restaurant. Made in partnership with a luxury jeweller, the sundae uses a fine blend of 28 cocoas. Including 14 of the world’s most expensive. It is then decorated with 5 g of edible 23-carat gold, served in a goblet lined with edible gold. The base of the goblet is an 18-carat gold bracelet with 1 carat of white diamonds.
The dessert is eaten with a gold and diamond spoon, which they graciously allow you to take home.
I should bloody well think they do at the price of a small car. I would want to be spoon fed it by Heidi Klum for that price.
Worlds Most Expensive Chocolate Dessert
9 Melts In The Mouth
Chocolate is the only edible substance to melt around 32°C , just below normal human body temperature. That’s the reason chocolate melts in your mouth.
The scientific name given to the tree that chocolate comes from is Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.”
Thesmell of chocolate supposedly increases theta brain waves, which triggers relaxation.
Chocolate has over 600 flavor compounds, while red wine has 200, it is actually quite a complex substance.
It takes approximately 400 beans to make a single pound of chocolate.
10 We Offer A Range Of Hot Chocolate Carts For Your Event
From our Victorian themed wedding carts, to a horse box for those outdoor events, you can have a range of themed offerings. All with our range of delicious drinking chocolate. Choose from everyone’s favourite Cadbury’s to the upmarket Charbonnel Et Walker.
All served with cream, marshmallows, sprinkles and a range of syrups to add extra flavour.
International coffee day celebrates one of our favourite lines. Coffee, that dark Arabian wine that has spread throughout the globe. Our espress carts serve all the usual latte, cappuccino, ristretto etc, and tends to be one of our staff favourite carts.
The first direct evidence of the cultivation of coffee comes from the 15th century. It was used as a stimulant by various African tribes. Coffee as a drink also appears in the 15th century in the accounts of Ahmed al-Ghaffar in Yemen. It seems the Arabs were the first for roast and brew coffee in a manner similar to what we do today.
In 1670 Sufi Baba Budan smuggled coffee beans out of Arabia. Into the Indian sub continent with the first seeds planted in Mysore.
Coffee had spread to Italy by the 1600’s and then into the rest of Europe.
Through the efforts of the British East India Company, coffee became popular in England as well. Indeed coffee shops became the meeting places of the intelligentsia as well as radicals and revolutionaries. Lloyds of London the world famous insurance market had its humble beginnings in one of London’s coffee houses.
However you take your coffee one of our carts provide a full range of drinks. Including speciality teas, redbush and drinking chocolate. So celebrate international coffee day in style.
As the full effects of the ‘Rona’ started to become apparent, we pretty much decided to write 2020 off, and expect to lose a god chunk of 2021. August surprised us when out of nowhere we suddenly picked up a number of bookings, about 12 in total. Well down on the usual 60 or so w would do that month, but still a nice surprise.
Sadly we were excited for all of a week, by which time we started losing events, ending up back down to 5, as they were steadily cancelled. Oh well, thats 5 more than we had expected.
One event which did actually take place was a closing down party for Superflora. Part of a giant Dutch conglomerate, the factory at Holbeach in Lincolnshire was closing and production being moved to Hull. Quite possibly to take advantage of the Hull-Rotterdam ferry services, seeing as the business brought flowers from Holland to be repackaged for sale in garages, supermarkets etc.
Catering Lines
A line of catering carts
They were very keen to have a selection of catering options, so after a bit of discussion we settled upon mini doughnuts, French fries, candy floss and popcorn, churros and frankfurters. Catering for 200 to allow plenty of spare if necessary.
Personalisation
Branded Doughnut Flags
Playing around with our branding tools we supplied personalised napkins, little flags in the doughnuts and branded each cart front up.
More Branding
Thrill Rides
They also wanted some traditional funfair rides, so we supplied a nice dodgem track and twister thrill ride.
