Bendigo chocolatier Hayley Tibbett has been making Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies from dawn to dusk this week.
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Ms Tibbett owns and runs Indulge Fine Belgian Chocolates in Bendigo and Easter is far and away her biggest week of the year.
“Christmas is busy too and then there's Valentines Day, Mother’s Day, Father's Day. Every day is an occasion for chocolate,” she said.
“This year dark chocolate is in. When we first started, milk chocolate outsold dark chocolate by a mile. Over years that's changed. We also have a diabetic range and a dairy-free range.”
The centrepiece of Indulge’s chocolate display is a 3kg Easter bunny that was hand-made by Ms Tibbett.
Along with a number of other limited edition eggs and bunnies, it will raise money for the Otis Foundation.
Ten per cent of Indulge’s Easter sales are donated to the Otis Foundation each year.
“Our Otis bunny takes about three-and-a-half hours to put together,” Ms Tibbett said.
“We also have 18 limited edition eggs this year. We try to come up with different flavours and things every year so people don't get the same thing.
“You will see some things are the same but there is always something a little different to what we have done before. We've been here for eight years. It doesn't feel like eight years but it's still fun coming to work.”
As a founder of Bendigo’s Food Fossickers, Ms Tibbett has also worked to use local ingredients in some of her flavours.
“Everybody's tastes are different. For example, I like chilli and I like chocolate but I don’t like chilli chocolate,” she said.
“But that's the fun, there are so many different things you can to do. Coming up with new recipes is always fun.
“One flavour that surprises people is one of our Taste of Bendigo chocolates that has smoked salt from Pyramid Hill. It is a smoked salt chocolate bar. It is unbelievable. It’s so good.”
Ms Tibbett’s family has a background in food. She studied chocolate and patisseries at Savour School school under Australia’s “queen of chocolate” Kirsten Tibballs.
After years of working with chocolate, Ms Tibbett still loves biting into a nice piece of dark chocolate at the end of the day.
“I still love chocolate. I probably eat it every day,” she said.
“Not while I'm working but there is nothing better than getting home, having a nice cup of tea and a good bit of dark chocolate. I’m still a purist and just enjoy nice, plain chocolate.”