Biggest Chocolate Eclair

Éclair   means "lightning" in French, though the  reason for naming these desserts after a powerful force of nature has been lost to history. No one knows who invented the éclair although gastronomic researchers suspect royal pastry chef   Antonin Careme who lived from 1784 to 1833 may have had a hand in developing them. By 1884, chocolate éclairs had found their way into an American cook book, their first identifiable appearance in this country. Chocolate éclairs have found   favour in all corners of the globe.

The Swallow Bakery is a unique bakery  offering specialty cup cakes, cakes and dessert pies  which are freshly made in the premises daily. Apart from being freshly made the cakes are decorated using the finest quality  of ingredients  more often that are locally  sourced  to give the customers  an ultimate homemade treat. The ambitious bakers  made a whopping 11ft, 10 inches  long chocolate éclair  containing eight pints of double cream  and a kilogram of chocolate.

Bakers Lou Allen and Michaela Heard took four hours to carefully construct the pastry in the small kitchen, and then took more than an hour filling it with cream, and spreading the chocolate on top. Manager Alisha de Lacey   said that   on an average  a cup cake has about 230 calories. The éclair pastry was devoid of sugar and it got to do more with the fat content.

The order was placed by Rotherlea Care Home in Petworth  as part of its Pick a Wish campaign, when residents write down their wishes and put them in a wish tin, with a winner being picked out each week.  Lacey was pretty pleased   and expressed the desire to be the best in business.

The activities coordinator   at   Rotherlea  Ian James Delves said that when they contacted Swallow Bakery  the later was more than glad to help them in this regard. Lacey sounded even more   dynamic as she  wanted to make the biggest cup cake and invited others to come up with interesting ideas.

The Biggest Chocolate  éclair  measured 11ft, 10 inches in length and was set by The Swallow Bakery in North Street , Chichester, United Kingdom on February 19, 2009.