Twister RideDodgems
Covid Secure
Like all events at the moment we took great care with our covid precautions. The catering units all had full length sneeze guards. Our staff treated the surfaces and touch points with Zoono 30 day anti microbial. Hand sanitisation stations were provided at each attraction.
Our Boris Said, Social Distancing Jackets
The event went off without a hitch. Becoming however rather poignant. Many of the staff breaking in down in tears as it drew to a close, some of them had been there 15 years. Their friendship circles and daily lives being built around it. It’s also not the best time to be looking for a new job, with the virus and all.
The term Milkshake was first created in the 1880’s. They started out as an alcoholic beverage, similar to an eggnog type of drink with added whisky to the mix, this was served as both a treat and a strong adult tonic! Not quite the child friendly Milkshakes Galore we’re used to from McDonalds.
By the 1900’s milkshakes were being made the way we know today, a wholesome calcium drink with added chocolate, strawberry or vanilla syrups. People then started having the dessert drink with a side of added ice cream, and fast forward to 1930’s the drink was the ‘in thing’ to the students of the day and the milkshake galore era took off.
Mega Galore Milkshakes
Milkshakes are a very popular drink bursting with flavour. Many dessert places have now created fancy Mega Milkshakes . Full of chocolate bars and whipped cream, and other high calorie additions. I have to say it’s a lovely dessert but oh so many calories. Many popular flavors incorporate other desserts such as bananas, donuts and waffles a far cry from the first eggnog alcohol versions of condensed milk drinks.
Freakshake Milk Shake
Happily, our milkshakes are a fabulous treat, but far healthier than these mega shakes.
When making our milkshakes we use ice cold milk, a dollop or two of ice cream. Blended with flavored powder and a selection of treats such as a skittles, Oreo, twixs, areos and so much more!. Our blenders create the perfect texture without loosing the thick taste of an iconic milkshake.
Like most of the rest of the events industry, our previously full order book for 2020 disappeared literally overnight due to the pesky little microbe doing the rounds. Like all of our compatriots in the industry we sat and wondered if we would ever work again, and if so when. So when we suddenly started picking up bookings for August it was both a godsend and a worry.
A godsend obviously as we would be earning again. A worry about how things were going to be under the ‘new normal’ as it is being called. The first of the jobs to arrive was for a previously regular client, Amazon. Usually through the year we do a mixture of work ranging from handing out catering goodies during Prime and peak periods, to providing a full fairground for their summer barbeque.
The first job was giving popcorn out at one of the Northern fulfillment centres. We had done the same thing a number of times over the years at the same centre so usually this would be a nice easy repeat job. However after talking with the client and doing our own research we put together a package of anti Covid-19 measures.
Catering Carts
Covid-19 Screening
The first change was to install clear polycarbonate screening on the carts we use to separate our staff from the guests. Although we could still interact with them to a degree, it did feel weird and somehow strangely disconnecting. Usually we engage in a bit of banter and joking, but this felt more ‘institutionalised.’
Zoono Anti Microbial
Zoono 30 day surface treatment
After researching most of the sanitisation options, we settled on Zoono. Not a cheap option, this bonds a film to the surface of whatever you spray it on that lasts for upto 30 days. The product actively kills virus molecules after application, rather than just during the cleaning process. For complete safety our standard operating procedure is to apply it at the start of each job. We also use their hand sanitiser, which creates a similar barrier on your hands, this time lasting for 24 hours.
Boris Says, Hands – Face – Space
Sanitisation Stations
The carts have a hand sanitiser mounted for the guests to use. We also built a number of portable units that can attach to hand rails, counters, carts, rides etc. This means that even when we are using sub contractors we can ensure that all the attractions we supply come with approved sanitisation facilities for the guests and staff.
Personal Protective Equipment
To round off our anti Covid activities, we supply all of our staff with full face shields to help protect them and the guests from each other. These are far more comfortable to wear for extended periods of working than the little face masks that we tried. Well and truly back in the saddle
